First impressions are important. That’s why people dress carefully for first dates and job interviews: A positive initial reaction sets the tone for all that follows and creates an advantage.
The first view visitors have of Cortez when they drive into town often is not positive. Buildings stand empty and apparently abandoned. Some are boarded up with plywood; the wind whistles through other window frames as broken glass glitters on the ground below. Trash gathers in weedy lots. Undecipherable graffiti raises suspicions about gangs or at least bored, irresponsible teens.
Visitors can’t help wondering why such deterioration is allowed to happen and why no one cleans up these unattractive entrances.
There’s another side to Cortez. It’s really not a hotbed of gang activity. Its downtown business district is growing increasingly vibrant, thanks to investors and property managers committed to keeping storefronts filled. They have provided a model for addressing buildings that are empty but not derelict. There, at least, the decline seems to be over. The eastern stretch of Main Street also is gaining businesses, and the new high school may accelerate development there.
Even on East Main, though, there’s a giant empty big-box building, a long-empty restaurant, and a boarded-up gas station. Approached from the south, Cortez looks like a dying town. The view along both highways 491 and 145 from the north is a little better, but from every direction, a traveler’s first sight of Cortez is not an image of a prosperous community.
That hurts, because that first impression discourages visitors from looking deeper. All of the organizations trying to bring growth and economic development to Cortez are hampered by that picture of a town with so little energy and vision that it can’t even mount an attractive welcome, let alone maintain a healthy standard of living.
Curing blight isn’t easy. Montezuma County is a place where private property rights are valued highly, and unless a vacant building poses a threat to public safety and health, any effort to force action is likely to be viewed in a negative light. Neither the city nor the county is going to get involved in a wholesale condemnation of falling-down buildings, and many property owners have neither the money nor the will to invest in a project that may not pay off for years.
Still, cleaning up those properties is an investment that will bear fruit eventually, not only for individual owners but for the community as a whole, and there’s widespread agreement that the effort needs to begin now. The sooner the cleanup, the sooner the results.
Often, the best way to tackle blight is to build partnerships. Start with the properties whose owners would improve them if they could and those that pose serious hazards. Find funding to get started, and then find ways to leverage it. Identify groups that can participate in such projects and work to limit their liability. Partner with neighbors who will benefit from cleaning up troublesome properties. Be ready for larger problems that might crop up: leaking fuel tanks, for example.
The problem isn’t unsolvable. Communities with far fewer resources than Cortez have instituted successful cleanups. The most essential ingredient, though, is a citizenry that acknowledges the problem and is willing to find innovative ways to address it. Requiring property owners to maintain certain standards doesn’t have to be viewed as a “taking.” Instead, it ought to be seen as the people of Cortez working to create a more prosperous future – because first impressions do matter.