Here you could find multifarious ways of burning processed petroleum.
The crowds were large, and the sidewalk vendors seemed to be doing a brisk business. But the DBD paints this event as good for Main Street merchants.
In a brief and unscientific survey of eight restauranteurs, I found two who said business was booming (the Firehouse Grill, and First and Last), two who felt it was about the same (Forbidden City and Amici), one which had a lot of empty tables (Thai Gardens and Fiore) and two who felt the event was horrible for business 
(Typhoon and It's Only Natural). The restaurants with sidewalk seating seemed to fare better.Main Street market was like a ghost town, though, to be fair, it often is.
Seems that there might be a better way to get the event to integrate with Main Street businesses than to have most of the attendees walk past in the center of the road.
The "Should We/Shouldn't We" debate on big Main Street events has been going on since the days when women wore hats.
ReplyDeleteI think it's great to bring people downtown, and I don't think it has to translate into new sales that day. But your mini-survey is interesting: this event draws a "First and Last" type customer, and not so much a "Typhoon" or "It's Only Natural" type customer. So let's have other events that draw different kinds of people. Maybe an "eco" car cruise next time?
I'd also like to see more events that don't close Main Street and that draw a "right size" crowd to patronize our existing businesses. For example, about a million years ago, Stephan Allison and the Buttonwood were hosts to the National Poetry Slam. For days, there were poetry contests scattered in various spots around downtown, and people were clustered on the street, all wearing their event ticket around their necks. It was positively festive, and I bet the more alternative restaurants did great business.
And finally, I'd like to add a word of praise for the hardworking people who put on the car cruise. It's not easy to organize such a big event, and it's done in the name of revitalizing our downtown, which I think we can all agree is important, even if we don't always agree on the method.