Today's Bulletin:
"Event's Weekday Traffic Closure a First For Bend."
"An all new Cinco de Mayo event will close a section of Wall Street through downtown Bend today."
"On Wednesday, the Bend City Council approved a change to the city's coade governing downtown street closures. The city will continue to maintain an official limit of three closures per month in July and August and two for all other months, but the council will now have the authority to approve exceptions for additional events."
"The change comes in response to a request from Deschutes Brewery for the "Sagebrush Street Fare."
NOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!
I give up.
Two new events in one fell swoop.
Let me rephrase this announcement:
"The city will continue to continue to maintain the official (wink, wink....official.....ha,ha) limit....but the council will now have the authority to approve exceptions (that is, anyone with any idea whatsoever as long as they show up to present it will be approved....)
ARRRGGGG!!!!!!!!
So, basically, we are back to closing the streets every weekend of the summer, the very thing that I fought so hard ten years ago. Back then, we had a couple of retailers on the city council who actually saw the wisdom of limitations.....
I know you all think I have been overreacting to these closures -- but I'm telling you, they won't be satisfied until they drive away all the regular customers. The only thing I can think is that none of these other businesses HAVE regular customers....
Come on. Let retailers be retailers. Let customers be customers. Believe me, we get PLENTY of foot traffic in the summer. This actually pulls them AWAY from actual shopping.
I more and more am inclined to look to buy a location where neither the landlords or the bureaucrats or other retailers who have neither the experience (or, I'm just going to say it -- the savvy) can interfere with my business.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
6 comments:
I absolutely hate downtown events and street closures. You are right, as I stay away from downtown during these events and won't be going into yours or anyone's else's store during said events. I've just been stopping by on Wednesdays :).
Oh thanks to your blog I picked up the first 7 issues of Power Girl you had bundled upfront yesterday. Great read so far. Ordered a few of the missing issues from 8-22, now to just try and fill in the blanks. Also, went ahead and finally setup my subscriptions thru you too.
Keep the blogs coming, I enjoy reading them.
Turns out, closing Wall St. is the most impactful. Everyone has to do loops because of the one way streets to try to get anywhere.
Frankly, I think Bend's endless fiestas/fests/festivals/festivuses/fairs/faires/fares are getting really tiresome. There are too damn many of them, and they're ALL THE SAME! Food booths, wine and beer booths (overpriced), vendors selling "crafts" and "art," and a few musical acts. See one, seen 'em all. The Summer Fest is the only one I bother to go to anymore.
Has anybody in this town ever heard the term "overkill"?
Or maybe the idea is to sell newcomers the illusion that Bend is a real happenin' place, with fun stuff going on all the time. Not until they move here do they figure out that IT'S ALL THE FUCKING SAME.
Think about it this way, its additional revenue the city otherwise wouldn't get.
They got dunc by the ball's and can't really get more money.
What happened to can't fight them join them?
Sheet if I were dunc I would close his street daily and drag all the sheet out of his dungeon and sell it on the street. Toss in some bad food for $10 a pop and some bad musik, and you would have a real event Bend(tm).
Nope the city is broke, and anything that generates a few extra nickels for the parasites running the town will be accepted. Fuck those that are in fixed locations, and are paying fixed taxes.
It's all about 'additional revenue' stand in the way of this and you'll die.
Found this little note/checklist from our former downtown shop, jotted down in a two-hour period during one of the weekend festivals/street closures.
# of kids over 2 years (loose, not in parents' arms): 15
# who raucously played with something after parents said don't touch: 10
# who flopped on our bed covered in $1,400 worth of bedding inventory: 3
# who walked around politely and didn't touch (much): 2
# of decent sales: nada
Numbers don't quite add up; maybe one escaped into our back room... now that we're not downtown, I can say that privately I always moaned and groaned over street closures and festivals, but didn't want to be a curmudgeon about it when people said so brightly, "Oh, this must be SO good for business!"
"I can say that privately I always moaned and groaned over street closures and festivals, but didn't want to be a curmudgeon about it when people said so brightly, "Oh, this must be SO good for business!"
Funny how often I hear this from FORMER downtowners....
I guess I've decided I don't care if they think me curmudgeonly.
Post a Comment