Mayor Don Warren walks through the dynamic changes shaping the City of Tyler from Eclipse Mania to the nostalgic reopening of the Mayfair building, and the serendipitous story of a namesake Canadian visitor, capturing the essence of Tyler’s spirit. Get the latest information about the new Blackstone Hotel and share a laugh over an amusing oversight during a public announcement—all underlining Warren’s unwavering optimism for what lies ahead.
Our city’s heart is set on a downtown transformation, taking cues from Chattanooga’s own renaissance, but with a Tyler twist. We’re not just constructing buildings; we’re crafting experiences for younger residents. Picture the blend of our cherished brick streets with the efficiency of modern traffic design, including roundabouts for safety. Discover the concerted efforts of city and county officials, backed by federal grants, as we unveil plans for a downtown that’s as walkable as it is welcoming, with the groundbreaking slated for January 2025.
TRANSCRIPT
LANDESS:
Tyler’s mayor gave a glowing state of the city report, and that was before Eclipse Mania and the reopening of the historic Mayfair building. Sadly, no Dolly Parton appearance. I’m Mike Landess. UT Tyler Radio Connects with Mayor Don Warren to find out what else is in store for the city this spring and summer. What’s the next big thing, Mr. Mayor?
WARREN:
Well, where should I start, Mike?
LANDESS: From the beginning.
WARREN: From the beginning?
LANDESS:
From the beginning, not in the beginning.
WARREN:
From the beginning, but I got to back up to your eclipse.
LANDESS: Yes, yes, yes.
WARREN: That was phenomenal.
LANDESS: Wasn’t that fun?
WARREN:
It was a fun time, and we actually had a guy here from Canada and his name was Tyler.
LANDESS: Oh, I saw that.
WARREN: And Tyler — His main thing was he wanted to travel all over the city and have his picture taken in front of anything and everything that had the word “Tyler” in it. I had the opportunity to meet with Tyler, and we exchanged some gifts. We gave him the game of Tyleropoly. And the guy was just so excited to be here in Tyler, and I asked him — I said, “Tyler, what is your favorite thing about our community?” And he goes, “The people here are so kind.” I received a list recently from Diane with Visit Tyler, and she gave us a list of where all these people were from. They were not only from all over the country, but all over the world that came here to watch the eclipse. So it was quite a fascinating day.
LANDESS:
It really was terrific. Did we have the huge numbers we thought we would get, or was it just the wide variety and a lot of fun?
WARREN:
Well, I think the wide variety and a lot of fun. You know, nobody knew what the numbers were going to be, and it didn’t matter. I was down on the square downtown, and it was packed. And the thing that was so neat, it was the clouds had the eclipse covered. And we were in that small window of when the eclipse actually occurred, and all of a sudden, the clouds just kind of parted. And all of a sudden, you could see the total eclipse, and the entire crowd just gasped with excitement. And it was just a phenomenal day.
LANDESS:
Yeah, yeah, really a beautiful and wonderful moment. I have a minor bone to pick with you. When last we spoke, we talked about all kinds of things Tyler-centric, and some weeks later I watched my buddy, Blake Holland, over at Channel 7, reveal that there was going to be a new Blackstone Hotel on the horizon. And I’m giving you the benefit of the doubt here. Was that something that was just under wraps when we talked?
WARREN:
Well, we have been in discussions with the group.
WARREN:
As a matter of fact, we cold-called them about a year and a half ago just to say, “We want you to come to Tyler and consider us as a possible place for a hotel.” And we’ve had a number of conversations, and they’ve come, and we’ve had some fascinating visits. Whether the funding will all fall into place and all that, I don’t know the answer. But they love the city, and they actually were here the night of the Christmas tree lighting. And the little boy flipped the light on the switch and the lights came on. And here’s this group of hotel guys from out of town. And after we got through, they said, “That was Americana.” And they said, “We have hotels in Bryan, College Station and Lubbock and Irving and all these different cities, but I’ve never been in a place where we watch the Christmas tree lighting right next to where we hope one day our hotel will be.” So you know, whether it happens or not, I’m pretty optimistic, but I’m optimistic anyway. So we’re doing our best to make this happen.
