By many accounts, inaugural event a hit for residents, merchants
Published in the December 11-25 issue of Morgan Hill Life
By Marty Cheek
Morgan Hill resident Pamela Stevens sits on Santa’s lap during the downtown Street Scenes Nov. 30 in front of the MH Tavern. Deeanna Haygood, the Tavern owner, takes photos.
Sitting on a throne-like chair on the curbside parking area in front of downtown Morgan Hill’s M&H Tavern, Santa Claus in his famous red suit relaxed while his picture was taken with youngsters and grown-ups lining up for a photo-op. Across Monterey Road in the parking space in front of the Good Fork restaurant, four U-Jam fitness dancers stepped lively to the hard beat of a hip-hop song, entertaining pedestrians and vehicle passengers with their synchronized gyrations. On the asphalt in front of Tryst clothing store, young children sat at school desks and scribbled letters destined for a North Pole mailbox to tell Kris Kringle what they want for Christmas.
These slices of Americana were all part of a pilot program in which downtown Morgan Hill parking spaces along a one block area between Second and Third streets were transformed into festive interactive settings Saturday Nov. 30. The innovative one-day “street scenes” program, created to attract patrons to local shops on Small Business Saturday, is considered by members of the Morgan Hill Downtown Association, the Tourism Alliance, and the city of Morgan Hill that organized it to be the first of its kind in America. If the inaugural event proves successful, more street scenes days will be brought to the downtown district next year. It might also initiate the creation of permanent “parklet” opportunities where patrons can eat in enclosed outdoor areas in the parking spaces in front of downtown restaurants.
Jeff Burrus, owner of the Morgan Hill Wine and Cigar Shop in his ‘street scene.’
The street scenes program was initiated at part of Morgan Hill’s Tourism Alliance program, said Edith Ramirez, economic development manager with the city of Morgan Hill. A subcommittee of the alliance was formed last spring to create activities to promote visitor traffic to downtown Morgan Hill, she said, and one idea that sprang up was the “street scenes” project.
“This was the way the committee decided to try to convert downtown parking spaces into fun, lively scenes and bring activities to downtown,” Ramirez said. “The response that we got from the businesses was fantastic with more applications (submitted) than we thought we were going to get. The amount of effort that people have really gone into to activate these parking places is really tremendous.”
For Teresa Glover, a bartender at the M&A Tavern who helped organize that business’s Santa Claus-themed street scene, the project provided a fun and friendly way to attract local residents away from out-of-town malls and discover that Morgan Hill’s downtown can serve as a resource for their holiday shopping.
“I think it’s a great start,” Glover said. “Next year, you’re going to see more businesses get involved because now they see what it’s all about. We really had no clue. We just winged it. It just all came together well.”
Taking a break from her U-Jam dance-exercise workout, Morgan Hill resident Rosie Rinaldo said the street scenes pilot program helped to generate awareness among local residents that the city’s downtown is alive with exciting opportunities for fun holiday activities.
One recommendation Rinaldo suggested to improve possible future street scenes events is to close off two lanes on Monterey Road so that traffic going through the downtown only had one lane going each way. This would improve pedestrian safety and slow cars down so passengers and drivers could better experience the street scenes as they passed.
Pamala Meador creates an image of downtown restaurant’s during the street scenes event.
“I think it’s great to get people out and about, especially during the fall season when they don’t necessarily want to come out of their houses,” Rinaldo said. “Look at the attention that it brings just by the people driving by. People are cheering us, they see us dancing and they’re cheering us.”
A street scene in the parking space in front of Just G’s Boutique featured local artists making pictures of the people and buildings of downtown Morgan Hill. Easels held painting and drawing supplies so that passersby could also get into the act of creating spontaneous works of art.
Pamala Meador, a member of the Library, Culture and Arts Commission, was using soft pastel on paper to portray three restaurants across the street. “It’s a wonderful experiment,” she said “I think it’s going to do a lot for downtown over the long run. I don’t expect anyone’s business to triple just because we’re down here. But I do believe that people who drive by are going to see restaurants like Rosy’s at the Beach and the Good Fork and also that the Granada (Theater) is re-opening.”
Walking his dog Niki to check out the street scenes, former Morgan Hill mayor Dennis Kennedy said he was impressed by the efforts of the various businesses that participated in the project. “This is what downtowns are all about … a very comfortable place for people to come down and relax and just socialize and get together and have a really nice time,” he said.
One downtown restaurant owner Kennedy talked with was so impressed by the idea of people and not cars filling curb-side parking spaces that the businessman would like to have a permanent parklet in front of his eatery for his patrons to enjoy outside dining.
Developing Morgan Hill’s downtown as an environment that focuses on pedestrian traffic more than vehicle flow will help the downtown merchants build their businesses and add value to the local economy, Kennedy said.
“The downtown should be a destination, not just a thoroughfare for traffic to go through,” he said. “Now that we’ve built Butterfield Boulevard, we see more of the through traffic going down Butterfield so we see that drivers are learning that they don’t need to go through downtown to get to the other side of town.”
