The debate over Court Avenue and how to make it fun, interesting and – most important – popular, really boils down to the “chicken or egg” question.

Will people who move downtown attract small service businesses such as a dry cleaners or a grocery store? Or will the presence of these businesses persuade people to live downtown? I am not breaking any new ground here. The paradox is obvious. Neither will survive with any kind of vigor for long without the other.

I grew up in the suburbs of Detroit, a city whose middle class fled following the racial tensions of the 1960s. A decade later, urban Detroit’s small businesses began to die. The metropolitan area became a doughnut. All economic activity existed in the suburbs that ringed the city. When I lived there, the city was dangerous. Today, there’s little left to poke over.

My childhood experiences came to mind earlier this summer when a small (and apparently toothless) committee gave approval to an out-of-state plan that included downtown housing but no businesses.

The Des Moines City Council later overrode that vote by giving a green light to local developers Harry Bookey and Jim Hubbell, who plan to include small businesses in their vision of a redeveloped downtown.

People complain about a so-called parking problem. This is a canard. Please. Walk an extra block.

No, the biggest obstacle to living downtown for the people who would actually do it is the lack of a grocery store.

Enter John Norwood, a 39-year-old Yale University-trained M.B.A. (he also has a master’s degree in environmental management from that school) who has worked as a consultant for Fortune 500 companies, including Hewlett-Packard Co. Most recently, he worked for the South Livermore Valley Agricultural Land Trust, a group that worked to promote and preserve California’s Livermore Valley.

He came to Des Moines when his wife accepted a teaching position at Drake University.

Norwood wants to open a grocery downtown called the Natural Foods Market. He has a loose agreement with Bookey and Hubbell and he is considering putting his store on the ground level of the parking garage that’s closest to the Polk County Administrative Office Building. Apparently, the garage’s street level was designed for retail stores, but none ever have been built.

Norwood has spent the better part of six months putting together a clever plan that ties in Gov. Tom Vilsack’s desire for higher-value agriculture with downtown’s need for groceries.

His store would partner with growers throughout Iowa to promote and sell their products.

“What’s missing here in Iowa is the link in the retail chain,” he said. “These growers need to have a retailer that’s going to capitalize on the niche for a natural-foods market.”

Norwood’s thinking is that his store would provide enough day-to-day products to help downtown residents get by, while also carrying enough eclectic items to draw in residents from the suburbs who can’t find similar products anywhere else in the metro area.

Norwood isn’t set on a location yet, nor is he convinced his store will work downtown. He also needs about $1 million. But he’s trying put it together, and I hope he succeeds.