GEEKNOTE: Christmas is a time of year when our town ought to shine. One of my friends posted the following on Facebook on Saturday:
Christmas time... Parade festivities have begun in downtown. Band choice of music- Ride Sally ride... Real classy! Downtown is a hidden Gem that needs only polishing yet they keep adding more trash to the mix. Need someone or a group with a little taste and class to organize the events. Wake up! I picture Christmas carolers, snowflake machines attached to each light pole, real Christmas music, temporary ice ring for kids to ice skate, church choirs singing.. etc... - Regan W.Not a bad sentiment. He also made a good point about the song. The lyrics of the Lou Reed song involve asking Sally to take off her pants and lay down on the sofa... This doesn't seem to be a good fit for a Christmas parade.
Sunday morning brought the inevitable sight of beer cans stacked next to the Old Post Office. Mind you, this was an event that was at least nominally alcohol free and family friendly.
In fairness to the city, a good part of the Christmas lights on the bridge are dark because of the ongoing work in front of Main Street Landing. That work should be completed shortly.
There were some family friendly parts of the weekend. Greater New Port Richey Main Street had a "Breakfast with Santa" in the park Saturday morning and the Friday night performance by kids from the Genesis School.
One of the nice things about this year was the absence of the carnival. The Gloria Swanson parking lot was full of family haulers instead of carnies and rides.
I believe the bigger issue remains one of how to improve the character of the downtown. The only businesses that seem to thrive downtown are bars and professional offices. That doesn't have to be the case. We have an opportunity to try to fill the current vacant buildings with more retail establishments.
The city recently hired an economic development officer. There is a chance that he will be able to stay focused on downtown redevelopment since running festivals and special events is nowhere in his job description.
The recently completed tree replacement downtown promises to provide a little more shade with the replacement of the dead holly trees with Drake Elms. I'd have preferred oaks like the ones providing a canopy over Main Street down by city hall and the library, but the elms should be an improvement over what we had. Shade will make the downtown more walkable during the warmer months of the year.
Whether or not we can get the outside groups that plan special events in New Port Richey to concentrate on family friendly events is an open question.
When the city council approved allowing events with alcohol in Sims Park, the concept was for classy wine and cheese type art events. That hasn't happened. Even the street parties downtown have created friction with the bars and restaurants because of the sponsors selling drinks in the streets while the alcohol licenses of the bars have prohibited folks from leaving the premises with the exact same drinks in hand.
None of the special events appear to help the struggling retail component of our downtown businesses. Perhaps it is time to rethink what we are doing.
I'm not suggesting that we eliminate special events. Done right, special events can be a lot of fun for local residents and some of them raise much needed funds for local non-profits.
What I am suggesting is that we ought to be adding events to the mix that would help stabilize the downtown business community and help encourage the sorts of retailers we'd like to see open up shop downtown. Why not expand the current Fresh Market Friday to include a downtown shop and stroll?
What do you think? Is it even possible to save the downtown?
Rob Marlowe
Senior Geek
Gulfcoast Networking
http://www.gulfcoastnetworking.com
