Downtown

By Don Gibson

Just one Idea

Attracting consumers to the downtown area of Redwood City has been an issue facing our community for years. We have invested adequate funds into improving the city's appearance. Now Redwood City needs to pull in more clientele. Consumers will fund taxes and further city maintenance. New businesses will flock to a consumer-rich environment. The first thing needed are the consumers. And it may take some Creative entrepreneur thinking on how to get them downtown.

One idea that I have considered and recommend is to establishing a business for the purpose selling used cars as a community service. The business encourages people to bring their cars for sale to a downtown location along Main St. and Broadway Ave on weekends. Revenue generated (30.00 per car) would be spent on advertising to get consumers downtown. Consumers looking for a used car visit the area on designated ‘sale' days to see several hundred cars. Consumers visiting the area receive a listing of cars and sellers, walk the streets of downtown viewing cars, and patronize the local businesses. Everyday patronage will increase as the community becomes familiar with the local businesses, and a solid consumer base will attract new merchants to the downtown area. The program would stay in existence until consumer traffic was up. The other great things about this idea is it's low cost to start and it is self-funding.

I have seen a similar enterprise bring over 1000 people a day lots and other events.