Downtown Could Change, But How?

 Well, the attempt to regain my idealism didn't last long. I'm back to "We will never be able to make any progress" because so many are working against it. I feel naive about the training...even giving well-meaning white hippies tools does not mean things will come out level and plumb.

I'm sadly going to persist in chipping away at things, since I am not in the financial position that I can walk away from it yet. I'm nearing the end of my productive life but I am healthy and can expect to live for a couple more decades perhaps. I won't be able to sustain the amount of effort it takes to sell retail, at least not the way I'm currently doing it, but my social security doesn't even cover my utilities and property taxes, so I will need a lot of savings or a continued income stream. 

I suppose opportunities could develop for other sources of income besides screenprinting, and they will have to, but that isn't all that promising. Any product in another medium and technique set would require jurying and that might be hard. I know my current products would not score high and it's likely my vague plans to make silk scarves or paper or Jell-O items (all of those things are lightweight and much more portable) won't produce items that will sell as well as the ones I have now. But physics and that reality is going to come for me at some point. That's just inevitable.

That's one reason I have been so diligent about avoiding Covid. The things still being discovered about longterm damage and hidden damage in the body are compelling. My basic plan is not to have any accidents or develop any debilitating conditions. Pretty magical thinking.

I've been speculating a lot about the future of downtown with this latest push to move City Hall to the EWEB and it will be interesting to think about what opens up. The space they were going to use, at the north end of the farmers' block, would then be open and it's possibly a way toward getting the improvements on the southern block that we still need. If we had a bigger food circle space with an improved stage, we could fit in more flexible ways of selling food, such as carts and trucks that are more self-contained. It's the way things are going in the food industry and there aren't a lot of food businesses that can equip just an 8x8 or 10x8 plus fit in the people required to make a living in it. We do have some who have been able to do that, but it's a stretch and limits the number of food businesses we can attract. We also need the space for the intersection of entertainment and food, as we know that works well for us. 

The big stopgap of improving the blocks is what to do with us in the meantime. We saw with the farmers' pavilion that it takes longer and is more involved than slapping down some new concrete here and there. The design was throughly negotiated and is still useable for a few more years at least, and retains many of the things we value about how we are currently using the blocks. But the idea of moving to the Riverfront for a season or more leaves me cold...personally it would just be harder to get there, and I can't envision us in that space. There would be some stringing out along the pathways for sure, and would we really be able to draw our customers (and new ones) there? It's a big maybe.

But putting one block of booths at a time over on the northwest block, with some supplementation from Park Streets, seems doable to me. So half of us relocate for one season, while they do the east block, and the other half relocate the next year, while they do the west block. That seems workable, though not perfect. Other alternatives seem tougher...like using Broadway, which isn't really enough space for all of us, or that parking lot down the street which is bare of shade and doesn't have a durable enough surface to work for us. We'd still be in some compromised position behind the farmers, but not so much. 

Anyway I am planning to take a look at the space with that in mind and also cruise the Riverfront again and try to think positively about it. If the access from 5th St is adequately flat and navigable, it does solve the problem of biking under the bridge which prevents any access for me with my trailer. It's farther, but if it's flat I suppose I can go farther. I get anxious because I know I won't be biking to Market forever. But I'm going to do it as long as I can. It is physically easier than driving, believe it or not, because of the easier loading and unloading processes. I lift heavy things about half as much or less with the efficient way I've worked out. Lifting is going to be my main problem.

Today the City Council is discussing downtown priorities at noon so I'll be watching. I think I know what they will be, but it's always surprising in some way to watch the process of city government. I don't expect a direct mention of Saturday Market. We let them know we still need some improvements on the blocks, but those are not likely to make the top ten or so of projects the city wants to focus on. Those will be, I predict, safety and housing. We'll see soon though. If I get something to write about, I'll come back and put in a few more paragraphs.

Meanwhile, just mounting up my new year slowly. It's too cold to prune trees but I do have plenty to do indoors. Reading Cloud Cuckoo Land, which I like a lot, and watching Yellowstone (just season one so far) which may not hold my interest since it is so stereotypical and triggers memories of my silly adventure into the cowboy world back in the times before I landed here (mid-70s). I might write about it again someday, but it was short and awkward. I saw some real stuff though! 

Okay, going to watch the city meeting and finish all the tasks I started this morning. I thought I would print hats, but maybe some other day. 

I did watch the meeting and the Council, acting as the Urban Renewal Board, moved forward the plan to renew the funding for the Downtown Urban Renewal District. This just means instead of stopping collecting taxes into it for uses downtown, they will continue putting money in. They have to go through a lot of steps yet, but at some point there will be some millions of dollars available to spend on downtown projects. The top three priorities, as I expected, were Housing, Public Safety, and Social Services. That dropped commercial development off the list of top priorities, but they collected a lot of feedback and the Park Blocks rebuild is part of Public Safety, in that it is not as accessible for people experiencing disabilities as it should be. So there is some chance that at least some of the redesign might be brought back in a slow way over time. We'll know more as the process develops. 

It is interesting to read all of the many responses they collected in the public engagement process, which are repetitive and varied at the same time. There are a vast number of people who don't feel safe coming downtown and one thing Saturday Market can do is put some focus on presenting ourselves as safe in all the ways we know we are. We can also do our part to show up at other times to keep downtown populated with safe people doing regular things. It makes a difference. So next time you are downtown, maybe find a place to eat or shop or spend a bit of time to help create more safety by showing up. That's what's missing for a lot of people on days other than Saturday. 

You can find the presentation of the noon work session on the city website, along with the agenda which is 145 pages of data and comments, including a letter from me asking the city to keep some PB improvements on the table. There aren't many mentions of us there, specifically, though a lot of people are pleased with the Pavilion and want to see more things like it. A remodel of our space would please people too. I think we should take another look at it, as a long range plan, and open our minds to some solution for our main objection to it: we can't risk losing our livelihoods while it happens. There has to be an elegant solution for that.