KANSAS CITY, Mo. — John Covington arrived here two years ago with the promise of transforming a district that had become synonymous with the failures of urban education.
This would require transforming a district whose primary economic activity now appears to be serving people whose cars have broken down.
There have always been viable businesses in the area -- Santa Barbara Winery has aged its vintages here for decades -- but a spate of new development is transforming the district from grungy to trendy.
To capitalize on its colonial past, Singapore has been transforming historic districts into new hubs of restaurants, spas, wine bars and galleries.
It aims to transform the district, home to hundreds of thousands of people, mainly Shiite Muslims.
Led by the Historic Third Ward Association, revitalization efforts over the past few years have transformed the district into a cultural magnet.
But he won by a large majority, benefiting from a redistricting of the electoral boundaries that transformed the district, formerly Democratic, into a Republican stronghold.
"The most common mistake is dealing with these problems too late," Ms. Smith said, "after market forces have already transformed the district".
Determined to transform the district and set the design standard for others to follow, Mr. Robins hired the New York architect Walter Chatham in 1997, starting him with a slender budget of $1 million to spruce up Dacra properties.
On the final Saturday of the festival, Night of Nadodrze transforms the district's cafes and ateliers into performance spaces, while the city's medieval Arsenal hosts the festival club, nightly DJ sets with enough booze'n'food stations to supply the hipster picnics beneath the trees.
The street tells a story of a decade of successful government initiatives meant to transform the district from a center of culture to one of commerce.
