Well, What's The Plan Then?

People are raging about the Downtown Survey that's circulating out there- personally, I filled it out and didn't have that big of a problem with it (I'll get to that soon)- after all, we need to do something to push back the Condo Cartel and I think there are things we can do involving yes, real live retail chains that will maintain Iowa City's distinct identity without embracing crass capitalism the way Coralville does.

But then I saw this:

Caroline Dieterle told the council she found the survey -- part of a consultant's $50,000 study analyzing downtown Iowa City's economic potential with the intention of drawing new retailers -- "offensive" and "useless."

The survey uses the names of national retailers when asking participants what types of new retail and restaurant options they would like to see downtown. Dieterle took exception to the notion of targeting national retailers, as have others since the survey began circulating.

"I truly do not believe you will add to the distinctiveness of Iowa City by inviting chain stores to come here," Dieterle said.

Consultant John Millar has said those national chains merely serve as easily recognizable examples, and their inclusion is not an indication of the specific businesses that will be courted for downtown.

The cost of the online survey component of the study is $15,000, Millar said.

OK, so what's the plan then? Von Maur is about to roll on out to Coralville, which means one less place to shop here in Iowa City. I mean, if we're good being Coralville's bitch, then fine. But I don't think we should settle for that and there is a local/retail hybrid model out there that would work well for Iowa City and has before in the past. Remember Bushnell's Turtle? Barbara's Bakery? Great Midwestern? All locally owned small businesses DOWNTOWN that are now gone. Remember Sam Goody, County Seat, Campus III Theaters? All chains- evil, eeeeeeeevil chains apparently that served Iowa City quite well- DOWNTOWN- that are now gone.

I don't want to be Coralville. It's useless to try- but Iowa City has advantages that Coralville doesn't that it is, as usual, pissing away. People don't want to truck out to Coralville to buy the basic shit they need to get through life. It's a pain in the ass and it's 20 minutes away. People want to shop here- and they don't necessarily want to shop in a huge-ass superstore to do it- and they don't want to pay for parking while they do it either.

Hmmm: free parking + stores people want to shop at = less people driving to Coralville. How is this not perfectly obvious to people?

I get that people don't want to be Coralville- neither do I. But the shiny steel and glass, let's pretend to be an upscale, gentrified, lilly white big city when we're SO not thing is not working either. So, Comrades: what then, I ask, is the plan? Instead of bitching (which is what people in this town are very good at) make productive suggestions.

All of this shouldn't be taken to mean that I'm an awesome fan of this survey. It was long and a pain in the ass to fill out- and then I discovered this interesting tidbit from the Little Village website. Apparently the 'consultant' they hired looks to be completely useless- and so we dropped gobs of money on guy who has developed nothing much of anything at all.

I find this frustrating because to me, at the end of the day, you need to give the masses a reason to go downtown and shop there. They currently have precisely no reason to do that and in this economy, I try to support local business when and where I can, but cost and convinience usually win out. As they do for everyone- protecting Iowa City's local identity is important, I agree, but size 0 jeans that cost $75 aren't serving me or a lot of other people all that well.

Something needs to be done.