Suppose we took a huge step back in time. There’s one piece of technology we would see in almost constant use. With the ability to use their energy to keep spinning once they are in motion. Flywheels were used in different variations from spindle whorls to potter wheels and were primarily made out of stone, wood, and then later on metal. These simple devices have continued to help power humanity from the Neolithic era until today.

Fast forward to the 21st Century and this concept of a wheel spinning on its inertia is a great metaphor for inner city communities and areas that have been underfunded or undeserved by choice or by circumstance. If enough community dollars either private or public aren’t prioritized for an area that desperately needs revitalization. The cultural and economic flywheel of that area won’t begin to spin fast enough so that it can spin using its own momentum. Therefore we’ll never see those neighborhoods or sections of the city live up to their potential of job creation, upward mobility, and increases in standard of living.

Now that the dust has started to settle after the 2024 Election. Zooming in on the local level, thanks to the voters approving Prop A; the road bond proposal that will in part, pump $16 million into redeveloping Broadway from Ave Q to Ave E. The subsequent years will bring big changes to Downtown Lubbock. The new makeup of the city council although seemed to send signals in the latter part of 2024 and early 2025 that revitalization and new infill development of the city’s historic core was something to be opposed. Particularly in the residential neighborhoods surrounding Texas Tech to the south and east. Which I colloquially call the ‘Tech Area’.

Downtown Lubbock and Lubbock County itself are on the precipice of momentous change. Not only was the passage of the road bond project a message sent by the voters that downtown revitalization and Lubbock’s growth overall should be prioritized. There has also been much progress made in new redevelopment projects in Downtown Lubbock and the Tech Area, that once completed. Could easily cement Lubbock’s status as a destination that will continue to attract investment and tourism from across the region and the rest of Texas.

The first of these ongoing projects and others yet to break ground include the renovation of the Jim Kimmel Center into affordable housing apartments in the heart of downtown. The second is the Downtown Lubbock Park which is almost 80% funded and is in the final stages of fundraising to push the funding portion of the project to completion. The third is the revamping of the former Community Health Center of Lubbock building into a mixed-use retail, restaurant and bar space dubbed the Broadway Market. Presumably the goal here is to help anchor downtown’s main thoroughfare as a center for shopping, dining and nightlife. 

Then lastly, the high-rise student housing projects outside of downtown in the Tech Area will undoubtedly make an impact on the historic core of the city. Both projects made headlines after first being opposed by neighborhood groups. Leading to contentious debate about whether high-rise dense housing should allowed to be built in older neighborhoods zoned primarily for single-family homes. Nonetheless, the projects were approved with the South Overton project already breaking ground this past winter and due for completion in summer 2027. The Tech Terrace project is slated for construction in spring 2026.

These projects along with the Broadway Revitalization project set to begin construction in 2026. Lubbock’s historic core will look and feel a whole lot different in the years to come. Much like how it takes a village to raise a child, one weak spin of the flywheel won’t allow it to spin on its own. So the hope is that when more projects are completed, Downtown Lubbock can continue to spur public and private investment into an area of the city that has had its fair share of hard times.

Regardless of where you lie on the scale of preserving a city’s historic charm and character or growth at all costs. There is one thing for certain that seems to be on the back of everyone’s mind. Living in an area of the country that has become synonymous with keeping things the same. It’s a breath of fresh air to know there is one place where change seems to be constantly in the air like dust in the West Texas wind. And that’s right here in our very own Hub City of Lubbock, Texas.