LANDESS:
Making this generational: that was a Life magazine moment, wasn’t it? A little capture of Americana.
WARREN:
Well, it was, and we had dinner one night in a downtown restaurant, and the backdrop was the marquee that says “Tyler” and the marquee that says “Liberty,” and the marquee that says “Rick’s,” and it’s all bright. And these folks just looked out and said, “This is where we want to be.” So we’ll stay tuned.
LANDESS:
Stay tuned. Steve Fitzpatrick of Fitzpatrick Architects has done a great job of creating animated videos of what the new and improved downtown Tyler will look like after the new courthouse is completed. After the courthouse is completed and the downtown square is finished, it all looks amazing, but is it on schedule and within budget, or do you have a handle on that at this moment?
WARREN:
Well, we meet frequently and discuss the plans. And we’ve been working on this for several years as well, and there’s a lot of input, and I’ve had a lot of input, and I have things that I’m very passionate about, and one of the things are the bricks simply on the downtown brick streets, and the idea had come up about using pavers or using a more modern brick or something of that nature, and I go, “No way.” I mean, these bricks that are on these streets have been here 100 years. And when we put these streets back, I want the exact same bricks that were here 100 years ago. I mean, they represent our heritage, our culture, our history, and that’s what it’s got to be. So we are talking about narrowing down the streets and there’ll be two-way and widening the sidewalks and have a couple of roundabouts which have people just totally freaked out. I’ve heard people say that they’re going to open up a body shop to be able to handle all the wrecks that are going to occur.
LANDESS: But you laugh that off and keep moving.
WARREN:
We keep moving and as you travel, or I travel, around the country, there’s roundabouts everywhere. And people are going to have to learn to drive them, and change is tough. But the whole idea for downtown is is to make it more walkable, and to make it safer and just slow down the pace. And once the courthouse is built, we want people to be able to walk from Andy’s custard across the new square, across Broadway, to the new square to the courthouse. And so it’s going to be a beautiful environment. We’re in the process of working with the architects, the engineers and the land planners. And we’re developing the design plans, construction drawings. We will take those and bid out what we want to have happen, and once we bid them out, we’ll have an idea of are we in budget or are we not?
WARREN:
And you really don’t know if you are until somebody says what it’s going to cost to build it. So we may have two phases; we may just have one phase. We’ve applied for a federal grant for about $24 million, which I hope we’ll get. If we don’t, we’ll start off with phase one. If we get the grant, we’ll do phase one and phase two.
LANDESS:
Congressman Moran, are you listening?
WARREN:
He has. He’s involved in the process, and we’re very thankful for that. But in either case, we do plan on breaking ground in January of ’25.
LANDESS:
Nice, nice. And you said if you have the first phase, what’s a time frame for it? Break ground at ’25, and then what happens?
WARREN:
It’ll take a couple of years to do the first phase. And the first phase would be Broadway and to the west. And the second phase, of course, would be the county’s part, which will be Broadway to the east, which will be the plaza in front of the courthouse, which they’ll be doing on their dime. So we’ll be taking Broadway to the west, the new square and, of course, the streets.
LANDESS:
(County Judge) Neal Franklin has been our guest, and he’s talked about the fact that he has embraced this fully, and so the commissioners have embraced it as well. That’s a good thing to have that kind of partnership going that way rather than there being any kind of discord.
WARREN:
Well, I’m very thankful for that. It’s not always been this way, and it’s very important for the county and the city to work together closely. We just took a trip — 40 of us — to Chattanooga with the Economic Development Council, just to see what happens in Chattanooga. They have a river, and they have all these positive things going on. Thirty years ago, it was just a polluted city, and so we went up there and visited with their leadership, and what we brought away from it was the relationship between the county and the city and how they get so many things done up there, and that’s what we have here. Can it be better? Sure, it can always be better, but that’s something that Judge Franklin and I work very closely to make sure that we keep things moving in the positive direction.
