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News :: Miscellaneous |
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I fear we are killing our Downtown |
Current rating: 0 |
by Danielle Chynoweth, posted by Paul R.
(No verified email address)
Address: Urbana |
01 Jul 2002
Modified: 05:40:58 PM |
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Danielle sent this as an e-mail to her fellow Urbana City Council members and the IMC mailing list. I am posting it here with her permission because I think it gets at the real issues underlying this weekend's harrassment of the visiting bookmobile. -- Paul Riismandel |
This weekend, the Independent Media Center, of which I am a member, held a regional conference on independent publishing. They hosted an arts group "Bookmobile" from Montreal which parked an airstream in front of the IMC
and gave tours all day Friday and Saturday of hundreds of books by independent publishers from around the world. This was their art installation which was featured in CU City View.
300 people, some from as far as Madison, Chicago, and Springfield, came for this event. Friday night was more activity than downtown Urbana has seen in months. It is the epitome of what every block in downtown Urbana should look like in the evening.
The manager of the Office agreed that he was benefiting from the pedestrian traffic and "had no problem with the Bookmobile" being outside his doors. Indeed the Office has indicated that they have seen increased revenue since the IMC, which now hosts events nearly every night of the
week, opened up in downtown.
The IMC had approached the city and meters had been bagged for three spaces for the bookmobile. At the height of the evening, there were dozens of people talking on the sidewalk. The police came and ordered the installation to pack up and leave. She said she received a complaint.
Eventually the owner of the bookmobile - an out of town guest, in the middle of the art event, in front of dozens of visitors to the bookmobile, was ticketed for "obstruction of traffic." I was embarrassed for the City of Urbana.
You will say - "they just didn't have the right permit" - and maybe you are right, I will investigate that. But this is part of a larger trend.
Is this what a healthy downtown is - an "obstruction of traffic?!" I am incensed that we would treat an art event in the downtown this way. I am incensed that we make it so difficult for the downtown to thrive by overlegislating and overreacting, nit-picking, or blaming business owners
for not having every piece of paperwork in order.
I am writing this to city staff because I want to give a clear illustration of how and by what means the downtown is dying. This is one of many stories I could tell. I am writing this because I refuse to give the News Gazette another reason to dump on Urbana for being "anti-business." And I am writing this because I plan on doing what I can to pull the downtown up by its bootstraps.
We now have the ability to hang signs over our businesses to announce our existence to pedestrians. I want to see an incentive package for small business that is at least as attractive as Champaign. First floor spaces in downtown should be zoned for retail only - not office, while
grandfathering in the current offices on the first floor.
There should be service guarantees for people opening businesses in downtown, just like Build Urbana. You should be able to get an inspection pronto. Priority should be given to inspections in TIF 1 and 2 areas. Certain empty retail spaces should be "pre-inspected" for certain kinds of business - restaurants for example - so that they can be marketing as an "easy move-in."
If we want more warm bodies on the street - more life - we should allow sidewalk dining for free and make the permit easy to get. Street vendors should be encouraged. Theater and art should not be enforced out of existence. The police should play the role of mediators rather than merely ticketers where public safety is not in emminent danger.
I am proposing that we treat the downtown as a "special place" so that activity is, at best, stimulated, and at least not hampered. So far we have done so with streetscape and cheap parking, but boy do we have a long
way to go.
I welcome response and collaboration.
With the best intentions,
Danielle |
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? |
by interested observer
(No verified email address) |
Current rating: 0
01 Jul 2002
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Apparently your 300 people were less important that $75 to the City of Urbana. That is the ticket amount, is it not?
And what, pray tell, was the Office ownership's response to this? (You know it was them---since there are no other businesses in the area which might be affected by a crowd of 300 people (which the Iron Post or the Embassy would surely have appreciated on a summer night when many "regular" customers are vacationing to faraway destinations (as some of the attendees of this event were). They are called CUSTOMERS. I would venture a guess to say the Office denied they called the police.
My only conclusion would be that the Office doesn't want any business from anyone who would partcipate in an IMC venture or performance or whatever.
It is too bad that some businesses see PEOPLE not as potential customers, but nuisances. Perhaps that is the problem of downtown Urbana itself. Perhaps businesses such as the Office don't WANT to be successful, to prove that Urbana is worse than Champaign.
I hope that the IMC can help Ms. Chenowyth "re-prioritize" the Urbana city administration. It really is a shame. I would like to buy a house. Do I want to live in a city that treats its citizen's in such a way. Good thing they don't hold the Artists Against AIDS or Roger Ebert Overlooked Film Festival in Downtown Urbana. The holding cells on N. Lierman would be standing room only. |
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I Think This Can Be A Learning Moment take 2 |
by ML
(No verified email address) |
Current rating: 0
01 Jul 2002
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These comments were posted as a response to a comment made in an earlier post. They seem to have application here to the comment made by ?, so I repost them here.
This situation resulted mainly from miscommunication. A small part of this was the fault of the IMC, although I think that the failure of the police to ascertain all the facts, use some judegement, and communcate what was required clearly was the bigger part of the problem. All this with the caveat that I wasn't there, although I have heard several different accounts.
I'm sure the Office probably wishes they had handled this differently at this point also. There is little to be gained from trying to build this into some sort of a boycott. People are free to do what they wish, but do not paint it as having anything to do with the official position of the IMC. What PO'd suggests is up to them, but it is not what the IMC would suggest. Far better to go in and have a beer and mention that you're came downtown because of the IMC and saw that they were right next door.
The position of the IMC is that this incident causes us great concern due to the way it was handled, that it needs to be examined for the poor way in which it was handled, with an eye to exploring ways to prevent future problems of this nature by keeping open the lines of communication.
The IMC wants to do its part to build up the downtown area in Urbana and we think we are doing our share to help. We already bring in large numbers of people to various meetings, events and shows a number of times every week. We know that the Office, along with the other downtown Urbana businesses, benefits from the influx of people to downtown. Perhaps the Office didn't realize it before, but I'm sure they do now. And I think everyone involved wants downtown Urbana to grow. The IMC will be doing its part and we feel sure that others want the same.
I respect the opinion of those who differ, but I don't think creating and escalating a confrontation is the way to help. I think Danielle and Paul have set forth the problems here. I think everyone who cares about the IMC wants a positive outcome, rather than more hard feelings. |
