RE: Aug 14 Opinion page piece “In our view: Arena will bring ‘em in; will downtown be ready?
After reading the opinion piece in the Herald August 14, I felt it important to comment on the importance of downtown’s preparedness for the arena opening and to share the ways downtown and the waterfront are preparing for the opening of the Events Center.
The work of building a city, of preparing for an event such as the arena opening, is much like preparing for a climb on Mt. Everest: a slow, tedious and arduous task. (My husband’s friend Brent Bishop climbs Mt. Everest on a regular basis, so I understand a little bit about the process.) Unlike the climb, however, the work in the city is never ending, with a continuous “summit” not a single one, made up of many events, such as the opening of the new arena, followed soon by the County Campus redevelopment project, and others, often carried out by different groups, sometimes working together, sometimes not.
The fact that this work is an ongoing effort where results are sometimes incremental, sometimes slow and hard to see, presents one of the greatest challenges to our revitalization efforts, especially in a fast paced society that seeks and demands instantaneous gratification. It is easier to get a group to mobilize around an event as important, exciting and nationally recognized as the USS Abraham Lincoln homecoming, far more difficult to sustain a level of interest necessary to carry out the often mundane, day after day tasks of keeping a city vital and alive. While the actual arena opening is extremely important, a sustained effort, with good first impressions happening for many on an ongoing basis as new groups arrive for a wide variety of events, will be vital for the arena’s ongoing success, and for downtown.
Until now, Everett has not had a cohesive force of downtown businesses that is reflective of our entire downtown, through which to leverage or prepare for opportunities such as the opening of the new arena. Because we do not have a true, cohesive force of downtown businesses, even preparing for the historic homecoming was challenging. We lacked an efficient way to communicate with the downtown businesses, to help them prepare for this event, and, to become more involved than they were.
Thankfully, for the homecoming, and many other events, a small group of downtown stakeholders mobilized to take action on a totally volunteer basis, as was the case when a volunteer group successfully lobbied to keep the county campus project downtown. But these volunteer efforts lack sustainability and therefore over time cannot offer the level of support necessary to meet the demands of our dramatically changing city, which is nearing 100,000 people and projected to grow by 40,000 or more. This is why I launched Upside Downtown.
Upside Downtown, a downtown marketing alliance, was designed specifically to assist downtown businesses and the various stakeholders (such as our DEA, DEAC, and the city) to rally behind projects such as the new arena, and to augment the work that many organizations have started, so that we can carry the momentum of our revitalization efforts forward, into the future. By working together, we can sustain these efforts and overcome the challenges that will present themselves far into the future.<BR>
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On August 22nd at 8:30 a.m. the first public meeting of Upside Downtown will be held at Lombardi’s Restaurant. Kim Bedier, the general manager of the Event Center, will discuss ideas to help businesses prepare for its opening. Daryl Bertholet, from the City of Everett Mayor’s office, will speak to supporting downtown businesses. Upside Downtown is working with the downtown businesses to help them prepare for the arena opening, and much of this work is documented on our website. I believe downtown will be ready for Everett’s new game and the many opportunities that will follow.

To learn more about Upside Downtown please peruse our website or better yet, please attend our meeting on the 22nd.

Welcome to the first day of August. I must admit that it's always hard for me to concentrate on work (or anything for that matter) during the first part of August. That's because it's the time of year when the Blue Angels rock the sky, and, being a huge aviation fan I find myself looking up to the sky longing for a ride. I've come close to the thrill, getting rides in a Christian Eagle bi-plane, a Stearman, a Pitts Special, and a P-51 Mustang over the Mohave Desert (after a trip to the Reno Air Races) where the pilot simulated pilon turns at 300 miles per hour and also performed every aerobatic maneuver on the list, to my delight. My first office was located, conveniently, at Boeing Field in Seattle, and the day I moved in was also the day the Blue Angels were practicing for their show that coming weekend. My favorite site was seeing number 5 drop to the side, flying so low it appeared as though the wing were scraping the runway. Needless to say, I did not get a lot accomplished as far as hauling boxes up stairs that day, was concerned. The closest I've come to the Blue Angels is knowing a team member, an old boyfriend of mine from highschool was on the team for a few years, but you've got to be a recognized media star to get a ride in one of those F-18's.