When city officials, downtown residents and business owners talk about the undercurrent of fear, rumor and speculation that has gripped the district since Mayor Paul Winfield bested Laurence Leyens in the June election, one word continually surfaces: balance.

It’s between the growing number of residents, the growing interest in bar ownership and the interests of longtime shop owners who have invested in the revitalization of Washington Street, some for decades.

All three interests want “success” and all appear to be in agreement that striking an agreeable balance is the key. However, when the interested parties are asked how that balance can be reached, no two answers are the same.

“The biggest problem has been the circulation of misinformation. There is a lot of fear among people as to what’s going to happen downtown,” Winfield said. “The thing I want to stress to people is no one facet is going to make it on its own downtown. The success of downtown depends on retail, residential and night life — and they’re all going to have to learn to live together.”

The mayor is pinning his hopes on a single committee he expects to name by the turn of the new year to explore ways to strike the balance all agree is needed. Residents and business owners downtown agree such a committee would be a good first step.

“The problem has been that the recent conversations about downtown have really been confrontations,” said Daniel Boone, owner of Highway 61 Coffeehouse and a prospective downtown resident. “This thing should not be a fight — it should be a conversation.”

“I would love to see the administration sit down with the business owners and residents downtown and have a discussion without politics involved,” echoed Boone’s wife, Lesley Silver, whose Attic Gallery upstairs from the coffee shop has operated on Washington Street for 38 years. “That hasn’t happened yet.”

Boone and Silver have been renovating the third story of their building since June and hope to move in next year, but said they wouldn’t have even considered the move a decade ago — when only a handful of people resided downtown.

“About 10 years ago, Main Street determined the best way to get folks downtown and more businesses was to get more people to live there, and we went on a crusade to get upper-floor housing,” said Harry Sharp, chairman of the Vicksburg Main Street Program and owner of several downtown properties. “We’ve been pretty successful.”

Today, more than 100 people call downtown home, said Sharp, and the number is growing. All 20 upscale units unveiled in August at The Valley building, 1421 Washington St., are reportedly filled. Meanwhile, the nearby Super 10 building, 1509 Washington St., is about to celebrate the grand opening of nine condominiums and renovated retail space in the former home of Sears, Roebuck & Co.

“Over the years it feels like downtown has been moving beyond office spaces and retail shops, and the void is being filled by these two things — residents and entertainment spots — that aren’t all that compatible,” Boone said. 

A large part of Leyens’ eight-year legacy as mayor will undoubtedly include his commitment to the downtown district. During his administration, urban renewal projects along Washington Street and downtown included bringing back the brick streets, installing antique gaslights and commissioning the nearby Art Park at Catfish Row. The transformation was real. An area in decline, populated by vagrants, vandals, drunks and failed or failing businesses took on vibrancy.

While downtown was becoming home to more people, the Leyens administration took steps to ensure the new tenants would not be run off by loitering, excessive noise and boisterous behavior — including drug-selling and killings — not at all compatible with residential area.

A 2007 ordinance approved unanimously by the Leyens administration made opening a “nightclub” illegal at all but the handful of downtown properties that have resort status. Many prospective bar owners have since run headlong into the ordinance, stupefied by its strict limitations — including the definition of a “nightclub” as any business deriving more than 40 percent of its revenue through alcohol sales, or any featuring amplified music, a stage or live entertainment.

The most recent case has been that of a proposed lounge above longtime downtown eatery Burger Village at 1220 Washington St. At a standing-room-only zoning board meeting in September, prospective lounge manager Charles Ross and his supporters were visibly frustrated as they unsuccessfully tried to punch holes in the ordinance. Ross eventually suggested the denial of his request had more to do with his being black than it did any ordinance.

Winfield injected himself into the debate six weeks later at an Oct. 15 architectural review board meeting at which Ross requested a front balcony, windows and a door on the second floor that’s being renovated. Winfield said the city, following its ordinances and laws, ought to support any prospective business owner investing downtown. In later comments, he said he believes the tension is a lot more about economics than it is about race. Investors don’t want low-end operators, period.

Board members first rejected the balcony, saying regulations required them to do so. However, after Winfield weighed in and the race issue was brought up again by Burger Village owner Bobby Doyle — who suggested the board might be more supportive of his business endeavor if he were white — the board voted 5-3 in support of the balcony.

“It does concern me,” said Winfield of the racial aspect that has crept into the downtown debate. “The future growth of Vicksburg hinges on our ability to respect each others’ opinions. That being said, I think the issue is not so much about race as it is about socioeconomic and age differences.”

Following the architectural review board meeting, Ross said he’s aiming to have the End Zone Lounge and Grill at Burger Village open by Nov. 15. Because the initial business application was altered from a new business for a nightclub to an expansion of the restaurant, the issue won’t have to be decided at a public hearing. However, Ross has said he intends to appeal to the mayor and aldermen for a set of stairs from the balcony to provide street access to his second floor.

“It’s not a black or white issue to me, but I feel like that’s what it’s been made out to be, and I hate that, said Kristen Allen, who attended the initial zoning board meeting to oppose the lounge — which, if opened, will be located just down the block from her family’s apartment.

“I felt like that meeting was literally a waste of my time because all we really talked about was black and white,” she said. “We’re never going to get anywhere if people don’t get off the black and white issue.”

Allan and her husband, Ben, are expecting their second child in nine weeks. The young couple — ages 27 and 32 — also have a 14-month-old. Noise complaints aside, Allen said she has never felt unsafe in the two years her family has lived downtown.

“So far our experience has been great. We love living downtown. I love my neighbors, and I kind of feel like we’re a downtown family here,” Allen said. “I just don’t want to see all the effort people put into making this a great place to live — I don’t want to see that disappear.”

Sharp said that’s the fear among the majority of business owners and residents downtown — the fear that the progress made will be undone. Sharp agrees with the mayor’s assessment, but noted racial overtones have derailed downtown progress in the past and could again.

“We saw that happen in the late 1990s when some business owners downtown, mostly owners of what were basically segregated juke joints, went on the rampage and attacked Main Street as racists. It created an unwelcome atmosphere and the tourists and people from Vicksburg were afraid of coming downtown,” said Sharp, who tallies one of his own former businesses as a casualty of that era. “That’s what everyone is afraid will happen again. That’s what they’re afraid of and that’s what they’re afraid to say. But they’re also right when they say it’s really not about black or white — any group that is a detriment to the rest of the community is not wanted downtown.”

Shortly after being installed as police chief in August, Walter Armstrong identified loitering, excessive noise and crime along Washington Street as a growing concern. He even proposed opening a downtown satellite precinct to combat the problem, however, that idea has since been scrapped due to financial and logistical reasons.

Lisa Ashcraft, who along with her husband, Randy, has been restoring historic property at 1221 Washington St. over the past two years into retail and residential spaces — for rent and their own residence — said she has noticed the increase in criminal activity from her balcony.

“I’ve seen as many as six prostitutes down here recently, and I had never seen that before,” she said. “Last week we saw two guys shooting up (drugs) in broad daylight. We’ve had our building vandalized. We’ve been repeatedly woken up by screaming and shouting, and we’ve had people sleeping off the night on our back porch.”

Like many other property and business owners on Washington Street, Ashcraft said she’s not entirely opposed to more bars or live entertainment venues opening downtown — she just wants the ordinances that brought her downtown to be upheld. Her property sits directly across the street from Burger Village, and she, too, spoke in opposition to the lounge.

“Don’t encourage people to move downtown, and then allow a bar to open in an area that isn’t zoned for it,” she said. “The mayor is saying we need to support anyone who wants to invest in downtown, but what about the people like me who have already invested more than $1 million here? The type of nightlife I’ve seen here is just not conducive to the rest of the momentum downtown has.”

Ashcraft said she supported Leyens in the election, and admits Winfield has yet to win her trust. She said several calls to his office have gone unanswered, and  she also has yet to meet the new mayor. The lack of communication leads her to believe there may be some truth to the rumor Winfield would rather see more Bourbon Street than Main Street on Washington Street — a rumor Winfield said he’s heard, too.

“My only plan for downtown is for it to be a safe, friendly, positive environment where business owners and residents are going to prosper,” the mayor said. “The specifics of the plan are going to come from the people. That’s one of the things I’m going to charge this committee with, and we’re going to put it to an open forum and allow public comment.” 

When formed, the downtown committee will not only hash out the decades -old downtown debate. Winfield said he wants the committee to travel to other communities in Mississippi and neighboring states to gather ideas for improving downtown Vicksburg. He’s met with Vicksburg Main Street Program Executive Director Kim Hopkins to begin compiling a list of possible members, and said he’s taking recommendations. He added he doesn’t care who serves on the board — just as long as they can have a constructive conversation.

“So long as we keep these little cliquish skirmishes alive,” he warned. “We’re going to continue to work together like crabs at the bottom of a barrel.”

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Contact Steve Sanoski at ssanoski@vicksburgpost.com