June 2016 Journal Plus Magazine

Page 39

D o w n t o w n

P e r s p e c t i v e

party. Years later that young man would retell the story to Dave as a successful businessman.

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SLO. It really does take a team of doctors to keep our community running and that analogy is one that I may have missed had I never sat down to coffee with a people-person like Dave.

pend any time with Dave Garth and you will surely find that this is one of a multitude s we wrapped up our coffee Dave and I of his story collection about the people of turned our conversation back to the physical Downtown. He really does take interest in state of Downtown with regard to the sense of people and I have seen it in his professional culture and identity. With several big projects in life, his service with Rotary and personally. It construction Downtown I wanted his opinion on only seems fitting that when pressed about the Dave Garth: Retired CEO chain stores versus local shops both historically relationship of the San Luis Obispo Chamber of the San Luis Obispo and presently. “There have always been chains Chamber of Commerce of Commerce and the Downtown Association and locals in Downtown, and it’s a good thing.” he would personify our community as a human was his reply. The balance of the two is a very body with Downtown as the heart. In his explanation the Chamber is our general practitioner and the complex and abstract thing but the market tends to control Downtown Association is the cardiologist. Each organization that. We need the chains to pull in regional consumers just as much as we need the local shops to preserve the small is operating autonomously but complimenting one another town atmosphere that shoppers revel in. It is yet another and building a healthier body. case of two entities complimenting each other for the overall hink about that for a moment, our pets have doctors, good of the whole. our kids have doctors, we have doctors, heck even our vehicles have mechanics so why not the places we live. Who are the doctors for our community? It has to be organizations For more information on Downtown like the Downtown Association that focus on the highly specialized parts of the community which leaves the Association events, programs and activities, Chamber of Commerce and City to focus on our overall well or to sign up for our weekly Deliver-E being. That concept sticks with me as I start to think about newsletter, visit www.DowntownSLO.com all of the different organizations that keep San Luis Obispo,

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