“We need to decide whether we can afford to have it”. From my point of view we need to decide whether we can afford not to have it.

A lot of people say that this is a “can do” city. If that is true, how come we cannot get the downtown of this city moving like many other places in North America have. We are no unique with this downtown situation. We are not the only city with suburban shopping malls. We are not the only city with few residential buildings in the downtown. In fact, we are lucky in that we still do not have an “office park” development associated with the new retail spaces in College Heights for instance. The closest we have to that is the small new CityGate development at the corner of Central and15th. I would not be surprised if the Pomeroy Group will propose an integrated development of residential, recreation, retail and office at the Golf Course property. It would be the SMART thing to do.

Back to the downtown festival. Here are some links to ponder.

Burlington, Ontario - Brant Street is transformed into a hub of musical delight during the Festival weekend. It features street-side performance spaces, restaurants with outdoor patios, vendors, sidewalk sales, and pageantry http://www.soundofmusic.on.ca

Fort Worth, Texas - hosts tens of thousands of people annually during the four-day visual arts, entertainment and cultural event. It showcases a nationally recognized fine art and fine craft juried art fair, live concerts, performance artists and street performers on the streets of downtown Fort Worth, stretching nine blocks on Main Street from the Tarrant County Courthouse to the Fort Worth Convention Center. http://www.msfwaf.org/aboutfestival.asp

Edmonton International Street Festival – going strong for over 20 years click on the “festival history” button for backgrounder info - http://www.edmontonstreetfest.com/2006/index.php

San Francisco Area
Excelsior Festival http://www.excelsiorfestival.org/home.htm

Menlo Park – Set outdoors on tree-lined Santa Cruz Avenue off El Camino Real, the Sidewalk Arts and Crafts Fall Fest will feature an exciting array of original works by 100 artists and craftspeople, including jewelry, photography, ceramics, painting, sculptures and much more. All of the artists will be on hand to visit with patrons, while some will be practicing their craft during the show. http://sanfrancisco.about.com/cs/festivals/a/menloparkfest.htm

Halfmoon Bay Art and Pumpkin Festival – On Main Street between Miramontes and Spruce Streets- In 1970, the Main Street Committee for Beautification was formed to launch a “paint-in" and tree-planting effort as part of a downtown restoration project. In order to raise funds for their projects, they hatched the idea for what is now the world famous Art & Pumpkin Festival. Since then, the committee has contributed more than two million dollars to various civic projects and community service organizations. HOPEFULLY EVERYONE READ THAT LAST SENTENCE! http://www.miramarevents.com/pumpkinfest/about_show.html

Asheville, North Carolina – Bele Chere the largest free outdoor street festival in the Southeast
http://belecherefestival.com and http://www.romanticasheville.com/belechere2.htm

Franklin Annual Main Street Festival, Tennessee - More than 200 arts and crafts vendors will arrive from 20 states to fill the historic Main Street from First Avenue to Fifth Avenue. A full slate of family-oriented activities, non-stop musical entertainment and international flavors of more than 20 food vendors. The free festival consistently has been listed as one of the Southeast's top 20 events by the Southeast Tourism Society and is expected to draw about 150,000 attendees. http://www.historicfranklin.com/events_mainstreetfestival.html

Read about Franklin’s “downtown problem and what they did about it. http://www.mainstreet.org/content.aspx?page=593&section=11

Why is it that this community can get together to get an independent University here but can’t get behind changing the plight of downtown?

Why is it that the downtown merchants are expected to fix the problem themselves? This is everyone’s downtown. Not even the lawyers, insurance brokers, realtors, financial agencies, banks, etc are involved with the downtown. They use it, but don’t support it otherwise.

This town has a mental block about its downtown and it is time we got over it!

Back to the survey - it is basically a self defeating survey. It is geared to downtown merchants rather than those in the City who attend and would like it to be expanded rather than cancelled.

It does not seek alternatives, it does not ask people to step outside their shoes and look at it more globally, it does not aks those who respond with a negative from the point of view of their business what they would suggest to put in place which would satisfy their concerns.

Downtown redevelopment is a major project. We need people willing and able to tackle the project. We have tackled others in this community successfully. It is time we collectively put our minds to this one!