The Daily Citizen, Dalton, GA

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June 30, 2010

Downtown needs a plan

The Daily Citizen

It is time for downtown leadership to step up to the task at hand.

We see a tremendous effort being put forward to market events to draw crowds to downtown Dalton.

The idea is sound in theory, to show people what they are missing and get them to want to come back for more, but it is missing a key component: density and diversity of businesses.

Downtown has a nice mix of retail shops with good owners and great products, but there is not near enough stuff to draw the masses day in and day out. We need more. Would you visit a mall if it had just the level of retail we have downtown?

Any objective person would say no.

We need downtown leadership to develop a recruitment plan for downtown that would be spearheaded by the Downtown Dalton Development Authority and include Archway and its partnership with the University System of Georgia.

This plan also needs to be one that includes working with the city and the Joint Development Authority. It needs to be a plan that incorporates the downtown real estate owners and lobbies them to assist in creating an environment that encourages existing, successful businesses to invest time, money and hard work into the downtown concept.

This plan should identify current successful businesses that would not just add to downtown, but enhance its atmosphere. Once that list is compiled, the DDDA board needs to approach these businesses and sell them on why they should move or open an additional location in downtown Dalton.

The board should come with a package of potential benefits that ease the transition. It should cultivate partners, like the newspaper, to see if they will help enhance that package. We can safely say we would if the overall plan is solid.

We have to stop waiting for business to grow and for things to just happen and make downtown a shopping and dining destination.

Marketing will come much easier when new depth and breadth of retail capacity is achieved.

If you are waiting on long-term ideas like a Dalton State College expansion or a new park to develop, you may not be there to reap those rewards.

A poet once wrote, “On the plains of hesitation bleach the bones of countless millions who at the dawn of victory sat down and waited and while waiting died.”

This is the time to show business owners out there that the community of downtown Dalton retail is a progressive, growing community and is one where you will have the best chance at succeeding and not just surviving.

You will know you have made it when people say, “Let’s just go downtown and decide when we get there what to eat or do. I cannot make up my mind right now.” 

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