McMullen leaving Downtown Lincoln Association
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By RICHARD PIERSOL / Lincoln Journal Star
Polly McMullen, president of the Downtown Lincoln Association for the past 10 years, will leave that position Dec. 7 to return to San Francisco.
“(That’s) where I attended college and first developed my passion for vibrant, well-designed urban centers,” McMullen said in a resignation letter to the DLA board.
“While I will take a career ‘pause’ for several months, I am looking forward to resuming community development work on the West Coast, hopefully at a slightly less intense pace than my current role!”
Peers and colleagues of Polly McMullen had this to say about her resignation from the DLA:
Mayor Chris Beutler: “I have very positive feelings about Polly, as you might guess. She is a very spirited person with enormous positive energy who has simply built one of the most effective and credible organizations in town.”
Dallas McGee, assistant director of the city’s Urban Development Department: “We will greatly miss her: her leadership, her enthusiasm, her energy and her many talents. She guided downtown’s first master plan in over 30 years and through the master plan established a long-term vision for downtown.”
“Over the past year she has initiated many of the catalyst projects that were identified in the plan. Her efforts have brought millions of dollars in investment into downtown, private as well as public investment. Investment that will mean an even brighter future for downtown.”
Wendy Birdsall, president, Lincoln Chamber of Commerce: “She has been a true advocate of downtown Lincoln and the Lincoln community. I have a great deal of respect for her, wish her the best and thank her for her service to Lincoln.”
The DLA is a downtown business advocacy, lobbying and community development group. In the past 10 years, it has become a complex umbrella group of companies organizing events, maintaining landscaping, cleaning sidewalks and decorating downtown.
McMullen will be succeeded by Terry Uland, who joined DLA as deputy director in March after 16 years as executive director of NeighborWorks Lincoln.
McMullen has been active in community affairs and politics for far longer than her DLA service.
For seven years before joining the association, she was a senior aide to former Mayor Mike Johanns.
Her first active community role was working for the late Burnham Yates in 1983, organizing support for a successful campaign to raise the city’s sales tax in 1985 and a separate redevelopment bond issue.
For 10 years, she and the DLA have been at the forefront of city public policy debates and initiatives, from the Antelope Valley redevelopment project to the Downtown Master Plan, both of which advanced discussion of more ambitious projects, such as replacing Pershing Center with a new arena.
McMullen said her proudest achievements at the helm of DLA have been downtown redevelopments, like Embassy Suites and the Lincoln Grand theater, and helping downtown make a transition from a retail center to mixed uses and expanding residential options.
She mentioned one regret Tuesday. The K Street power plant did not become privately owned residential property as she and other downtown advocates had hoped.
Jon Weinberg, chairman of DLA, said the group began planning for this leadership transition in 2006.
In her letter to the DLA board, McMullen expressed satisfaction with its mission and position.
“There is broad civic recognition of downtown’s importance, a talented new administration at city hall and a unity of purpose across organizational lines unlike any I've seen during my 35 years in Lincoln,” she wrote. “The emergence of a new, young generation of developers and entrepreneurs focusing on downtown is creating excitement and momentum for the future.”
McMullen has a son, Brian, in Lincoln, and a daughter, Bridget, in Phoenix. Her husband, Dr. Bruce McMullen, died in 2000.
The Omaha native attended San Francisco College for Women, now part of the University of San Francisco.
Her decision to leave now rather than spend two or three more years in Lincoln before retirement, she said, was based in part on the real estate market in the Bay Area.
“It’s probably as favorable out there to buyers as it has been in 10 years,” she said. “Some very dear friends have located there. ... I’m looking forward to being there, starting the next chapter of my life.”
Reach Richard Piersol at 473-7241 or at dpiersol@journalstar.com.
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