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35 |
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| FRA |
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| NED |
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Rocky wants downtown glow to grow
Mayor aims to keep momentum going after Games
By Diane Urbani
Deseret News staff writer
Salt Lake Mayor Rocky Anderson is breathless these days, but he has no intention of slowing down — not now, and not after the Winter Games.
He's just so excited about the Olympic transformation of downtown that he can't stand the thought of it ending.
And it doesn't have to be over next week, the mayor says. To his mind, Main Street's crowds demonstrate that Salt Lake City wants to go out at night, wants to mix, eat, drink, check out live music and art — and most of all — people-watch.
Salt Lake City has the momentum going for a lively downtown, Anderson said, and he wants to sustain that energy every Friday and Saturday night of the year.
"We want to see sidewalk artists and musicians, maybe a karaoke area, and if we can get the merchants to stay open till midnight," all the pieces could fit together and invigorate the long-suffering Main Street, he said.
"We'll have a plan in place very soon," Anderson promises. "It's going to be absolutely fantastic."
The mayor said his plan may include street closures and more outdoor dining — which he said were proved viable by the huge Games-time turnouts on and around Main Street.
Money to organize and advertise these downtown activities, of course, will have to be allocated by the City Council. Its members have been anything but pushovers where Anderson's proposals are concerned.
But for right now at least, even the typically cautious councilmen are almost as jazzed as their mayor.
They've been downtown too, after all.
"It is fun, isn't it?" said Dale Lambert, at 57 the senior member of the council. "I've found it invigorating."
"I have no problem looking at some additional (downtown) festivals," added Carlton Christensen, who, in the past, has opposed Anderson's bids to extend dance-club hours.
"It's great," added council chairman and frequent Anderson foil Dave Buhler.
But both Buhler and Christensen are inclined to rein in the mayor. They wonder whether expanded Main Street activities will actually generate more business for merchants, and whether Salt Lake City's population can sustain street parties every weekend.
Anderson, in response, says that when he's gone to Anheuser Busch's Bud World at the Gallivan Center or to the Samsung Zone on Main Street, "people were having a great time by the tens of thousands . . . and most of the people down there were local."
Whoa, Lambert said. "The truth is, nobody has done empirical work" to count how many among the Olympic crowds are local. Yet, "there's some truth that there hasn't been as much opportunity" for people to come out and have a downtown-festival experience. "I'll certainly listen to the mayor's ideas," he said. "I'm not opposed to street performers."
The City Council has a work session scheduled in March to discuss possibilities for Main Street revitalization.
Whatever activities happen downtown, Lambert said, they should appeal to a variety of people — not just club-hopping singles.
Again barely able to contain himself, Anderson points to the summertime Gallivan Utah Center concerts. They draw huge crowds of families, singles and people from across the city. Large shares of those concertgoers take TRAX in — and speaking of TRAX, that's another thing that many predicted wouldn't attract enough riders to make it worthwhile. Look at those full trains now, the mayor says.
Anderson's plan for Main Street doesn't center around the Gallivan plaza, however; he wants to spread people around, among restaurants, shops and street vendors. Now he just has to sell his vision to all of the players. They range from the City Council to the business owners to the Salt Lakers who are used to renting videos on Friday and Saturday nights.
E-mail: durbani@desnews.com
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February 21, 2002
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