Archive for January 26th, 2009

First of all, I wanted to give credit to any group of humans that try to bring business to the masochistic business-owners downtown. They need all the help they can get. From Rio Never to an inept downtown partnership (that is really just another department under Hein’s uninspired leadership) to unprofessionally run and marketed convention center, they could use a break. I don’t know how successful it’s going to be, but their heart is in the right place.

One quote from the selfless Mr. Glassman that caught my attention is bolded below:

  

 

Family Weekends should be boon to Downtown

Our view: With free parking, plenty of activities, weekends offer much to families

Arizona Daily Star

Tucson, Arizona | Published: 01.23.2009

Wondering what to do with the kids this weekend? How about visiting Downtown Tucson?

Worried about parking? Don’t be: Metered parking Downtown is free on weekends.

Afraid there’s no place to have a meal? Not so: More than 20 restaurants are open on weekends.Worried that there’s nothing going on Downtown? No problem: Go online to check out the Family Friendly Weekends Web site, a master calendar and guide to Downtown events.

“We want Tucson parents to wake up every Saturday and Sunday, 52 weeks a year, and know that fun activities Downtown are always an option,” Councilman Rodney Glassman. a Democrat representing Tucson’s East Side Ward 2, told us.

A constituent’s complaint that there was little going on Downtown that was fun for families prompted Glassman, Ward 1 Councilwoman Regina Romero, a Democrat, and Mayor Bob Walkup, a Republican, to gather representatives of about 60 Downtown business and nonprofit groups a few months ago to brainstorm.

As Glassman notes, organizations like the Tucson Children’s Museum, the Downtown public library, the Museum of Contemporary Art and the Tucson Museum of Art were already offering frequent weekend events.

Now these and other Downtown organizations are working together and with the Metropolitan Tucson Convention and Visitors Bureau to make sure activities that families will enjoy are scheduled for both days, every weekend, Glassman said.

The Family Friendly Weekends Web site is operated by the Convention and Visitors Bureau.

So far, the list of activities already scheduled Downtown on weekends in 2009 is 48 pages long, Glassman said. The Web site’s inventory of Downtown restaurants open on weekends is growing, too.

For the Convention and Visitors Bureau, spearheading the effort was a no-brainer, Kimberly Schmitz, director of communications, told us, since its mission is to promote Tucson as a destination.

Along with managing the Web site and working with event organizers, the Convention and Visitors Bureau has produced flyers and posters promoting Family Friendly Weekends.

So far $55,000 has been raised from private sources and another $120,000 in in-kind media promotion and advertising.

Douglas Martin, president of K-LOVE 88.1 radio, offered to do remote programming from Downtown every weekend and donated $5,000 to the effort.

Give Downtown Tucson a try, and we believe you will be surprised, as were many letter writers to the Star who enjoyed and praised the inaugural First Night New Year’s events Downtown.

“There is no taxpayer money involved in this,” Glassman said. His own Glassman Foundation is the title sponsor.Take your kids, check it out on Saturday: They’ll get a chance to try plein air painting at the Tucson Museum of Art and to see the traditional Chinese New Year Lion’s Dance at the Children’s Museum.

Family Friendly Weekends is a definite plus for local families and we congratulate all those whose contributions and work will make it happen. It will be a plus, too, for Downtown’s under-rated image, as families discover how much it has to offer. 

We need a little clarification, future-governor Glassman. According to the above story, the glad-handing Visitors Bureau seems pretty knee-deep is this. Last year, they received about $9 million plus of taxpayers dollars from the City, County, and Oro Valley. If the Downtown partnership helped at all, they are also a taxpayer-supported organization. If any extra police or fire was needed to support the event, then probably there was some tax-dollars being used(unless the sponsors are paying the City, so show me the receipts). So the options are:

 

1. You forgot the Visitors Bureau and the DTP (if involved) receive taxpayers dollars. If this is true, then I am so glad you are one of the principals working on the City budget.
2. You didn’t want to ruin your vision of a totally privately sponsored event with messy facts.
3. Your advanced brain processes informed you that the taxpayer dollars funneled to the non-profit MTCVB and the DTP are “cleaned” of their inconvenient tax dollar status, thus now become private. This keeps the dream of a totally privately funded Family Weekend alive!

Which one could it be?

P.S.(parting shot): The MTCVB’s involvement in this sounds like a little payoff to Mr. Glassman in exchange for convincing the rest of the council not to gut their budget this year. Or maybe I’m just getting a little too cynical.