LANDESS:
Now those are cities of similar size Tyler and Chattanooga. What other key things did you bring back home from that trip?
WARREN:
Well, actually, there were three things. OK, collaboration, and I’m not talking about just between the county and the city, but collaboration with all their businesses. And it wasn’t about just UT Tyler or just TJC or just about Trane or John Soules Foods. It was about what can we all do together to make our community a better city? And so you had collaboration.
WARREN:
And then one of the things they talked about was: lean into your strengths. And they have a river, and we don’t have a river. What are our strengths? And the third thing was: what makes up your secret sauce?
Oh, nice, and so what does make up Tyler’s secret sauce? And another way to put it would be what makes Tyler unique? And one of the things that I came back with was our population keeps getting younger. Right now it’s 33.7 years, and at one point it was older, and we’re getting younger and younger. And I see so many cities where their population is getting older, and we’re getting younger, and people are starting to just stay here, and I think these are going to be our future leaders and these are going to be the people who run for council and run for commissioner or whatever. But I think our youth is part of our secret sauce.
LANDESS:
You took a lot of those folks with you. How many people did you take?
WARREN:
Forty. We had 40 people up there, and a lot of them were young people. And so they’re bringing those ideas back to Tyler to do something with them. But when we talk about secret sauce, I think it’s almost a good question for anybody who lives here, because the secret sauce to you may be different than it is to me. You know, to me a lot of it is attitude, and you know the attitude that we have here in Tyler. Just like Tyler from Canada said, “The people here are so kind.”
LANDESS: That’s your secret sauce.
WARREN: That is a secret sauce because not every community is this way. And so when I talk about secret sauce, I’m not talking about brick and mortar and buildings and whether you have a Costco. I’m talking about the things that make you unique.
WARREN:
It just makes it just a good flavor in your mouth.
LANDESS:
Yeah, a good flavor in your life. As a child of the ’60s, growing up in Tyler, the Carlton has a special place in my heart. I stayed there when I first got here. And I know there have been financing issues in the past, but Fitzpatrick indicated they might be on the way to being resolved. Is that wishful thinking, or are they really making some progress?
WARREN:
Well, I think there’s some progress. And I’m just like you. I grew up here, and my dad was in politics, and so he would throw these political parties up around the pool. And I remember as a child, just sitting there watching everyone all dressed up, you know, watching people swim and that was the place to go. And so there is a lot of history there. And North, which is the company that’s doing that renovation, they’ve applied for some other money, funding, which is taking a bit longer than they’d hoped. But I also understand that now that they’ve almost finished the Wilcox, which is also a North property, that they possibly could be going over to the Lindsay, to the Fair and then maybe to the Carlton after that. So I haven’t talked to them recently, but I think it’s still on their radar. And one thing I’ve asked for recently from staff, is what’s the number of lofts and apartments that we had in Tyler in 2021? And what’s the number of apartments and lofts that we’re going to have in Tyler at the end of 2024? I don’t have the number, but I think it’s going to be amazing to see how many people have been moving to downtown Tyler.
LANDESS:
I think a lot of folks whom I know, even my age, who are 70+, we’re baby boomers, and we’re not crazy about taking care of a you know, 18-to-3,000 or plus square foot house anymore. We just as soon have a really nice place to live, very enjoyable, and travel and do whatever, and I have to worry about all that stuff. I personally will be interested to see what we end up developing, even more than that what we’ve had so far.
WARREN:
Well, when I talk to friends of mine, they talk about saturation in the marketplace, and they go, “So at what point, when you have all this building going on downtown for lofts and apartments, are you going to reach that saturation point?” And it’s going to be a good test, because right now, they keep building them, and they’re still full.
LANDESS:
That is amazing to me. It’s almost as soon as they get them built, they start filling up. Quite remarkable. So the opening of the Mayfair went well. Totality Tyler went very, very well. But perhaps one of the less, for lack of a better term, not a very sexy topic, but it is something that’s absolutely needed, and we rely on it every day of our lives: water. And Tyler Water Utilities has been busy. They’ve had a lot of needed improvements, right?
