Change is Good

I’ve ranted a lot in these posts about how change is necessary if Old Town is going to survive as a commercial entity when stacked up against the ever-present Marketplace, the new Legacy and the soon to be redeveloped City Center. 

In fact, I’ve gone so far as to suggest that the city’s “lead from behind” strategy for downtown over the past 25 years has been less than successful, and that possibly a new plan of action should be considered if any different results are to be expected.

Well, that advice goes for the inhabitants of Old Town as well. Merchants (myself included) can’t expect to sit back and ask the city to spend money, amend laws or expend energy in the district if there’s no corresponding action by those that stand to benefit from any resulting largess.

By all accounts, the Tustin Old Town Association was ineffective at best in spurring a renaissance for El Camino Real and Main Street. And I say this as the de facto head of the organization for two years (if you can call a group averaging 10% meeting participation an organization).

So, taking my own advice, since past efforts have proven ineffective, TOTA needs to be replaced by something better. 

Secondly, instead of just preaching to the converted in sparsely attended meetings, this new business co-op should distribute a regular newsletter to every commercial entity in Old Town along with the Conservancy and the Historical Society members. The newsletter should accept paid advertising and list each paid merchant member.

Thirdly, member dues should be meaningful. Historically, the miniscule annual association fee was just small enough to accomplish two things – barely pay the group’s annual insurance premium, and guarantee that no one took membership seriously. After all, how much change can you expect for 9 cents a day?  It created the net effect of allowing the organization to tread water.

Increased dues will accomplish the following for members:

• Guarantee participation in at least one co-op advertising purchase each quarter. The more members, the bigger (or more frequent) the ad and/or the bigger the publication. 
• Fund the creation and distribution of the local newsletter mentioned above.
• Give each member business it’s own original web page (or link to an existing one) and a searchable listing on the Merchant site. (in fact, searching Old Town Tustin on Google yields first page results for this site already, including many of these posts. This has been the one bona fide success along with the Flea Market, over the past two years as over 1000 people a week visit www.oldtownobserver.com)
• Give tustinoldtown email addresses to any member that wishes to have one.
• Guarantee at least one home page business profile per year to a local business or group.

Through the resulting advertising campaign, the Association should attempt to forge a singular, new image for downtown. That is, Old Town as the home of the Mom & Pop Restaurant. Nowhere else in Orange County can you find a such a concentration of excellent owner operated, non-chain, restaurants with award winning chefs. 

Everyone has to eat. It should be the mission of the new Association to make sure people in Tustin, Orange, Santa Ana and Irvine always think of Old Town Tustin when they want a good, original meal. 

Funny thing, after people eat, they like to walk around, pick up a latte and shop. The great restaurants will get them here. Everyone in Old Town will benefit. And with a dozen eateries already and one or two restaurants arriving with Prospect Village, getting the message out will be easier now than at any time in Old Town’s past. 

What do you think? 

As always, see you on Main Street.

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