Wondering what is going on down at Columbus and Main where the Antique Emporium used to be? Well, it’s going to be a fairly large bike shop featuring well over 100 bikes to choose from.
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If I am not mistaken Downtown has entered their first renewal of the Special Improvement District (SID) assessment. The nearly $100,000 per year collected from building owners is spent on an office in the Chamber building and a director of the Main Street program all in an attempt to improve and revitalize the downtown area. After the six years or so of the current strategy I can tell you that it simply is not working. Recently Grinder’s closed and I am told that Art and Clay will close at the end of the year. We have also lost more businesses, the Mithoff remains vacant, the Columbian has the same plywood over windows that it had six years ago. Yes, we have had some nice functions downtown, but I never had the impression that the SID was designed to bring functions with beer gardens down town – it is to revitalize the area and businesses. Albert Einstein is quoted as saying that the definition of insanity is “doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.” What is being done now is not working – why do we keep expecting better results? Isn’t it time to rethink and rework the SID? I am not the person that should tell you what the new strategy should be, but if you can’t come up with anything else you should stop charging the owners this assessment. They could use it more efficiently. First Friday will be held tomorrow, Friday (duh!), May 2 between 5-8PM. Country Line Dancing will be featured. The YMCA will be giving free Instructions. Food and beer! Last night a group of people interested in downtown revitalization gathered at the Chamber of Commerce for discussion of the issues. Crabby was there. During last night’s meeting and in literally hundreds of meetings over the past two decades discussions focused on how to get there. I have said it before (link) and will say it one more time: We need to determine where THERE is. How do we decide what type of businesses we try to attract, how do we decide on design features, and how do we decide on improvements like parking garages if we do not have a goal? When you get into your car do you know where you want to end up? Our downtown organizations need to establish a vision of what the downtown should look like and what the ultimate destination will be. What format will attract people to come downtown? Do we want a restaurant and funky shop area like the Columbus Short North? Will the downtown be a primarily residential area? Should we have a theme? Establishing a vision is more, much more, than coming up with a tagline. It is hard work to build a consensus of any vision, but without a consensus we are just stumbling around hoping against hope that we luck into a revitalized and vibrant downtown. The lot that was vacated because of the 9/11/2007 fire downtown has been sold to “Fox Den Management Company LLC” of Rockbridge. Click here for the auditor’s record. The anticipated use for the property is unknown. |
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