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Every year about this time, a lot of fuss is made by a few about the downtown car show, which has become a standard event. It draws people from near and far, and is the place to be on Saturday night.
City Council is scheduled to meet Thursday night, and, no doubt, the car show will come up. The Carter County Car Club has offered a compromise for Council to consider. Under the compromise, the Car Club would hold the cruise-ins downtown on Saturday afternoons and evening from May through October. Traditionally, the cruise-ins have been held from April through October.
Some downtown merchants have complained that seven months is too long of a time for any organization to hold an event.
Downtown Elizabethton is a special place. That’s why the fight is going on between some of the downtown merchants and the car show people. People get attached to doing things, whether it’s shopping, eating out on a Friday evening or Saturday, enjoying music at the Covered Bridge Park, walking up and down Elk Avenue to see the old cars on Saturday night, or just window shopping.
The car show not only brings people to the downtown, but it brings business. Perhaps to not every business, but to many, even restaurants and fast-food places in other parts of town. We must remember when there wasn’t anything to draw people downtown, there was the car show. Not so long ago, downtown was made up mostly of antique stores, a couple of furniture stores, and a few restaurants. That has changed in recent years as there have been new startups, new events. But, credit the car show in part for reviving downtown.
Downtown is everyone’s neighborhood. In fact, downtown began as the “home-base” for the town. It was a place where citizens went to furnish their needs for food, clothing, and even employment. Communities were built around downtowns – homes, schools, and churches. Today, Elk Avenue remains at the heart of downtown. It doesn’t belong to any one particular group or even the merchants. It belongs to everyone.
If you haven’t been downtown in awhile, it may surprise you to known how extensive product and service availability is in our downtown. From arts and crafts, to haircuts, cosmetics, clothing, banking, prescription drugs and furniture, downtown has it covered. Besides the charm of historic buildings and beautiful sidewalks, downtown shops and restaurants offer some of the best customer service around. Some of the businesses have been in operation for decades, and some are new startups.
It is not only a place to do business and a place to eat, but it is a place where life happens. Events bring people to downtown. This past weekend’s Dr. Seuss Day sponsored by the Elizabethton-Carter County library is a good example.
Whether it is the Saturday evening car show or Friday night events in the summer, a concert in the Covered Bridge Park, a Christmas open house, or a visit to the War Memorial downtown, events offer something for everyone.
Who owns downtown? We, the community, own downtown. While a few in the community own the buildings and businesses, downtown is built upon the investment of hundreds and hundreds – people who lived and worked here the 124 years that Elizabethton has been a town and it stays alive through the continued support of the people. We need the downtown and the downtown needs us.
The downtown not only needs people who buy and sell, but it needs events that bring people to downtown. Downtown is not only a place of commerce, but it is a place to celebrate, to meet up, to talk and to enjoy time together. That’s what makes us who we are.
Downtown belongs to all of us, and it is the soul and heart of our community. It is big enough for all of us. It is time we put our differences aside and celebrate what we have. We must focus on what Elizabethton has, rather than what it doesn’t have.
Savvy communities build on what they already have, and the challenge to downtown businesses is to cash in on the car show. Be inventive, find a means to get people inside your store and make sales.