5 Ways Lubbock Can Be Better

I want you to think of something. Think of being in Lubbock for the first time, then getting into a car and driving from the airport straight to downtown Lubbock. Is that what you want people to think we're all about?

Those first impressions of Lubbock are junkyards, rundown businesses, and teeth-jarring streets.

This certainly would help with item number one on the list. We need more areas for the community to gather or just to appreciate from the road. Public art, playground equipment and other recreational opportunities should be out and on display

Yes, when I use the term "green spaces," I'm using a term and not necessarily trying to pitch large areas that we need to constantly water or maintain. We could be setting great examples with cool rock gardens for climbing and more native plants on display.

I will harp on this one forever. We keep letting the town move out of town.

I don't even understand why politicians haven't got a handle on this. Don't they realize that people outside of city limits don't pay taxes? We need to keep revitalizing and encouraging growth, especially near Texas Tech.

19th Street, 34th Street and now even 50th Street are showing signs of neglect. We need to push business back into those areas of town any way we can.

Imagine if you ran a cool shuttle from Texas Tech to the Depot District every hour on Saturday nights. What if you had "Mall Mondays" and you ran shuttles from that area to the South Plains Mall all day long? Imagine if you had public transportation that was routed based on people who checked in wanting to go to a baseball game?

These more refined and on-demand type approaches to public transportation could really alleviate traffic and encourage a lot of people to experience more of Lubbock.