Where Have all the People Gone?

For more than half a century, since I was a grammar school student in Concord, my tradition, the day after Thanksgiving, has been to spend the entire afternoon in downtown Concord. With few exceptions, I have never wavered from this trek and for many years it would officially mark the beginning of the Holiday Season for me.

This year, when I walked the mile or so from my home to Main Street, I was struck by how few people seemed to be strolling around. In fact, when I visited my bank on North Main Street, the teller informed me that hardly anyone had been around all day and that she was hoping the Tree Lighting Ceremony scheduled for later, would at least bring a surge of life. Fortunately it did and for about an hour it seemed like those days of old.

Recently, I appeared on Dick Patten’s program “Around Town” and we reminisced, briefly, about the holiday season in Concord in the late 1950s, 60s and 70s. In particular we noted how exciting the day after Thanksgiving invariably was for local merchants and shoppers. We also mourned the lack of any holiday lighting displays on the city’s downtown streetlights, with all deference to the beautiful displays gracing many of our downtown merchant store windows.

Concord has the dubious distinction of being the only state capital in the United States that does not have lighted holiday decorations hanging from their lights after easily boasting some of the prettiest such displays for decades.

For years, I tried to find out why we are so lacking, even offering Nan Hagen, when she headed Main Street, a donation to start a fund to bring decorations back to the city.

I love and believe in Downtown Concord and continue to visit it three or four times a week.

While my bank may have branch offices scattered throughout the area, I stubbornly refuse to bank at any other office than their downtown main office. When I need a prescription filled, I walk to CVS. I support a handful of downtown merchants who can provide select needs for me and I attend the Red River Theatres and love time spent walking around Gibson’s Bookstore, salivating at the new store that is rising on South Main Street.

My blogs frequently recall a time in Concord when you could get just about anything you wanted on Main Street. People came because there was variety, choices and an opportunity to socialize and shop in an environment that was energetic and exhilarating.  To anyone, however, who has lived in Concord for less than 25 years, I might as well be talking about another world.

I watched and listened to the excitement generated by Eagle Square, which was to be Concord’s version of the Faneuil Hall Marketplace and after some initial success it seemed to peter out. Bicentennial Square also seemed to promise much but didn’t quite live up to the hype.

Currently the city is abuzz with talk about the multi-million dollar project that will change Main Street but somehow it hasn’t lit a spark in me. Instead I shudder to think of a dwindling pool of local merchants who will be further challenged by construction that will discourage some people from venturing downtown to buy something, choosing the easier route of going to a strip mall or elsewhere. I remember reading how difficult it was for our best Mexican Restaurant, Hermano’s, to survive when construction on the Capitol Commons building and garage was creating a nightmare.

I recognize that the era of Newberry’s and Woolworth’s is past. However the hustle and bustle of downtown Concord was not predicated by those stores as much as by the number of businesses offering choices that made a visit to Concord’s Main Street a worthwhile shopping experience.

During part of my 7 1/2 years at Blue Cross and Blue Shield when they were on Pillsbury Street, I was welfare chairperson of the employees association. Part of my job was to purchase gifts for the company’s 800-900 employees to mark a birthday, anniversary of start date, departure gift or expression of sympathy.

During my lunch break I would drive to Main Street and without fail, be able to locate and purchase a gift for every occasion and I bought more than 200 of them in an 18 month period, never being at a loss to find what I was looking for in the downtown.  I was never late getting back to the office either.

Someone or some Committee should be aggressively working to bring multiple new businesses into downtown Concord.  It’s great to have a fine selection of bakeries, cafes, restaurants and boutiques, but what about all of those other items that cannot be found easily or are completely unavailable?

Before we tear apart the streets, possibly risking losing some existing businesses, I feel we need to find a way to add to the businesses we have and generate a desire from the public to want to spend their money downtown. While the end result of the redesign project will make a difference, appearance-wise, the introduction of new businesses and more choice will ultimately be what ensures a future for Main Street.