Elisa - I wanted to put a pub in the waterworks bldg in Centennial with seasonal outdoor seating, but they told me "No" and instead spent several hundred thousand dollars refitting it for the Rec dep't. I guess they needed to be there, but I'm not sure why. I don't know if they rent it or not. A classmate of mine has a very successful restaurant in the Davis street "El" station in Evanston. I had one - 10,000 sq. ft. - in a shopping complex at Fisherman's Wharf in SF. I question whether anyone can make a living with a bar/restaurant in Riverside, given the start-up costs, rents, lack of traffic flow, etc. I'm not talking about buying oneself a job, I mean a really going operation. We'll see if someone steps up for the VC space.
Riverside Info » About Riverside
TIF is Over, Now What?
(20 posts)-
Posted Wednesday May 23, 2007 15:01 #
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OK, great, spatny. I have now sent an email to the head of the LAC (having looked up in the minutes who that is) and will follow up. I am glad to hear there is a landscape architect there; I was sure we must have more than a few in town!
Elisa, I think I heard a resident say at a board meeting that no one has ever done exit interviews with these businesses. I have a couple of former shopowners say, Riverside people don't shop Riverside. But I think it is a matter of the shop meeting the market. If you have what people want, they will come. If that were not true, we wouldn't have any thriving businesses in Riverside.
Posted Wednesday May 23, 2007 15:04 # -
Catherine, the former shop owners are closer to the mark. Riverside food's owner has told me better than 60% of his business come from outside of the town. George Iny who owned the tower card shop before it closed, ( where Riverside bank is now) told me he never got a lot of support from the village residents and that when they did come in they never wanted to pay his list price but intstead wanted to haggle over the cost. Cheryl Colby tells a story of how when she had her antique shop on East Rd she had a lamp at $75 in her store front window for a long time. When she closed up her shop and moved to Forest park on Madison Ave along went the lamp. Which promptly sold for $100. To a Riverside resident!! Some of it has to do with price and the type of store I agree. However I also think alot has to do with the "grass is greener" syndrome. I like the ideas about the landscaping the cbd. It was something Jack Simpson from Pringles flowers was trying to get the village to do for many years.
Posted Wednesday May 23, 2007 16:03 # -
Eric, yes, I heard that story from Cheryl too. I remember the pharmacist at Henningers complaining when he left that not even the trustees would get their prescriptions filled there. (Of course, that too is a function of modern life: most insurance plans make you go to the big concerns.) Some businesses simply did not offer value for money, or did not offer what people wanted.
If people do not want to shop here, then there must really have been no one complaining that they wanted "something to be done about downtown", because there was "nothing to do." This was the stated raison d'etre of the TIF, and no TIF would have changed that attitude. Otherwise, it must be assumed there is a market.
I am SHOCKED to hear that 60% of Riverside Foods business comes from out of town. How could he know that, why do people go there and where do they come from? If 60% are out of towners, that too is a potential market for other businesses.
Since the Village has said they want to fix up the CBD, I am raising the landscape issue with them and other appropriate bodies. I do not see how there could be any objection from the village. If you want pedestrians and shoppers, give them something good to look at.
Posted Wednesday May 23, 2007 17:18 # -
The subject of cbd landscaping prompted me to collect some pictures of 'cbd' facades. I take 'landscaping' to include 'facades', especially in the sense of what one sees/perceives first. Also, the comments made here imply a need to plan and vision how we want Riverside to look and feel like; what kind of town do we all want? This suggests that we as a village need to plan, vision, conceive, think, imagine what we want to get TO. The workshops were a start and not an end; certainly, they were not FIBbing ('Filling In the Blank"). Couple this with the NIU survey and we start to get a better sense of direction.
Since they are html links, I do not know how get them into a in-line images.
