Downtown merchants are gearing up for a fight to keep the Friday
Night Music Series on Second Street where it’s been for 16
years.
Downtown merchants are gearing up for a fight to keep the Friday Night Music Series on Second Street where it’s been for 16 years.
The Chamber of Commerce, however, has voted to move it to the Community and Cultural Center’s amphitheater.
“The main reasons are that it’s a beautiful facility, with ample parking, and it’s family friendly,” Chamber Vice President Brian Sullivan told a downtown residents group last week. Sullivan added that there will be construction in the downtown core in the coming years, and the amphitheater is a larger facility that will allow the series to grow.
Patty Curtis, owner of Carta Luna gift shop on West Second Street, started a petition to keep the series at its current location.
“Those really are not good reasons,” she said.
Curtis said she and several other new businesses, like soon-to-open Ricatoni’s Deli and Material Pleasures quilt shop, chose their locations near Second Street because of the boost in foot traffic due to the series, which runs from June through September and features bands from the region who play a variety of music, from blues to classic rock.
Hot Java owner Bill Quenneville, who is not a Chamber member, said music series attendees won’t end up at the restaurants like they used to.
“People don’t walk,” he said. “It’s going to seriously impact the business down there.”
Downtown merchants like Curtis, who is the lead singer for the Fast Lane Band that performs in the series and is a chamber member, worked hard to keep the series at its traditional spot last year. The chamber had then voted for the move, too, but reversed their decision after merchants rallied.
“We said we would raise $1,600 and we actually raised $3,700. We were able to extend the series for three weeks. We hired three bands. We fulfilled everything we were supposed to. It feels bad for them to take it away.”
Sullivan said the chamber board has to think of what’s best for the whole town, not just a few merchants. The 11 board members in attendance voted for the move.
“They raised a lot of money for us, and we’re grateful for that,” Sullivan said of the merchants. “We’re not doing this for anything other than what’s best for the community.”
Sullivan noted that the Friday Night Music Series will still be held downtown: the city has designated the 18-block area roughly bound by Butterfield Boulevard, Dunne, Del Monte and Main avenues as downtown.
However, merchants there say that when residents think of downtown, they think of Monterey Road from about First to Third streets.
Sullivan said series attendees will still walk to the restaurants they wish to patronize, and they’ll have more to choose from, with Siam Thai and Mamma Mia, among other restaurants, closer to the event than before.
“Downtown is not just those four blocks, there are all kinds of other venues and restaurants,” Sullivan said.
He also pointed out that the city plans to renovate the downtown core, which will lead to extensive construction on both eastern corners of Second Street in the next two to three years, with two planned mixed-use projects to replace the Downtown Mall and Granada Theater and the Christopher Travel building.
Cost was another issue for the chamber. Chamber President Chris Giusiana said last year’s events cost about $1,500, including the city’s street permit, porta potties and storage. All of these costs will be assuaged by the move, although the chamber will pay an unknown amount to the city for use of the amphitheater. They are still working on a contract, Sullivan said.
The first concert is 7 to 9 p.m. June 5, featuring swing band The Tiger Club.
