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Sopris Carbondale’s
weekly, non-profit newspaper
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Volume 3, Number 9 | April 14, 2011
Roaring Fork High School presented “Spring Shorts 2011” during three performances over the weekend. Subject matter in the short plays and monologues ranged from serious to humorous. Shown here are Lisa Bauer (left) and Emily Eason (right) in a play titled “Beauty.” Photo by Lynn Burton
‘Grow the pie,’ say Main Street, ird Street organizations By Terray Sylvester Sopris Sun Staff Writer
G
row the pie. Be inconclusive. Carbondale is growing and it better learn to adapt or the community is going to fracture. If there was a take-home message from Monday’s meeting on the fate of the town’s monthly First Friday festivities, that was probably it. Nearly 60 people showed up at the Thunder River Theatre to tackle a topic that started getting attention on a popular town email list about a month ago: Some Main Street business owners assert their sales have dwindled during First Fridays, and they blame the problem on the tenants in Carbondale’s new non-profit hub, the Third Street Center. They say business has bogged down ever since the
center, located three blocks from Main Street, began to host events on First Friday, drawing customers away from the downtown core. Over the past few weeks, the discussion has swelled into a lively debate, but one conducted mostly via electrons. That changed with the meeting on Monday, which was moderated by former Carbondale Town Manager Tom Baker and attracted Main Street business owners, tenants of the Third Street Center and members of its board of directors, as well as more than a few concerned citizens. Over the course of two hours of open discussion, Baker managed to distill the meeting’s most constructive comments into a few core ideas. Everyone seemed to agree there are too many hands in the First Friday “pie,” but only a few participants appeared willing to bar some organizations (Third Street Cen-
ter tenants) from participating. At the same time, not many people jumped on an idea to spread the energy of First Friday through the rest of the month (for instance, by asking Third Street Center tenants to host their events on the third Friday of the month). Instead, many people pushed for a stronger, better coordinated marketing strategy to attract more shoppers to town on First Friday – the “grow the pie” approach. Ro Mead, director of the Carbondale Council on Arts and Humanities, which helped start the First Friday festivities about a decade ago but has since relocated from Main Street to the Third Street Center, said that spreading out First Friday felt “divisive” to her. She suggested that instead, schedules could be adjusted so that Main Street and Third Street events don’t overlap.
“We’re friends. This is Carbondale, and we need to preserve, above all ... our relationships,” Mead said. Local artist Tanya Black stressed that Carbondale should be delighted its economy is growing. “I think we’re forgetting gratitude in our town here for what we have, what we’ve created as a unit,” she said.
Next Steps:
The discussion on the fate of Carbondale’s First Friday festivities will continue at the next meeting of the Carbondale Business Coalition at 8 a.m. on April 21 at Carbondale Town Hall.
Filmmakers win
Thompson Park continued
Dancers dance
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