Festivals' Effects On Some Downtown Businesses.

[jay]

Downtown Day

Now that the downtown is booming, we should turn our attention to helping the businesses on other sides of the city.

[Towntalk]

By the by...what ever came of the Thursday downtown meetups?

[Towntalk]

    No arguments from this end of the galexy 

[kenneyjoe330]

Ohhhh Yea - The gentle soul is getting old like the rest of us - but the bird is true blue 

[Towntalk]

Actually that last part was meant to generate comment from a certain Westsider who spends a great deal of time promoting events, but he chose to remain silent  .

He enjoys tossing things out there, but chooses silence over healthy debate. 

This same gentle soul started this thread

[kenneyjoe330]

Sorrrrrrreeeee Towntalk - I got your drift until the last line "Let them all go to other communities"  now that was mean and I took it as such.
I LOVE MY SIMPLY SLAVIC FEST    Aww the others are OK  And yepper we all don't agree or are pleased - ask my wife  - but it is very nice that we all get along     and no one likes whiners    but I like wine 

[Towntalk]

Wrong...wrong...wrong...wrong...100000 times wrong. I'm not the one whining about festival effects on other downtown eateries etc. The events are fantastic and I love each and every one of them 

I just get ticked of at those folks that gripe at just about everything 

As I said these folks whine over not enough activities and they whine about events ... darn if they do ... darn if they don't ... there just ain't pleasing em.

[kenneyjoe330]

UUUUUUUU Your mean Towntalk 

  Yepper Mean 

[Towntalk]

I fully agree with you 10000000000000000000000000% iwasthere, there's simply no pleasing some people, they whine because there are festivals downtown, and they would whine even louder if the festivals all simply threw up their hands and moved to Boardman.

As to using the Convention Center ... [1] it's not large enough to hold all the booths, and rides and still allow for the free movement of festival goers, [2] where would out of towners park their cars ... paid parking lots that would jack up their prices?

Church festivals control the number of vendors because of the limited space so that's not in the equation.

Tell you what ... lets just ban any kind of event downtown even the farmers market ... no nothing period not festivals, not parades, not farmers markets, not holiday events like 4th of July, Christmas or New Years ... nothing. Let them all go to other communities.

[iwasthere]

if silvers vogue shop pulled in 30 thousands customers in a three day event then he has a legit complaint until then barry must shut uo or close down for thoe thee days, roberto's restaurant run out of food by saturday nite thus causing them to close until monday. i disagree having all festivals at the convocation ctre. why is it yton and the subs complain about festivals then cry about losing the revunues from them when they go to communities where they are welcome with wide open arms. ytown residents cried fowl play when the it fest went to kk land. it fest returned to yown and a shop keeper complaned when his ten monthly regular customers ha two walk a few blocks. 

[jay]

One Youngstown blogger recently suggested that these festivals should be moved to the underutilized Convocation Center parking lot.

This recent festival blocked Central Square, parts of East and West Federal Streets, and several side streets for 6 days.

The city opened up Federal Plaza several years ago to improve business and now these festivals are held where Federal Plaza used to be located.

[Towntalk]

So what's the answer? Ban any and all festivals from downtown?

On the one hand you seem to support these activities as most of us do, yet on the other you complain about their effect on a couple of businesses.

Now we all hate to see any downtown business lose a single penny, but should the city just say ... no more activities downtown, or should the Food Court restaurants use these festivals as an opportunity by offering specials, and even offering cupons whereby all the Food Court restaurants join in together for a promotion.

[jay]

I'm pretty sure that some of the Food Court vendors realized they would lose business during the Italian Festival so they just took the week off.  It's too bad their employees lost a week's worth of wages.

The employees of the Food Court vendors pay city income taxes.  Transient festival workers probably do not pay any city income taxes.

[iwasthere]

rr that business has a line that is a knee deep going up to pizza joe m-fri. rr i would not worry about the capital grill profit, they do just fine. 

[Rick Rowlands]

Well what can the profit margin be for the Capital Grill?  Can they afford to pay employees who are not working?  We don't know, so why even go there?