Albany is about to spend two million dollars on dressing up the physical appearance of several downtown streets. It's a big part of the Central Albany Revitalization Agency's urban renewal effort. Consultants have told the city that public spending to make the place more attractive will cause private investments to follow, and everybody hopes that this is true. But city officials also know that it may not be enough, that more has to be done to bring about major redevelopment.

The goal is to bring people back to the old central area. Walk around there some evening - other than Thursdays when the park concerts bring big crowds - and you see why that is a worthwhile goal. Most evenings it's like a neutron bomb had gone off, wiping out every living thing but leaving the buildings intact. The stores and offices are closed, and except for a few restaurants, bars and a billiards hall, just about everything is shut down.

One Oregon city that has succeeded in revitalizing its core is Medford. The city has plenty of retail stores downtown, even though it also has a massive mall and big box stores on the outskirts. One way Medford brought people downtown was to expand its public library there. It also has a new a community college center right in the middle of town. During the day, the place is hopping with people and commerce.

In Albany, the community college is south of town and draws people away from the core. The main library did the same thing, some 30 years ago, and the expansion plans now in the works confirm that decision. The downtown library has been wonderfully restored, and it's a great place but no huge people magnet.

In the 1970s, Albany considered and rejected a massive redevelopment downtown. Whether it would have worked nobody knows. But we know what happened since, and now CARA is trying to fix the result.

Progress has been slow. Yet another group of consultants now are drawing up plans for presentation to the City Council this month. As part of the street and sidewalk improvements they are recommending "pedestrian flares," also known as bulbouts, on some downtown corners. They think this would enhance safety. But safety is not the problem downtown. The problem is that there are too few people - customers - because there are too few establishments to bring them there.

The rest of the planned street improvements sound practical and welcome - better lighting, trees, benches, trash cans - but people are not going to go downtown so they can safely cross the street. CARA knows this, which is why it is also working on other ways of bringing people downtown.

CARA will help property owners refurbish their buildings. It has assisted a few projects including the conversion of a former warehouse into apartments and the construction of a new bank on Lyon Street. And it has pledged support to the "Brass Ring" carousel project. It is also marketing downtown to visiting developers, showing them the great potential that central Albany has.

One big project could do a great deal to restore vitality to the old town. Let's hope one comes about. (hh)