WARREN:
Right, and we continue to improve things. And this year and next year, we’re making a bigger impact or a bigger—we’ve got to do more with our water and our replacement of water lines. And this next year, we’ll be spending actually, we’ll be spending $4.5 million each year for the next 5 years, and then for the next 2 years, we’ll spend $3.5 million and step down a little bit each year. But it’s time to replace more water lines. And people pay their water bills, and their water bills are not getting cheaper. And people have expectations, and we’re listening to what the people are saying. And so we need to replace the water lines, which we’re doing.
WARREN:
We’re also going to be going into a pilot program. It’s an odor, taste and odor program, because when you have the water that comes from Lake Palestine, you have this I can’t remember the term for it, for the geosmin, because what you had happened, you got Lake Tyler. You have Lake Palestine and Lake Tyler. When they built that, they got rid of all the trees, and so when it filled up with water, it was just nice water. Lake Palestine when they filled it up, they didn’t knock down all the trees. So, Lake Palestine, you have this algae, and when it gets warm, the geosmin grows, and so that’s what you get in the water. So this pilot program will help us figure out, it’ll be a study, and then the pilot program of what can we do to make the water taste better and smell better. And this has been a big complaint that it’s time to address.
LANDESS:
Right, and this is something, I mean, you’ve gone through all the water testing, and you send a little notice out saying, hey, it’s safe to drink. The federal government says we had all the standards. It may taste a little funky, but that’s OK.
WARREN:
We do. We get all the reports from the TCEQ. And our water is very good. We get extremely high ratings on our water, but you still have the taste and the odor sometimes that are not great, even from my perspective, and so we’re going to try to do something about it to make it even better.
LANDESS:
What about the water meters, now? In my neighborhood in particular, which is right near here, it doesn’t really work. So they guesstimate what it was from the year before. As I understand it, they’re in the process of trying to get new items that will be able to be, I guess, they’re readable by remote control or whatever. What was in there didn’t work anymore. How’s that going?
WARREN:
Well, it’s going to be a long process. When we first talked about doing this, we thought it would be a 15-year process. And recently, when I was talking to Tyler Water Utilities, they said that to replace the water meters, instead of being a 15-year program, will probably be a 20-year program. Because there’s just so many. And they’re expensive. And we want to get away from manual reading, and we want everything to be accurate, and it’s been accurate, but we want to ensure and assure citizens that their meters are being read correctly. It’s just going to be a long process.
LANDESS:
Yeah, get that going. Any final thoughts you’d like to share before you head out today?
WARREN:
Well, I want everybody to know that the traffic’s getting better.
LANDESS: That’s right.
WARREN: We usually talk a little bit about traffic.
LANDESS:
Yeah, you’ve retimed a lot of those.
WARREN:
We have 150 lights here in the city, and we’ve retimed about half of them.
LANDESS: That’s pretty good.
WARREN: We have a new light at the corner of Noonday and Grande, which is everybody’s just ecstatic about. But we’ve also done a lot of timing on Beckham and Front. And now we’re hitting Gentry Parkway and Palace — that area. Because if you come to Tyler from Dallas and you hit Gentry Parkway, I can guarantee you you’re going to hit just about every red light. And when you’re ready to get home, you’re ready to get home, and you hit every red light, and you think, golly, when’s the city going to do something about that? So that’s on the horizon to be done very soon, and so we’re making a lot of progress. And still, there’s a 32% reduction in wait time on Broadway. So don’t be checking your texts and emails at a light, they’ll be turning green.
LANDESS:
Thanks for listening as UT Tyler Radio Connects with Tyler Mayor Don Warren. For UT Tyler Radio News, I’m Mike Landess.
(Transcripts are automatically generated and may contain phonetic spellings and other spelling and punctuation errors. Grammar errors contained in the original recording are not typically corrected.)
