Seven pillars. Each one tested in real American cities — Carmel, Greenville, Asheville, Fort Collins, Pittsburgh's Strip District. None of this is theoretical, and none of it is foreign. We are not asking Tyler to experiment. We are asking Tyler to catch up to the cities Tyler used to look like.
Sidewalks complete on both sides, narrow lanes, street trees, on-street parking buffer.
Close the sidewalk gap on every block within ½ mile of every Tyler ISD school by 2030.
100% sidewalk coverage on TISD school-radius blocks; raised crosswalks at every uncontrolled school approach.
Protected lanes connected to greenways. Not a stripe of paint next to 45 mph traffic.
Extend the Legacy Trail (4.5 mi today) to 12 miles by 2030 — east to UT Tyler, south to Loop 323.
Continuous low-stress route from UT Tyler to downtown to East Texas Medical Center.
First-floor retail, residential above. Legalize the missing middle by-right.
Adopt a Form-Based Code overlay for Midtown, North End, and the Erwin/Broadway corridor by 2027.
≥30% of new units citywide are 'missing middle' types (duplex–8plex) by 2030.
15-minute frequency on the spine, not 90-minute headways or on-demand-only.
Restore a fixed-route BRT-lite on Broadway from Loop 323 N to Loop 323 S, 15-min frequency, with on-demand feeders.
Spine ridership > 2,000 boardings/day within 18 months of restoration.
Stop subsidizing greenfield. Redirect to infill.
Tier the city's water/sewer capital plan: infill projects 1:1 cost, greenfield extensions at full marginal cost.
≥60% of new housing units permitted inside the existing service boundary by 2030.
Plazas, courthouse squares, parks within a 10-minute walk of every home.
Restore the courthouse square as a square — reverse the 1955 Broadway extension at the square block.
≥95% of Tyler housing within 10-min walk of a 1+ acre public open space.
Measure value-per-acre. Stop building roads cities can't maintain.
Commission an Urban3-style value-per-acre map from Smith CAD parcel data; publish annually.
A public dashboard shows which neighborhoods pay their own way and which are subsidized.
South Broadway is one of the most congested roads in Texas. It runs straight through downtown Tyler, two blocks from the courthouse square. What if it weren't a stroad?
Today
RestoredStarted with zero roundabouts and no downtown. Built 150+ roundabouts, cut injury crashes by 80%, and anchored downtown with the $300M Carmel City Center along the Monon Trail (former rail line). Assessed value up 4,000%. The closest analogue Tyler has — including the rail-bed-to-greenway play.
Removed a highway over the Reedy River. Restored Main Street's brick pedestrian feel. Falls Park opens 2004. Now nationally cited as the small-city downtown standard.
A downtown department store renovation generates $634,000 / acre in property tax. A suburban Super Walmart 2.5 mi away on 34 acres generates $6,500 / acre — about 1/100th. The downtown earns roughly six times more even after adding sales tax.
Joe Minicozzi's firm Urban3 has shown the math in city after city. A renovated downtown department store generates roughly 100 times more property-tax revenue per acre than a suburban big-box on the edge of town. Tyler has not yet commissioned this map. We should.
Sixteen things East Texans actually used to do, before they forgot.
04 / MEETINGSTyler Council. Smith Co. Commissioners. Lindale Council. The actual calendar.
05 / ACTIONPetition. Block-walkability scorer. Email-your-council templates.
