It strikes me that I go to the mall when I need to get a particular
something, but I go downtown when I want to see people, browse and be
distracted, dine, or when we have guests from out of town. I don't go to
the mall for these things. The kinds of enterprises that encourage
"community" are what we should _particularly_ seek for downtown...local
arts and crafts (galleries and stores), eateries, a community Internet
center?, activities for adults and children (lessons of various kinds),
professional offices that people visit (dentists, doctors), even daycare
centers. Things that get people coming and going all through the day...so
there are lots of people to run into, lots of places to stop and visit with
the people we run into, and perhaps the people in our community become our
sought after distractions.
Gens Johnson
>On Mon, 4 Mar 1996, Lois Melina wrote:
>
>> ...But it also seems to me that Moscow has a lot of creative people
>> and we might do better to have a downtown with more local crafts and arts.
>> It seems NW Showcase and Inner Vision are doing well. When people come to
>> Moscow for Mom's Weekend or Jazz Festival or Rendezvous, wouldn't it be nice
>> to have a downtown where there are antiques, local arts and crafts, etc?
>>
>> Lois
>>
>>
>>
>> At 08:31 AM 3/4/96 PST, Kenton wrote:
>> >Some of you may have seen signs over the weekend or received an advertising
>> >letter that Myklebust's clothing store is closing. Coming on the heels of
>> >Jackle Jewelry's closing after Christmas, this will leave two big gaps in
>> >the retail fabric of downtown Moscow.
>> >Are these developments inevitable, given the trend toward concentration of
>> >retail in malls, or could we have done anything to help these two businesses
>> >stay downtown? And who is doing recruitment for businesses to replace
>> >them? The Moscow Downtown Association is practically defunct, the Chamber
>> >of Commerce doesn't seem to see this as part of its mission, and the
>> >EDC seems focused on creating a business park.
>> >A strong, healthy downtown shows up repeatedly in surveys and discussions
>> >of what people like about Moscow, yet collectively we don't seem to be
>> >doing anything to protect and enhance that asset.
>> >Joel posted an article several weeks ago about national chains that are
>> >seeking downtown locations... What are the chances of luring someone
>> >like Eddie Bauer or the Gap to downtown Moscow as an "anchor tenant"?
>> >I'd like to hear reactions from other subscribers to this list.
>> >Kenton
>> >
>> >
>>
>>