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Show ‘Flee Marketing Problems for Main Street Merchants May Be Beyond an Ad Campaign add, | predicted more than two years ago when a certain international quadrennial sporting event became an issue and rents skyrocketed. Besides the obvious competition from business growth in - Synderville Basin and Prospector Square, Main Street has seen increased competition for employees along with rising wages, By David Rosenbloom rents disproportionate to any financial index _ except illegal drugs, a few hundred dollars. The idea is to raise he latest plan from the Historic Main and a brilliant move between $250,000 and $500,000 that Street Merchants Association is to add to add businesses to would then be used for a yet-to-be-devised a “tax” of sorts to business licenses, which lower Main without advertising program aimed at getting more would increase the price of licenses about concommitantly people to Main Street. five- to six-fold from their current level: Main Street competition grows daily adding parking. You see, Main Street merchants are in Some businesses could see themselves payIn case anyone has ing a couple of thousand dollars instead of _ serious trouble—d situation that, | might has increased, not because the average forgotten the council’s argument enact a retail shop is doing better. If you doubt this parking garage, let me paraphrase it this conclusion, let me invite you to walk up and way: The council could not justify using citydown Main Street with a large legal pad and wide collected tax dollars for a garage that write down the phone numbers of all the would benefit only Main Street merchants. leasing agents vainly attempting to rent Now the same council is looking for ways to more than 100,000 square feet of available “help” the Main Street association in any vacant space. _ way they can—that is, as long as the money I’m as far from a rocket scientist as they comes from the merchants themselves. come, but it seems to me that if Main Street There is an argument to be made regarding were doing so well, you’d see businesses the fact that Main Street “represents” Park moving in, not out. And that’s saying nothCity to a significant degree, and that it may ing of the lawsuit filed by lower Main Street in fact deserve special consideration for merchants against their developer concernmore tax monies, but that is a subject coming the “overselling” of how lucrative that plex enough for its own column. portion of Main would become. In fact, a The city.has bandied about sales tax figrecent Salt Lake Tribune article deemed _ ures to show that indeed the numbers reflect lower Main Street “Utah's newest little TheatreFest '99. continues in August & September. | good health, forcing one to wonder whether _ ghost town.” ales re ae Boys a San anyone up there, with all due respect, can Main Street is used in every single piece competently use a calculator. You see, sales * of literature that the Chamber Bureau ~ tox figures are up only because more expenemploys for advertising, so it’s not exactly sive items are being sold, restaurant prices The EGYPT TAN THEATRE _ PRESENTS: ‘COMPANY have risen, and the number of businesses - aie 12september 11 | SILVER STAR sage be? Perhaps something like “Come back to Main Street, where it is impossible to park your car and even harder to find an Special Sunday Featuring songs from WEST SIDE STORY, GYPSY, A FUNNY THING HAPPENED ON THE WAY TO THE -. » . FORUM, COMPANY, FOLLIES, A ate NIGHT MUSIC and more! STARRING: Jim Christian Victoria Mallory Andrée Petersen Steve Phillips me a specious argument to say that perhaps all.the new people who have moved here don’t know about it. So the question _ that rears its head is, who would we be advertising to, and what would our mes- Wed. — Sat. Curtain 7:30pm Matinee August 29, | 2:00pm | what you'd call undiscovered. It seems to - affordable restaurant.” Sure, there are a lot of people who have HARDWARE VARIETY & COFFEE worked very hard on this matter, so it’s a BAR FORGED IRON ¥X GIFTS HOUSEWARES Baa a Bx COFFEE Sa yN eae yy) E. 3300. So. 487-1 i iiiese ee cheap shot to simply mock their effort. But my point is a rather simple one: If we have arrived at the point when we have to advertise the very essence of our city—the Main Street that has so dominated our mental image of Park City—we probably have a bigger problem than most are willing to admit. And that problem, good intentions or not, will not be solved by advertising. Mus sic and oe = F annlll i { a UII 3/6661 ‘Z YadWaldas|9 "CHOREOGRAPHY, MUSICAL DIRECTOR AND DIRECTOR: _. VictoriaSay 2 by. Seepben, Gorshali. . — rao rae ” RECEIVE Information and reservations call: 135- 549. 037 os rer r ee nd i ae :a a ERSIDEsE ANG ERY SERVICE ee a 20% OFF WHEN YOU MENTION YOU SAW THIS AD IN THE MIN TIMES/ CITY WEEKLY G. Steiner Egyptian Theatre Company, 328 Main Street, Park City Egyptian Theatre Company... zac Evening in aided a a. at For all your delivery needs in Park City and along the Wasatch Front, call: 435-647-0563 / 435-901-2277 |