Flutterby™! : Kentucky St Forum

I swear, sometimes I think there are a few downtown merchants who deliberately don't want customers: "We're looking for input from you on putting in tremendous amounts of volunteer effort to run a series of events to bring more foot traffic in front of your store, hopefully bringing more customers to you."

"That sounds great, but can you do it when we're closed, and maybe rather than bringing these crowds in front of my store, could do it in this urine soaked alley instead?"

A few years ago, Sonoma County Bicycle Coalition and a few other groups put on an event they called "Cyclovia", closed down Petaluma Blvd for a few blocks on a Sunday morning, a whole bunch of people went downtown on bikes, riding around, wonderful feel, itching to spend money... And if I remember right we ended up with burned chain coffee (Peets) sitting on a curb somewhere, because nobody was open.

Like you've got an event that's bringing tons of people downtown just itching to spend money, and.... nothing. I wondered WTF then, some of the feedback I heard tonight convinced me it was deliberate.

Anyway, crankiness aside, I think the Kentucky St committee got some good feedback, I got a few conversations about issues in the ways that I'd like to participate (I am *itching* to build some out-of-scale toys, chess pieces, games, to play in a closed street, but... got closer to figuring out some of the logistics). So overall tonight's forum was a success.