Farmers market<\/strong><\/p>\nThe big news to come out of the meeting was the plan to move La Mesa\u2019s farmers market from its current location, at the foot of Date Avenue across from the police station, to La Mesa Boulevard, between Fourth and Palm avenues.<\/p>\n
While the move will allow for more booths, the decision to relocate was based mostly on improving traffic in the Village.<\/p>\n
\u201cFoot traffic is the lifeblood that is keeping this village alive,\u201d said LMVA secretary and owner of Fourpenny House, Peter Soutowood. \u201cAs it grows, it\u2019s better for all the businesses.\u201d<\/p>\n
The lack of foot traffic in the current location has been difficult for retailers and visitors alike, Dean said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a good market of people, but it doesn\u2019t do much for the retailers around here,\u201d he said. \u201cReally great farmers markets, they become a thing to do \u2014 you take your kids, go get some crepes, go into a retail store, you go get some dinner \u2014 you\u2019re walking the community. So we have a motivation to bring it right onto La Mesa Boulevard.\u201d<\/p>\n
The farmers market will still be held on Fridays between 2 and 7 p.m. and the target set for the move to La Mesa Boulevard is April.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe decided it was important to put something on the calendar as a goal to reach for,\u201d Dean said. \u201cIt may not happen until May or June, but our goal is to shoot for April 20.\u201d<\/p>\n
Car shows<\/strong><\/p>\nAnother big piece of news to come out of the open house was that LMVA is considering changing or cancelling all or some of the classic car shows that are traditionally held weekly during the summer, although no decision has been made and the car shows will be back this year.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s a lot of views on the car show and whether it\u2019s beneficial to the retailers and the community,\u201d Dean said. \u201cThe feedback has been when we talk [with the] 19 of us who are the ongoing members, that it hasn\u2019t been beneficial and it has actually hurt a lot of the businesses.\u201d<\/p>\n
The reason local commerce has been affected by the car shows is because attendees bring coolers with their own food and beverages and take parking from potential customers.<\/p>\n
Instead of cancelling the car shows, however, some ideas were brought forth to change them, such as limiting them to once a month, closing the street during the event and adding more family-friendly activities.<\/p>\n
Dean also suggested finding those who have a passion for the car show to take over its planning in a subcommittee.<\/p>\n
Flag Parade<\/strong><\/p>\nMaking changes to the annual Flag Day Parade was also discussed.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe parade is unbelievably long and people love it, but after the parade is over, it becomes a ghost town down here, so we\u2019ve talked about keeping the street closed and having additional activities that day to keep families engaged and down here in La Mesa,\u201d Dean said. \u201cYou have so many families. It was great to see the amount of kids and families that were down here for it, I just wish they would have stayed.\u201d<\/p>\n
LMVA plans on forming a subcommittee to look at ways to improve the activities for Flag Day, including possible blow-up slides and arts and crafts, and one woman suggested a scavenger hunt, which would bring families into the shops on the boulevard.<\/p>\n
oktoberfest<\/strong><\/p>\nOne event that will largely remain the same as last year is Oktoberfest.<\/p>\n
\u201cOctoberfest was a big success from the association\u2019s standpoint,\u201d Dean said.<\/p>\n
Unlike Oktoberfests in the past, which were put on by previous business associations, last year\u2019s Oktoberfest had all the city fees paid in advance and even turned a $9,800 return for LMVA.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe were ecstatic about that,\u201d exclaimed LMVA vice chair and owner of Amethyst Moon, Theresa Favro.<\/p>\n
The extra funds for LMVA wasn\u2019t the only benefit for Favro.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn my 27 years, we had the best Christmas I ever had this year,\u201d she said. \u201cI think it was a lot of people coming back from Oktoberfest, because that was so successful. I kept hearing over and over, \u2018Wow, La Mesa\u2019s really great! I came for Oktoberfest and I never came here before.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
In addition to the retailers on La Mesa Boulevard, craft vendors at Oktoberfest also reported doing well.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe vendors we\u2019ve re-contacted so far are all looking to come back, so that\u2019s a really good sign,\u201d Dean said.<\/p>\n
Also back next year will be McFarlane Promotions, who planned and promoted last year\u2019s Oktoberfest, ensuring the event will remain mostly the same, including the same footprint and activities; however, there may be some improvements in 2018.<\/p>\n
\u201cSome exciting things this coming year is Budweiser working on getting us a true German emcee for part of the event,\u201d Dean said. \u201cWe are looking at expanding the VIP experience. The ferris wheel will be back; more lighting and more signage.\u201d<\/p>\n
The only thing that won\u2019t be back are the DJs playing music outside the beer garden between bands.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe music was deafening, to the point of some businesses calling and complaining to me and then calling the police,\u201d said La Mesa vice mayor Kristine Alessio.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe agree the DJ thing is gone,\u201d Dean added. \u201c[Last year] they had a hard time booking a lot of the German bands just because we were so short on time. This year, we\u2019ve already secured 50 percent of the music already.\u201d<\/p>\n
Vacaciones en el pueblo<\/strong><\/p>\nThere will be some scheduling changes to this year\u2019s Holiday in the Village.<\/p>\n
Dean said that last year\u2019s event was a success, especially on the Saturday night. This year, Holiday in the Village will be held on Friday and Saturday instead of Saturday and Sunday, to offer two evenings for the event.<\/p>\n
Boulevard Stroll<\/strong><\/p>\nLMVA will put on four Boulevard Stroll events this year and each of them will either coincide with other events in the Village or have special themes of their own.<\/p>\n
Boulevard Strolls are evenings where Village businesses stay open late, offer specials or have activities to keep people shopping and walking around later than usual. Examples of past Strolls include a luau-themed event, as well as a holiday event that was paired with \u201cShimmer,\u201d the city\u2019s tree lighting ceremony.<\/p>\n
New events, new members<\/strong><\/p>\nLMVA also discussed the possibility of new events.<\/p>\n
Favro suggested an antique show and an art\/wine walk. Another man attending the meeting suggested a \u201cTaste of the Village\u201d event, to showcase the soon-to-be 12 restaurants on La Mesa Boulevard.<\/p>\n
Dean said while all ideas are welcome, he also brought up that LMVA membership would need to increase and the board would need to be filled. There are currently five open positions on the LMVA board; one treasurer and four board members are needed. He pitched LMVA\u2019s ability to influence the city as one benefit undecided business owners should consider with regard to joining.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re actually a fairly powerful group when you look at the whole,\u201d he said. \u201cWhen we have a majority of businesses as part of our organization, if we need to go into the city and we need to deal with things, or there are community issues, we\u2019re very strong together and we can make things happen.\u201d<\/p>\n
- Comun\u00edquese con Jeff Clemetson en jeff@sdcnn.com<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Por Jeff Clemetson | Editor<\/p>","protected":false},"author":778,"featured_media":224895,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"11548","_seopress_titles_title":"La Mesa Village Association hosts open house","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[11548,11551,11550],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-224894","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-la-mesa-courier","category-news","category-top-stories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/224894","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/778"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=224894"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/224894\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/224895"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=224894"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=224894"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=224894"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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