With Altoona’s Kress Building now an officially completed component of the city’s downtown renaissance landscape, the city can look back with pride regarding what has been completed so far while continuing to look for new positive targets to pursue.

Kress and, before it, the once dilapidated former McCrory Building, are excellent examples of what can be done, without succumbing to time’s — and also, unfortunately, neglect’s — undermining of once-proud structures that were among the dominant central points of when downtowns, not adjacent or not-so-adjacent suburbs, exercised economic control.

And, of course, the loss of commercial control to the suburbs was not just an Altoona thing; neighboring Johnstown and cities across Pennsylvania — indeed across America — experienced the same undermining epidemic.

Some, like Altoona, have fared well, thanks to vision, persistence, good leadership and hard work — and a never-say-die attitude. Some others, unlike Altoona, have not done well because of a failure to muster all of the ingredients and correct decisions that go into reviving a once-proud structure, rather than relegating it to some wrecking ball.

The razing of many downtown Altoona buildings — most of which were obvious candidates for giving way to the changes that business’ exodus to malls and shopping centers necessitated — occurred during the 1960s and ’70s under well-thought-out urban renewal projects.

However, those extensive projects, while meeting an obvious need, also exposed new needs and, with them, challenges.

The same thing happened in neighboring Johnstown and other cities that had to rid themselves of obvious deterioration, although, fortunately for Altoona, the Mountain City did not have to deal with an additional blow like Johnstown’s disastrous 1977 flood.

So, for Altoona, Johnstown and other places near and far, the lessons surrounding Altoona’s Kress, McCrory and other renaissance-related successes provide subtle direction about what else needs to be done besides the actual pursuit of new brick-and-mortar actions.

Consider:

Many people residing even in relatively close proximity to downtown Altoona probably have only very limited knowledge of what businesses and services are available in the city’s core area now and thus look only to the suburbs for their individual needs. The same is true for Johnstown and other cities across Pennsylvania.

No doubt the same is true for non-city county seats such as Ebensburg, Somerset and Bedford, and for smaller population centers.

A good question for Altoona, but one that probably never can be accurately tabulated, is how much revenue the Mountain City loses, on average, each year because not enough effort is being put forth to provide to the general public, as well as visitors, a comprehensive, up-to-date

informational “map” of all the downtown holds.

Sure, there are the important tourism brochures that attract people to the Mountain City and its environs, also to Johnstown and its environs. But what about the municipalities’ nuts and bolts components that really make them what they are?

So, for Altoona (and others), during assessments aimed at determining what else needs to be done, the city should examine possible ways to project — to inform everyone possible — what’s already here and how those resources can meet their needs.

Looking at the downtown, people might be enthusiastic about how it continues to be revitalized but they need to be enthusiastic about what it can mean to them personally.

The magnitude of that challenge cannot be overemphasized.