It's difficult to describe a vision for the Village. Do you use photos? Drawings? Words? Most people agree that they want the Village to be vibrant, walkable, sustainable, transit-oriented and bike-friendly. Those are trendy buzzwords that all downtowns should aspire to, but how do we tailor those to the uniqueness of Carlsbad Village without being contrived? One way is to celebrate and highlight what's already here.
Since April 2012, we've had more than 25 community meetings and hundreds of individual meetings with Village residents, business owners, property owners, and city staff. A three-part vision has evolved organically from listening to the input of these stakeholders and hearing what they love about Carlsbad Village:
AMAZING PEOPLE, FRESH IDEAS.
By nurturing people and their creativity, Carlsbad Village creates an environment for businesses and residents to grow and thrive, whether they're newcomers or local legends.
LOCAL TALENT, LOCAL FLAVORS.
The Village celebrates local history and those who are making it, from musicians and artists to farmers and foodies.
A PLACE TO CONNECT.
The Village cultivates community in the places people live and love — the street corners and coffee shops, the parks and seawalls, the places where life happens.
This vision will continue to evolve, but it gives us a framework for prioritizing and implementing projects that will help realize that vision. It also gives us a framework for marketing opportunities that celebrate what's already here, like the "We [Heart] Carlsbad Village" email and social media marketing we put together for Valentine's Day. More of this will follow as we work to implement this vision and sustain it over the long term.
Implementing the vision in the future
It takes a lot of work and resources to run a successful downtown. It's a microcosm of a city, a community in itself, and it needs an advocate that has its best interest in mind.
While we're working on broader policies and projects such as those that will bring new revisions to the Village Master Plan, or allow restaurants to create "curb cafes," or create a much-needed parking way-finding sign system, there are endless tasks that must be completed to market and build a strong downtown. On a daily basis, for example, our tasks have included working with city staff to ensure the Village will be minimally affected by street repaving; coordinating with businesses to plan events; facilitating a Carlsbad Village Association Board meeting or working group meeting; updating the Village's website and social media; taking photos of businesses opening soon; designing graphics and marketing material for the next e-mail newsletter or campaign; determining locations for future bike racks; coordinating musicians to play on the sidewalks; writing grants to leverage more money for the Village; and running up on the roofs on State Street to reset the electrical wiring for the tree lights!
Most downtowns throughout the country have a dedicated organization that is solely responsible for the vitality of the downtown and act as an advocate for it. These downtown organizations, such as Civic San Diego (formerly Centre City Development Corporation), Downtown Denver Partnership, or Nashville Downtown Partnership, are staff-led as opposed to committee-led, are focused on product rather than process, are comfortable with risk and taking stances on issues and are motivated to implement change to improve their downtowns.
Our ultimate goal here in Carlsbad Village is to create a public-private partnership organization, just like all successful downtowns have, that has a variety of funding sources and that has the dedicated leadership to implement the Village's vision going forward.
Visit our website at www.carlsbad-village.com, where you can sign up for our email newsletter and like Carlsbad Village on Facebook to make sure you're up-to-date with the latest in downtown news!
Westman can be reached at [email protected].
Since April 2012, we've had more than 25 community meetings and hundreds of individual meetings with Village residents, business owners, property owners, and city staff. A three-part vision has evolved organically from listening to the input of these stakeholders and hearing what they love about Carlsbad Village:
AMAZING PEOPLE, FRESH IDEAS.
By nurturing people and their creativity, Carlsbad Village creates an environment for businesses and residents to grow and thrive, whether they're newcomers or local legends.
LOCAL TALENT, LOCAL FLAVORS.
The Village celebrates local history and those who are making it, from musicians and artists to farmers and foodies.
A PLACE TO CONNECT.
The Village cultivates community in the places people live and love — the street corners and coffee shops, the parks and seawalls, the places where life happens.
This vision will continue to evolve, but it gives us a framework for prioritizing and implementing projects that will help realize that vision. It also gives us a framework for marketing opportunities that celebrate what's already here, like the "We [Heart] Carlsbad Village" email and social media marketing we put together for Valentine's Day. More of this will follow as we work to implement this vision and sustain it over the long term.
Implementing the vision in the future
It takes a lot of work and resources to run a successful downtown. It's a microcosm of a city, a community in itself, and it needs an advocate that has its best interest in mind.
While we're working on broader policies and projects such as those that will bring new revisions to the Village Master Plan, or allow restaurants to create "curb cafes," or create a much-needed parking way-finding sign system, there are endless tasks that must be completed to market and build a strong downtown. On a daily basis, for example, our tasks have included working with city staff to ensure the Village will be minimally affected by street repaving; coordinating with businesses to plan events; facilitating a Carlsbad Village Association Board meeting or working group meeting; updating the Village's website and social media; taking photos of businesses opening soon; designing graphics and marketing material for the next e-mail newsletter or campaign; determining locations for future bike racks; coordinating musicians to play on the sidewalks; writing grants to leverage more money for the Village; and running up on the roofs on State Street to reset the electrical wiring for the tree lights!
Most downtowns throughout the country have a dedicated organization that is solely responsible for the vitality of the downtown and act as an advocate for it. These downtown organizations, such as Civic San Diego (formerly Centre City Development Corporation), Downtown Denver Partnership, or Nashville Downtown Partnership, are staff-led as opposed to committee-led, are focused on product rather than process, are comfortable with risk and taking stances on issues and are motivated to implement change to improve their downtowns.
Our ultimate goal here in Carlsbad Village is to create a public-private partnership organization, just like all successful downtowns have, that has a variety of funding sources and that has the dedicated leadership to implement the Village's vision going forward.
Visit our website at www.carlsbad-village.com, where you can sign up for our email newsletter and like Carlsbad Village on Facebook to make sure you're up-to-date with the latest in downtown news!
Westman can be reached at [email protected].