The town has been trying to buy additional land behind the stores on Taylor Road from Union Pacific. This land would be used for additional aprking, a downtown park and possibility a location for new stores. Today I attended a mettin gwith a represenative of PG&E to discuss the moving of the power lines off of TAylor and next to the railroad tracks. For many years Union PAcific has not been responsive to Loomis's desire to purchase land to improve the downtown. Hopefully they will agree to a resonable price in the near future.
I am workingwith members of the Chamber of Commerce on developing programs that wil lbring more shoppers into downtown Loomis, Some of the merchants such as High Hand Nersery and the produce market at the Blue Goose shed are developing some of these programs to attract more shoppers. I wil lcontinue to work with our merchants i nthis matter. Some of the suggestions are directional signs to downtown. A marketing program based on the theme "back to the 40"s" and other ifeas. Do you have any ideas?
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2 comments:
Loomis needs to develop its "Points of Pride" and develop those & market them.
I believe that the two things that Loomis has going for it is:
History and Small Town Charm.
If Loomis could get with the Chamber of Commerce and somehow develop a strategic marketing campaign or have a Senior at Del Oro (for their Senior Project) or someone from the Historical Society to develop a self-guided tour, in a hard copy & electronic format, that be promoted.
We need a sign on the I-80 thats says something like visit "Historical Downtown Loomis" with directional signs.
Or "Take Break on Your Way Home and Visist Historical Downtown"
The only problem: When the traffic is coming home from the weekend sitting on I-80, most of the businesses in Loomis are closed, so you'll probably have to take the historical touring route.
Sounds like a move in the right direction...
On the power line issue, are you going to just move them or actually bury them? Obviously move is better than keeping them where they are, but to bury them would be the best option. Will you tell us how the discussion goes?
Promoting downtown is going to be tough. We kind of need a big draw to move in first. Maybe we should focus efforts on courting a developer to bring in a sit down restaurant of some form of entertainment first.
Still, it will be a game of chicken or the egg because I am not sure anyone would want to invest in the downtown the way it looks now. So I say we focus our dollars on improving the blight. That means creating and executing a plan that will plant trees, and add landscape and lighting. I like the idea of a downtown park. It would be neat to have one of those fountains where the water shoots randomly out of holes in the pavement.
I also like how in some places, they are taking the turn lane and making it into a landscaped median. It would be neat to have trees down the middle of Taylor.
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