http://www.terragalleria.com/pictures-subjects/facades/picture.facades.usca9631.html
even run down structures can look interesting with correct facade / plantings
http://www.terragalleria.com/pictures-subjects/facades/picture.facades.ital7041.htmlthis facade looks like it cd be in riverside's cbd
http://www.terragalleria.com/pictures-subjects/facades/picture.facades.uken35775.htmlamazing what flowers can do for a facade
http://www.terragalleria.com/pictures-subjects/facades/picture.facades.uken35981.htmlhttp://www.terragalleria.com/pictures-subjects/facades/picture.facades.belg10488.html
http://www.terragalleria.com/pictures-subjects/facades/picture.facades.uken35680.html
and, frankly, we need better (more subdued; more charming) lighting in the cbd to be more consistant with the outer cbd;
I bet the cbd lighting was controversial when it was implemented whenever that was decades ago; but it is too electric; the casing of the lamps could have more of a bevel and look gentler and not like bulletproof glass; re-doing lighting is probably a lot more costly than paint, trees, and flowers, but it reminds us that we can vision/plan/dream of what we want to get to FIRST (this is cheap; not only cheap, but necessary;again, THIS charm is the brand distinction of Riverside; it is how we can OUT-COMPETE with the walmarts; we want to do things that FURTHER the CHARM and NOT HARM the CHARM; that'll get people to come here and to stay here and pay to come and stay here;
http://www.terragalleria.com/pictures-subjects/facades/picture.facades.usla4076.htmlpaint helps (see that great looking single story yellow home on the northern part of Longcommon;reminds me of van gogh's 'yellow house'); paint - simple and cheap and could be effective-strong as far as impressions go
http://www.terragalleria.com/pictures-subjects/facades/picture.facades.puri10405.htmllamplighter pub (cd be riverside)
http://www.terragalleria.com/pictures-subjects/facades/picture.facades.cabc10809.htmland ...let's all try to bike some more in riverside; this cd also be a brand distinguisher; want to go to an island of charm that time forgot but do not want to drive10 hours to Mackinaw Island? Come to Riverside for bike ride...etc
http://www.terragalleria.com/pictures-subjects/facades/picture.facades.belg10525.htmlpoor facades can also give poor impressions. See the yucky vertical planking facades over most of the cbd. compare that to riverside bank and riverside plumbing; which have good facades.
Posted Thursday May 24, 2007 12:26 # -
I'm glad people are excited about landscaping the CBD. As we know, the administration has already had to cut back mowing, etc. Perhaps we can show we too do not require government handouts to improve the CBD (even thought the parkways belong to the village.)
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Eric Sundstrom, would you and other members of the Chamber of Commerce be willing to pitch in to acquire plantings for the parkways of the CBD?
I know there are citizens who are willing to donate money and time. These would all of course be approved by Forestry, the LAC and the Board of Trusttes.
Posted Friday May 25, 2007 12:01 # -
I think the adopt a planter in the CBD is a great idea. I would volunteer to do one. It could be a great thing to have my kids help with and learn a little about volunteerism, hard work and plants.
One thing I would mention is that there does not need to be a comprehensive plan. It might turn out more interesting if people were given a list of plants (like Catherine's above), maybe a suggested plan for those of us who are not that creative and the choice of either donating the money or doing the work themselves. Ifr you look at Mike T's pictures, those are all labors of love that individuals put time, effort and thought into creating. I think if a plan was imposed by the LAC or a consultant hired by the Village, things could end up the same way they are now. And then everyone would blame the Village or the shop/building owners for sterile conditions. If people are given a choice and chance to be creative, competive and civic minded we might end up with a much better outcome.
Kim, the stores at Oak Brook pay what is called Common Area Maintenance in addition to their rent and Real Estate Taxes. I don't think we would want to burden the store owners with another expense. If Riverside stores start doing even half the sales volumes that stores in Oak Brook do, we would have a waiting list to get into business here.
And Catherine, store owners can easily tell where their customers come from by doing a zip code analysis of their purchases completed with a credit card or check.
One last thing, is there anything on the Village Of Riverside website that lists approved plants? It would be nice if they had a list and pictures of the plants. I have lived here for 14 years and still don't know what is "approved".
Posted Saturday May 26, 2007 15:37 # -
There is a small brochure available at the Village Hall or at the Library free of charge that has all that info in it.
Posted Saturday May 26, 2007 16:56 # -
Flight & Spatny,
All you need is on the village site.
On the Village site under a-z index click on "LAC guide"For whatever reason, I am not able to print a copy, if someone else is, drop me off one, huh?
Unfortunately, there are not pictures of the plants, a brochure would be nice (another great idea for the EDC since they have the budget.) Until then, one can copy and paste each of the names into google image and see a photo of the plant immediately. Some of them are extraordinarily stunning and so uncommon, very cool.
I agree about not charging our businesses to keep their planters in order. But as business owners, there should be some sort of pride to keep their places attractive. Homeowners are expected to maintain their outdoor space. Perhaps a partnership btw them and volunteers is all that needs to take place. How do we get the chamber involved?
Posted Saturday May 26, 2007 17:40 # -
I volunteer to sponsor the raccoon family. I have dog food ready and will get some small marshmallows to liven things up. As for the Mogen David and Fritos - that's only for the adults.
Posted Saturday May 26, 2007 23:18 #
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