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That headline is from the Aug. 7, 2026, edition of The Democrat. Imagine that. We can determine the future – our future – by taking the steps now to make downtown walkable, safe, comfortable, interesting, and an amazing experience.

In other words, iconic. The bones are already in place. We have incredible, historic commercial and residential structures. We have the bluff and the greenspace. We have the Mississippi River. All we need now is the will to act.

How awesome would it be if that headline graced the front page of The Democrat two years from now?

My first two articles explained why a shift in focus from vehicle-centric to pedestrian-centric is the critical first step and specific ways to accomplish that big step. Now, let’s look at how we then move from good to great — how we put the cherry on top of the sundae.

Trees. We have them, but add more — almost everywhere. A dozen reasons why, but here is the best: people love trees. If we add medians, line them with trees. Find other places we can add trees.

Flowers. Visit Fairhope, Alabama. Let our sidewalks, corners, and the bluff bloom. Flowers make people happy and add color and beauty. Make Natchez tourists think they’ve been transported to Holland.

Parklets and thick facades. Parklets are extensions of sidewalks. They are cheaper and easier than extending concrete sidewalks into the street. Parklets provide sidewalk dining via decking, level with the sidewalk, with planters and railings to buffer against moving vehicles (remember, they are going much slower now). Each parklet will remove one or two parking spaces, but picture a half dozen Frankie’s scattered across downtown. Active facades and thick facades are complimentary. We have active facades. Thanks to our collection of historic buildings, our downtown does not suffer from long stretches of blank walls. We have doors, windows, vertical articulation, and variety galore. Thick facades, to quote Jeff Speck (Walkable City Rules), are “robust transition zones between the insides and outsides of buildings, architectural features that attenuate the path from public to private.” Speck’s examples include sidewalk dining, benches, merchandise, and awnings. We are doing well here in some of those categories. We just need to find ways to “widen” our sidewalks to create those robust zones and to further “blur the distinction between the shop and the sidewalk” (Speck).

Lighting. Add more, but do it right with historic, attractive fixtures and soft lights. People will not walk into dark, lonely areas. They feel safe around other people, and these lights will draw people in and keep them downtown. And – this is a fun one: bring on the decorative, party lights. Have you noticed the dining scene at Frankie’s, well into the night? Check out the canopy of string lights in Larimer Square in Denver.

Putting it all together. Visit Hendersonville, North Carolina. Look at historic photographs of downtown – like Lancaster, California, it had a monolithic street, wide enough for five lanes, with buildings facing off on each side. Now, there are two lanes with gentle curves and slow traffic. Wide sidewalks, extensions at intersections, sidewalk dining, flowers (everywhere), diagonal parking, raised brick crosswalks, and mini-parks fill the rest of the space. The result is iconic. Downtown is interesting, comfortable, safe, social, and an experience the shopper does not want to end. It is pedestrian heaven. It is thriving. It is a destination downtown. I am still talking about Hendersonville, but I hope we will be bragging about downtown Natchez the same way, soon.

JAMES WALLACE is a Natchez resident and the author of two Natchez related books, Walking With God and Tales From The River.