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ATTLEBORO - To the people who run downtown businesses, a project aimed at sprucing up the city center is more than a matter of bricks and mortar.

The streetscape project the city kicked off Wednesday is a matter of hope of a better day.

Changing the look of the business district with landscaping, decorative street lamps and colored stone crosswalks sends a signal that Attleboro welcomes new businesses, they said.

And, attracting new businesses will in turn draw more people to downtown, they added.

"I think if they see all these improvements, it will be more inviting," said Nancy Young, owner of the Attleboro Jewelry Makers on County Street. "I'm really excited about this. It is badly needed."

She said the changes - although cosmetic - will give the impression "something is happening there," and that the downtown is a safe, well-lighted area.

Claire Jeffrey, owner of Claire's Casuals on South Main Street for 19 years, said the improvements are encouraging to local businesses.

"I see the glass as half full. I'm very optimistic," she said.

City Planning Director Gary Aryassian said the cosmetic changes alone will not be enough to revitalize downtown. But, the physical improvements along with a development project in the nearby MBTA parking lot will combine to boost the area, he said.

Mayor Kevin Dumas kicked off the project with a ribbon-cutting ceremony at Memorial Common. The project has been in the planning stages since 2002.

Dumas said the small park will be landscaped and new light poles similar to old-fashioned gas lamps will be installed, making it a more fitting tribute to veterans.

Throughout the downtown area, sidewalks will be replaced. The new concrete and granite sidewalks will feature a 2-foot ribbon of red brick.

Crosswalks will get stone treatments called concrete pavers that look like a cross between cobblestone and brick. The stones will be lined with granite borders.

Two other types of decorative street lamps will be installed along downtown streets. The lamp posts will have plants hanging from them and music can be piped in through weather-proof speakers in the bases of the poles. Dumas said walking across streets in the downtown will be made safer and easier by building small "bumps" from the sidewalk into the street to shorten the walking distance and improve visibility.

"If we want to improve downtown, we have to make it more pedestrian-friendly," he said.

He said the bumps will not eliminate any parking spaces.

"This is a monumental day for the city of Attleboro," Dumas told about 125 people gathered at the ceremony.

He thanked the volunteers who worked on the streetscape committee to come up with the plan and Aryassian for working with him to refine it.

Other speakers recalled the hustle and bustle of downtown in the years before shopping malls took shoppers away.

The shopping district was a "very vibrant area" in the 1960s and 1970s, city council President Barry LaCasse said.

"We look forward to bringing back that pedestrian traffic and those shops," he said.

State Rep. Betty Poirier, R-North Attleboro, said she worked at the old Attleboro Saving Banks downtown years ago and remembered factory workers flooding into area restaurants on their lunch breaks.

State Rep. John Lepper, R-Attleboro, praised the leadership of Dumas and other city officials in making the project happen.

The $800,000 project is actually only the first step in a four-phase plan to rebuild downtown.

Aryassian said the hope is to complete the first phase by spring. The funding will come from a $150,000 state grant, $200,000 in community development block grant money and $450,000 in state road repair funds.