The Truckee Downtown Merchants Association (TDMA) has a vision: a strong downtown Truckee core, filled with activities, successful businesses and community. To bring that vision alive, they need locals. ‘As a community, let’s work together to secure a viable downtown core,’ said Stefanie Olivieri, President of TDMA and business owner.
TDMA has spearheaded a series of meetings, called the Downtown Summits, that are looking at ways to realize the vision of a vibrant downtown core. The group is studying a concept called ‘The Main Street Approach,’ an economic development program based in historic preservation. The program provides tools that give communities the power and knowledge to revitalize existing environments in incremental steps.
Lani Lott of L.L. Consulting has over 15 years of experience helping towns redevelop their core. Lott presented the Main Street Approach at the April 10 Downtown Summit meeting. ‘The Main Street program is one structure that many communities have used to organize everyone’s efforts in the same direction,’ Lott said. ‘Truckee has worked hard in maintaining and leveraging their assets in comparison to other communities that I’ve assisted in this process.’ She remarked that it was gratifying to see the community coming together at the April Downtown Summits meeting. ‘It’s not often that I see 60 to 70 people in the same room working together on these issues.’ According to Lott, one of the issues is the concern about future development around the region, and the impact on Truckee businesses.
‘Survival of downtown depends on tourism. Period. But locals are a key component,’ said Olivieri. ‘We’re looking for ways to bring our community to come to the core downtown area and enjoy their town.’ She concedes that high rents, parking and the perception of higher prices are challenges that the group must face. ‘High rents are the number one issue for viability for independent businesses…even people with low rents are suffering during this current economic downturn locally, regionally, state-wide and nationally. These are challenging times, but we need to do things that keep business in place,’ Olivieri said.
TDMA sees the solution as a four-step program (see sidebar). One step is better and clearer signage. ‘Freeway signage is totally dysfunctional at this point,’ Olivieri said. ‘We need clear directions leading people into the historic downtown area.’
Sufficient parking is also critical. The first step was to install paid parking. Though the new meters are not popular with everyone, Olivieri states that it did double the amount of parking.
And the perception of downtown pricing, according to Olivieri is just that, a perception. ‘I know for a fact that if you price an item here at Cabona’s, and price that same item at a department store in Reno – you’ll pay more in Reno. I encourage everyone to comparison shop,’ she said.
TDMA is continuing Truckee Thursdays (last year it was Tuesdays), an ongoing event throughout the summer, which will begin the first Thursday after Memorial Day. The event started last year as a way to encourage locals to spend quality time in the downtown area. This year’s events include a modified Farmer’s Market from 3 p.m. to 6 p.m., a local artist fair, more outdoor dining on sidewalks, historic jail tours, sidewalk sales and possibly music in the later afternoon. The majority of events will occur either near the train depot or on Bridge Street between the Truckee Hotel and the Bar of America, if the street is closed.
Lynn Saunders, Executive Director of the Truckee Donner Chamber of Commerce, believes that Truckee Thursdays event will encourage tourists and locals alike to celebrate downtown. Using redevelopment funds, TDMA will partner with the Town of Truckee to hire an events coordinator to develop new and exciting approaches to keep the downtown alive.
Solutions for a Vibrant Downtown Truckee
The Four-Step Program
1. Build an organization that reaches out to the community
2. Marketing
3. Build image of historic core
4. Design better and clearer signage to direct people into the core downtown area
