Ho, hum. Another festival.
The next three weeks are taken up with street closures. Funny how that happens. Supposedly these events are "limited" yet somehow they take up the three weekends that, outside of Christmas, I would expect to be our busiest weekends of the year.
It's sort of like closing down the interstate for repairs during rush hour. It makes little to no sense for downtowners to do this.
I know to some people this just makes me a big party pooper poopey head.
I was told quite sternly by one ordinarily friendly commenter that downtown was a "Public Space." Well, I don't agree with that. The streets are public in the sense that they are meant for traffic. That's why they are there. But they are lined by private retail, who pay the rent and the taxes. It isn't the same thing as a park.
Not that anything will ever change.
So, dude. Relax. I can't take away your fun.
The interesting thing about the people who are the biggest supporters of these things is, well, they don't strike me as terribly outgoing people.
So I guess that's misleading. I suppose if you just met me in the store, you'd think I was extremely outgoing.
We'll see how business goes: I've had to back off a little bit over the last few years, as I don't quite get as hammered by the hordes as I used to be. So, I'll hold out the hope that I'm all wet.
In comparison, I had an extremely strong Wednesday, a strong Thursday right up to 4:00 (start of Munch and Music), and a decent Friday until about 4:00 when they put up the yellow crime tape. (Nobody parks, cause yellow tape cries "Murder!")
Meanwhile, since it can't be helped: Go ahead, have some fun.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
5 comments:
It occurred to me a few days ago, another reason some downtowners support these events. They are busier,but instead of attributing it to summer and the possibility they could be even busier, they give credit to the festivals.
That, and everyone has been here for five minutes.
I've been around so long, that I remember all the initiators of these events and how keen they were about how it would help business.
Funny thing is -- they all went out of business. They're all gone.
Meanwhile, me -- I'm still here and doing pretty well, thank you very much, and I trust my observations more than I do a bunch of defunct business owners.
We went to the fiesta for a few hours this afternoon. It rained. The crowd seemed considerably smaller than in past years. Altogether it was kind of a sorry spectacle. But of course everybody in Bend will rave about how wonderful it was.
We ducked into Melanie's wine bar to escape the rain, and it was quite busy -- busier than on a normal Saturday afternoon, I think. So probably some businesses are helped by the fiestas although yours isn't.
Well, we had a good day.
I said I'd own up to it, so I am.
Maybe the rain drove people into your store.
Post a Comment