Conflicting Candidates: Importance and Goals of Downtown Restoration

Common Council candidates have conflicting views on what should be done with the mile long stretch of Main Street known as downtown Oshkosh.

Downtown Oshkosh has been the site of restorative efforts for the past 29 years. The candidates were all asked to talk about what they thought of the downtown restoration efforts at an open debate last Wednesday. “I am extremely optimistic about the progress they’ve made downtown,” said candidate Bryan Bain.

Another of the candidates, Shirley Mattox, was quick to point out the city’s beautiful town square which lies between Algoma Boulevard and High Street. Mattox wants the city to focus on the successes of the downtown restoration efforts, such as the art gallery, the Webster Block and the Oshkosh Grand Opera House.

Candidate Cheryl Hentz was not as optimistic about the efforts in downtown, saying that many businesses had also left downtown and that no body was asking “why?”. Candidate Brian Poeschl, who has pushed his street repairs platform as the biggest issue effecting Oshkosh today, also said he would want to see business boom downtown, but also felt work needed to be done on main street itself.

“Downtown will rise or fall on its own merit,” said candidate Joe Jungwirth, who wants to see downtown be more family friendly. Jungwirth also wants to expand restoration efforts to a half-mile stretch of Oregon Street.

Prior to it’s restoration in September of 1986 the Opera House stood empty and about ready to
collapse. Since there was no use in keeping it up, the Common Council, at the time, decided to have it torn down. The building was saved when the city overwhelming voted for the building’s restoration, after it had been given the honor of being the only adult movie theatre on the National Register of Historic Places.

UW- Oshkosh alumna and Common Council candidate Meredith Scheuermann said that the downtown has been assessed to be worth $10 million dollars and 20 new businesses had started up there last year. Scheuermann said “It’s important to continue to have a safe downtown.”

There is also debate on what to do with downtown once it is restored. Some of the candidates want to see businesses in the storefronts while others think that the buildings should also be used for housing. Bain said that he would like to see a co-op grocery store for the people who live in proximity to Main Street.

Some of the candidates feel that development efforts should be redirected to other areas of the city. Poeschl said that he wants to “beautify the gateways to the city.” Other candidates felt that the waterfront was more important than the downtown and that projects, such as the 5 Rivers Resort and river walk. “The water is our gem,” said Mattox, who also quickly pointed out that Oshkosh has 22 miles of waterfront to work with.

Despite their differences in opinion on the importance and goals of downtown restoration, all of the candidates felt that something should be done with that section of Main Street. “Downtown will be an issue at every candidate forum for the next 20 years,” said Jungwirth.

“Oshkosh can only grow to the North, South and West, we have a big body of water to the East,” said Mattox. Many of the candidates agreed that we need to work with what we have and according to Poeschl, what we have are many empty buildings.