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Clearly College Park’s community wants to keep growing.  With the lull in the development market, College Park is growing more slowly than 3 or 4 years ago and downtown has some vacant spaces.
The City, however, has made some smart choices.  They’re using the vacant store fronts as Art Galleries.  While this is not a new idea, it is something not seen inside the perimeter much, and having the art in the windows helps in three positive ways:

1. It keeps the street scape from looking vacant and keeps traffic interested in the life of the town rather than just passing through on the way to the car rental returns.
2. It brings attention to the fact that the space is available.  That helps the Realtors and hence the value of the taxes
3. It keeps local artists engaged in the community.

It’s a shame that shopping malls, town councils, and other retailers do not see the benefit of creating inducements to let vacant space be used for art.  If you have a run down area, nothing will bring traffic in like creating a theater and gallery space.  Just look at how vital ART Station is to keeping Stone Mountain afloat and see that East Atlanta has suffered after Echo Lounge closed.

Heck, look at Underground.  It’s never recovered from Dante moving out.  Further, with no Gallery Space or theatrical performance down there, the space continues o suffer.  Now, ACPA is working with with Underground to develop some theater space on Upper Alabama.  That’s guaranteed to bring traffic in and as long as the rent is affordable, performances by emerging groups can bring those with the spirit of the adventure and the finances to afford it back to Underground to help make it alive.

Theater is the next step for the south side as well.  East Point, Hapeville, and College Park are all missing theaters in their downtown.  When they get established those town will really kick it in to the next level.

This entry was posted on Saturday, July 28th, 2007 at 10:17 am and is filed under Stupid Development Tricks, Venues and Events. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.