People attending last week's Auburn City Council meeting probably walked away with a much-needed sense of excitement about the future of downtown Auburn, thanks to the presentation from the Stardust Foundation of Central New York on the $5.5 million “creative corridor” project.

The $5.5 million private-sector effort for the block of State Street between Genesee and Dill streets is moving forward nicely, with construction work expected to start next month. The work could be done within a year.

Judging from the artist renderings of what those State Street buildings will look like, it's going to be a remarkable physical transformation.

But while exterior facades and the prospect of retail/dining/entertainment development may generate the “oohs” and “aahs” about this project, the bigger impact will likely come from work being planned inside many of those buildings on the upper floors. That's where a substantial amount of residential development is expected to be completed.

City officials for several years now have been working on codes and other issues that have impeded downtown residential development, and they were smart to do so. Now it looks like they have some developers who are ready to take advantage of that work.

And that's a huge key to this entire revitalization effort.

Pretty buildings and street-level shops can get ugly pretty quick if they're empty.

The best way to ensure those spaces and all of downtown regains some vibrancy is to establish an active downtown residential community, one that can support businesses at night and on weekends, not to mention during the colder months when tourism dollars and hotel guests are harder to find.