July 30, 2004

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Publication Date: Friday, July 30, 2004

Boosting downtown

If it's the first Wednesday of a warm weather month, there's sure to be another community-wide street party in downtown Pleasanton.

These popular festive community get-togethers are held every first Wednesday starting in May and, this year, ending in September. Next week's party, which will feature the annual Pooch parade, will pit neighbors' dogs against other neighbors' dogs for the best dressed and other top prizes. The parade will start at 6 p.m., with registration for the prize competition required an hour earlier at Lions Wayside Park at Neal and First Streets. Registration costs $5 for each dog.

With more than 7,000 expected at next Wednesday's street party, these summer season events are in their seventh consecutive year and now outdraw any other downtown event. Unlike regionally focused art, wine and street fair events in other Bay Area cities, Pleasanton's is focused on downtown businesses and city residents. Although many come from Dublin and Livermore to enjoy the party, it's primarily a Pleasanton event for families, neighbors and local merchants.

The First Wednesday street party was the brainchild of Craig Scharton. When he started his job in September 1997 as the Pleasanton Downtown Association's first full-time executive director, he faced an angry ("white hot" as he recalled) delegation of merchants who asked him to cancel the PDA's Pasta and Jazz Festival that had ended the week before.

"This was clearly an event that offered neither pasta nor jazz and was absolutely hated by most of the merchants," he said. "I agreed and thought that it was all wrong for Pleasanton, with out-of-town vendors selling cheap stuff on Main Street and blocking the way for customers to reach downtown retailers and restaurants."

In one of his first actions, Scharton convinced the PDA board of directors to send the Pasta Festival packing, and set about meeting with business owners to talk about something better.

"They said they wanted no more events, but I argued that an event that would promote their businesses, not compete with them, could help everyone," he added.

In developing the street party format, Scharton learned that Main Street merchants did not want an event that shut down the street on the weekends, and restaurants were already overbooked on Thursday and Friday nights.

"Wednesdays were perfect," Scharton argued, "because an event that evening would bring business downtown, including restaurant business on what had been a generally slow night. They agreed and, ever since, the restaurants are filled on First Wednesdays."

Scharton launched the first of three late summer street parties the following August in 1998, and they've been growing and booming ever since, becoming the single most important and appreciated event that serves both downtown businesses and the community as a whole. This year, the First Wednesday event in May, when attendance is generally less than in later months, set a record with more than 10,000 dancing and partying to the Cinco de Mayo theme. In June and July, although attendance was short of the 10,000 mark, both parties set new records.

"First Wednesdays provide a great opportunity for people to come downtown and to truly be a community that takes pride in Pleasanton," said Jamie Dowell of Studio 7, which always has a show booth at the event. "It's a great way for people to come downtown and see the exciting things happening here, and it also gives us and other merchants a chance to show off our latest wares. In fact, since our studio is not located directly on Main Street, we can remind customers where we are and we often find them coming into the store after these events."

Scharton, who was active in downtown development plans, quit the PDA after the First Wednesday events of 2000 to take over Main Street Hanford in the Central Valley, and to be closer to his teenage son who was living with his mother in Fresno. Last February, Scharton, now 42, was hired by a Fresno nonprofit to direct its project of restoring nine large historical homes in Fresno as part of that city's urban renewal.

Although PDA management went through some changes over the next year or so, the First Wednesdays continued to grow under the interim directorship of Frances Hewitt. While the PDA board recruited a new director, Hewitt, who did not want the full-time job, added themes to the street parties, with Cinco de Mayo in May and, what has become a favorite, the Pooch Parade. Her Labrador, named Royal King Don "Bosco" Hewitt after, no doubt, her husband Don, is also the PDA's senior office mascot. Next Wednesday, Bosco will again serve as the parade's grand marshal.

Two years ago, Pamela Stoddard (now Ott), Scharton's assistant in Hanford, applied for the vacant PDA executive director's job at Scharton's urging, and was hired by the PDA board. Under her leadership, the PDA expanded First Wednesdays, with display booths now lining Main Street from near the Pleasanton Hotel south to Abbie Street and Old Bernal Avenue.

"Each year we have expanded it by a couple of blocks to a point where we are now filled up with nearly 200 exhibitors," Ott said. "There are a lot more food vendors and more business and community participants. It's become really popular with nonprofit organizations that were looking for an opportunity to get out there and communicate with the community and to talk about what they do."

Ott, who was hired as the city of Pleasanton's Economic Development Manager last year, was succeeded by Christine Salidivar, who held similar positions in Bay Area and Northern California locations. Like Ott and Scharton, she has kept booth costs low, charging local business members $50 an event and nonprofits just $25. Non-PDA members and out-of-town vendors pay $85.

"We also review every application to make sure an outside vendor coming in for the street party will not compete directly with one of our downtown members," Salidivar said. "These events were set up as an opportunity for downtown businesses to promote the street."

This year, Salidivar has capped the number of nonprofit booths, both to ensure space for the growing number of local businesses that want to display at the event, and to ensure enough financial return to pay for security, portable toilets and cleanup costs associated with the event. As it is, the event barely breaks even thanks to profits from its beer and wine garden, where the PDA pays for live entertainment.

"I know that there's some concern that nonprofits haven't been able to secure booth space," Salidivar said, "but that's because this event is such a success every time. "Those who put their reservation requests in early generally get a space."

Scharton said that while First Wednesdays have become a huge success in Pleasanton, he was always puzzled by merchants who close their doors at 5 p.m., when the street party is starting, and go home.

"Here's an event designed for local businesses and one that has become a major attraction for strictly local residents," Scharton said. "I fail to understand why a store wouldn't stay open when there's all this foot traffic passing by. That's the lifeblood of a downtown like Pleasanton's and merchants should do everything they can to get these people into their stores."

After August, the last First Wednesday of the year is scheduled for Sept. 8, after schools reopen.

"Appropriately," Salidivar said, "its theme is 'Back to School Blues,' although for many mothers it may be a celebration!"

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