Column: Bringing people to your downtown |
People are the key to any downtown large or small, and a "dead" downtown or mall is a downtown or mall without people. Countless downtowns all over the country are seeking to renovate and enhance their downtowns, and it all boils down to encourage people to visit and spend time there. Some towns have focused on retail clustering to attract folks, and that means having a group of businesses that all cater to the same customer.
A good example is a discount shopping mall, a concept where all stores are touted to be "discount" stores. Other downtowns have focused on being a restaurant row where every store is a restaurant. In some downtowns entertainment is the key ingredient, and downtown Nashville, 6th Street in Austin, Texas, and Orlando, Florida have focused on entertainment along with food and drink with great success. When people come to be entertained, or to dine, or to shop, they always end up coming where other folks congregate, and they may or may not be shoppers, per-say, but they end up shopping. To draw those wood-be customers to your downtown, you must have something that will draw them there. That is why restaurants and music venues are in shopping areas.
The basic idea is to make your downtown the "Center of Town." It's where people congregate to shop, dine, relax, and generally hang out. When it is Prom Night at your High School, it's where the graduates go to have their pictures taken, and when you think of dining or shopping, you immediately put downtown at the top of your list. To become "the place to go" a downtown must create the reason for people to come. The reasons are simple: they come to eat, or shop or be entertained. That is why increasing the numbers of people who are attracted to visit your downtown is the key to renovating any downtown.
Naturally, the setting must be attractive, but just the setting is not enough. The most successful downtowns are the ones that have more reasons for people to go downtown, and there must be a combination of activities to create an interest and to bring in people. There is some truth to the old "build it and they will come concept", but that only works, if you have one of the keys above. It is a simple food, ambiance, and entertainment concept is as old as the hills. Ancient Rome is a great example. Building the Colosseum for entertainment, with abundant food etc made it the center of Rome.
When Roger Brooks, a Seattle destination expert, recommended El Dorado become an "Entertainment Destination" his big projects received the most attention, and wow! Look at Phase One! An Amphitheater where Willie Nelson packed 'em in, the largest Playscape in the State, a gorgeous downtown hotel, the Haywood, a State-of-the-arts Convention Center, a topflight restaurant at the Madhouse, along with a fabulous music playhouse that seats 2200, but that's just phase one. When Phase two, a four-story art museum and a renovated Rialto Theater into a Broadway Theater venue, is finished, the old oil boom town, which is about to boom with a Lithium fired explosion, might have to widen Highway 167 to six lanes.
However, Roger Brooks's recommendations weren't all big-ticket items. He had several other small things he thought would be good additions to help to make people come downtown. One was to take a downtown parking place and make it a small outdoor stage. This is a very economical way to add another entertainment venues, and it will help make your town a destination. Of course, the idea of having an open-air entertainment area and stage during pleasant weather is not an original idea. The concept is already part of the Arkansas Folk Center in Mountain View with several venues, and their downtown street corners are frequently mini stages. It's a low-cost way to add people to your downtown.
One of these stage spaces in Downtown El Dorado could be the corner parking place at the intersection of Main and Jefferson across from Laredo Grill. It doesn't have to be any bigger than to have room for a four-piece group. The speakers won't have to sit on the stage. The stage will only take up only one parking place and a small no parking area next to the planter. El Dorado's downtown is already becoming the place to be especially on weekends, and on Friday and Saturday and nights the area is packed with people. The street stage will add to that. It would be big enough for 1 to 3 musicians plus lights and speakers. It's a concept that has already happened in hundreds of downtowns, and that's key to drawing additional people to your city center.
There are numerous small bands and individuals available to play, and the merchants could subsidize the bands with a small donation and allow them to get tips. They would play from 5 to 9 P. M., and only play during the warmer months on Friday and Saturday nights to start with. The Street Stage would be located between multiple bars and restaurants. We shouldn't put a street stage band directly in front of a restaurant, but we should try to centrally locate it in the area. Speakers and amplifiers are readily available from several brands.
Two downtown developers are in the planning mode to put two mini-stages in El Dorado's city center. I discussed the possibility with a couple of downtown restaurant owners, and they were enthusiastic about it. Why? These stages will add people during the pleasant outdoor seasons, which in southern Arkansas is easily 9 months away year.