Every now and then, as you know, I tend to veer off my customary musical path and take a detour of sorts if the mood strikes me. Well, this is one of those days. And it comes after a lovely sunny Saturday afternoon visiting Queen Street in downtown Niagara Falls.
I have written before about the revitalization of the downtown core, led by the Niagara Historical group headed up by Mordechai Grun. I spoke with Mr. Grun recently and have to admit, the man has a vision, and it is indeed workable. Just stroll the downtown core and see for yourself. Even with downtown road reconstruction underway that has an entire city block closed off to traffic, the area is thriving thanks to the vision of an entrepreneur and a city council willing to back the vision up with infrastructure improvements.
A couple of weeks ago I was invited to a breakfast hosted by the Myrtle Beach Tourism people, to entice more people from this area down to Myrtle Beach area to vacation. I have not been back since 1972, and I am sure it is hugely different now than it was then. Perhaps someday...but the breakfast meeting was held at the newly-renovated Elements Restaurant, part of the snazzy new Table Rock complex overlooking the Falls. The view is fabulous, especially on a picture-perfect early spring day when I was there. It was a wonderful way to kick off a tourist-in-your-own backyard sort of Saturday in Niagara Falls and visit some spots I have not gotten around to visiting for awhile if at all.
Around noon I parked the car on Queen Street and walked the length of both sides of Queen Street, and in spite of the construction going on, people were down there shopping and enjoying the day. It's the age-old adage: give them something to come down for and people will come. The number of restaurants and bistros is surprisingly large, with Paris Crepes Bistro my particular favourite right now. There are others I want to try, but that will take some time. I made a point of visiting some of the shops and businesses open on a Saturday and found there is a fair amount of optimism downtown these days, and with good reason: investing in the area is reaping real benefits for all concerned. There is much more work to do, and certainly the tragic loss last fall of Rosberg's at Queen and Erie is a great loss, but even that might present a silver lining somewhere along the way. We'll have to see.
One of the businesses I visited that truly impressed me is the florist shop directly across from Paris Crepes, called Fresh Floral Designs. The facade and interior are contemporary and very sharp, and the owners know the importance of customer service and doing things the right way.
They are just two of the many businesses downtown proving the theory people will indeed come if you give them a reason to.
So, what it all boils down to is this: downtowns are not dead, they just need a vision, people willing to invest and of course, businesses to bring people back. Niagara Falls is slowly but surely doing this with their revitalized downtown core, and I look forward to returning again soon to explore some more.
One aspect I found everywhere I went on my visit, and worth noting here, is customer service for all these businesses is paramount, and I always look for that aspect while doing business wherever I go, since I have always strived to provide exceptional customer service with my own web-based business, A Web of Fine Music. Try it for yourself and see. Visit www.finemusic.ca and I will do everything I can to provide you with exceptional customer service too
March 18th, 2010.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment