Opinion Pleasanton Weekly PRESIDENT Gina Channell-Allen, Ext. 119 PUBLISHER Jeb Bing, Ext. 118 EDITORIAL Editor Jeb Bing, Ext. 118 Managing Editor Dolores Fox Ciardelli, Ext. 111 Online/Community Editor Emily West, Ext. 229 Reporter Glenn Wohltmann, Ext. 121 Intern Brittany Hersh, Ext. 234 Contributors Don Colman Deborah Grossman Jerri Pantages Long Dennis Miller Kerry Nally Joe Ramirez ART & PRODUCTION Lead Designer Katrina Cannon, Ext. 130 Designers Lili Cao, Ext. 120 Kristin Herman, Ext. 114 ADVERTISING Advertising Sales Manager Mary Hantos, Ext. 123 Account Executives Paul Crawford, Ext. 113 Karen Klein, Ext. 122 Barbara Lindsey, Ext. 226 Real Estate Sales Andrea Heggelund, Ext. 110 Ad Services Cammie Clark, Ext. 116 BUSINESS Business Associate Lisa Oefelein, Ext. 126 Circulation Director Bob Lampkin, Ext. 141 Front Office Coordinator Kathy Martin, Ext. 124 HOW TO REACH THE WEEKLY Phone: (925) 600-0840 Fax: (925) 600-9559 Editorial e-mail: editor@PleasantonWeekly.com calendar@PleasantonWeekly.com Display Sales e-mail: sales@PleasantonWeekly.com Classifieds Sales e-mail: ads@PleasantonWeekly.com Circulation e-mail: circulation@ PleasantonWeekly.com
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EDITORIAL
THE OPINION OF THE WEEKLY
Marketing boosts downtown
W
ith an estimated 10,000 crowding downtown streets and sidewalks for the First Wednesday festivities this week, it’s clear that the marketing efforts and retail and restaurant attractions of Pleasanton’s historic downtown are paying off. Although profits are still on the slim side, business has picked up with far more shoppers and diners than we saw at the peak of the recessionary economy a year ago. Reservations are needed at most restaurants on Fridays and BRITTANY HERSH Saturdays, stores are staying open Your Stage Toys store owner later, and night-time entertainment Dee Nitzsche and her children at Barone’s, Redcoats, Main Street (left) Taylor, Claire and NataBrewery and the Farmer Restaurant lie flip through the downtown is attracting larger crowds than Pleasanton coupon book, which ever. benefits the Pleasanton PartnerMuch of this is due to the ag- ships in Education (PPIE) Foungressive and productive efforts of dation. the Pleasanton Downtown Association, the city of Pleasanton and a downtown merchants group skilled in retail marketing. The PDA, under the leadership of its new director Laura Olson, who has extensive business marketing experience, sponsors the Wednesday street fairs and Friday night Concerts in the Park. The merchants’ group, headed in part by marketing guru Melanie Sadek, owner of Murphy’s Paw on Main Street, has championed several successful campaigns over the past year, including a street carnival last summer that raised $20,000 for Pleasanton schools. Now it’s gone a step farther, creating and selling discount coupon books with the goal of raising $100,000 for the school campaign under way by the Pleasanton Partnerships in Education (PPIE) Foundation. The coupon books, designed and produced by Dee and Rob Nitzsche, owners of Your Stage Toys in collaboration with Allegra Printing, include pages of coupons from 40 merchants who each paid $130 to cover the cost of printing. They’re being sold at a number of downtown stores and restaurants for $10 each and offer discounts up to 50 percent at some establishments. Using just two or three of them more than reimburses the buyer and sends every cent of that $10 purchase price to PPIE. But that’s not all. An advisory group has been meeting regularly to focus on making Pleasanton’s downtown more of an entertainment destination. Working under the auspices of the Santa Cruzbased Responsible Hospitality Institute (RHI), a national consulting agency, representatives of the city and civic and business organizations are looking at areas where downtown attractions might help boost the downtown entertainment sector while also driving more business to local shops and eateries. Suggestions so far include more late night eating places, especially those that might serve desserts to after-theater crowds once the new Firehouse Arts Center opens in September, and sidewalk food vendors to cater to the after-10 p.m. crowds. Other ideas range from theme nights that cater to certain age groups, staggered closing hours in different downtown zones, “What’s Happening?” bulletin boards at downtown kiosks, and live music and performers on downtown sidewalks. Another outside agency has been hired by the city through its Economic Development Department, headed by Pamela Ott, who once was executive director of the PDA. She has contracted with Danville communications agency EMC Creative for some initial marketing research. In its first presentation to the city’s Economic Vitality Committee, EMC reported that its initial public survey showed considerable interest in more downtown entertainment and a larger variety of stores and restaurants. Peet’s Coffee and a Gap store were among requests made to EMC, even a movie theater. EMC will make a second — and more detailed — report at an upcoming meeting of the Vitality Committee, which will then consider recommendations on how to proceed. Additions to the downtown that almost everybody liked are the sculptures that have been on display on downtown sidewalks since April. Created by internationally known sculptor J. Seward Johnson, they made their final appearance at last Wednesday’s street party before being moved to another city. More of these kinds of unique exhibits along with the creative thinking of the committees and consultants working to add greater vitality to downtown Pleasanton bode well for a business district that is seeing economic recovery. N
LETTERS New BART station ugly? Dear Editor, Does anyone else think that the new West Dublin/Pleasanton Bart Station is the ugliest piece of design work that anyone could possibly have come up with? It is bad enough that this station which is so close to our other station was absolutely not needed but why must we be subjected to such a horrendous piece of architecture? This thing looks like a power plant in the middle of the freeway. I have been to almost every station in their system and none are this bad. I understand that the entire station had to be built above the tracks between a freeway, but are you telling me that any good college architectural student couldn’t have designed something besides
a big white box. I remember when Scott Haggerty made Bart paint the parking garage at our other Bart station. While it is still not beautiful at least it is not the eyesore that it was prior to painting. Unfortunately if you put makeup on a pig it is still a pig and a coat of paint will do nothing to improve this monstrosity. I just wish that Bart would have used the money for this station on extending the line to Livermore where it would be a welcome addition to the system with hopefully a well-planned station. Mark Schmitz
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