« Solani Silver | Main | Very Special Pipe Special »
More of Mid-Second...
A while back I wrote about the neighborhood of which I am a part of called Mid-Second, and a while after that I wrote about it again. I won't bother you with those details again, so you can follow the links to read those entries. Well, I'm going to write about it some more. It may seem to many of you that a retail shop with a blog as its website should focus on its own business and the inventory it stocks and specials it has, and I do, but one of the objectives of this site is also to keep people updated on what's going on downtown. Memphis Tobacco Bowl is very much a part of downtown. In fact, I think the Tobacco Bowl, in its 56th year here, is part of the heart and soul of the area, it is downtown's personality. We see a lot of tourists, journalists and business travelers here and have become a kind of clearinghouse of information for these people who want to know where to shop, where to eat and the history of the downtown area. With the addition of Memphis Coffee Exchange, our own in-house coffee & espresso bar, and the Wi-Fi connection, we've also becoming a place for these out-of-towners to rest and reach out to their friends and family back home.
Many of the tourists are drawn to the Tobacco Bowl for the unique architecture of the building we're in and for the old-world feel that permeates the shop. This look and feel is unique to downtown and to Mid-Second, in particular, I feel. Madison Avenue was once called Banker's Row due to the number of banks that could be found between Front and Third, and many of these old buildings, thankfully, are being rehabed into new uses. Anyone wishing to locate their business within Mid-Second would do well to market towards these visitors who want a taste of what we've always known - that Memphis is replete with history, from cotton, to the Civil War, to the Blues and Rock-n-Roll.
The idea of naming neighborhoods is good on many sides, but for the small businessman, it is especially usefull in marketing, networking and in helping people with money find places to spend it. When the idea for The Exchange District (again, see the entry 'Mid-Second Redux' for more on this) was born, its objectives were those listed above. Those of us involved saw the success South Main was having with marketing themselves as a unique area of downtown and saw the tenaciousness with which Mike Todd was doing the same thing with The Edge, and we were impressed. As the businessess and residents in any area come together, however, they need the assistance of quasi-governmental entities such as the Center City Commission to help get the name out there and to give the organization some validity. As a small business owner, I am eager to give my input as well as listening to any suggestions from the CCC.
LG at the CCC has told me that "The document which refers to your neighborhood as "MidSecond" was created by our development team to show potential developers and investors possible development sites and opportunities, and to give them an idea of recent investments, zoning and appropriate uses. This is still a draft. We've completed drafts for a couple of other study areas in downtown but still have a couple more to go. Once complete, our intent is to host an event for the businesses and property owners in each neighborhood to share with them the draft documents and to get their input." This is all good news (especially regarding the name) and I hope that the final document will be available soon and that the denizens of Mid-Second can meet as soon as possible as we all have ideas for our area. I would hope, too, that maybe we can work with them on things such as literature highlighting the area, organizing those that inhabit the area and possibly something down the road such as block parties or some such fun.
To be honest, the CCC gets a bad rap from a lot of business owners in the area, and I hope that that will be resolved with all of this and that we can learn to lean on each other and learn from each other because we obviously all care and are committed to downtown and would like to see our own piece of the pie flourish.
Posted by Richard Alley at August 25, 2005 04:43 PM
Comments
Post a comment
Thanks for signing in, . Now you can comment. (sign out)
(If you haven't left a comment here before, you may need to be approved by the site owner before your comment will appear. Until then, it won't appear on the entry. Thanks for waiting.)