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What have been ideas of City Council for new revenue? Perhaps nothing? Perhaps we wait out the recession? Perhaps we downsize the local government?
Is the only way to build revenue to build malls? It seems to be a common idea here. What are some other ideas? Please don't let this thread be yet more quibbling about Target/mall/city council. Another thought: During the Great Depression a city in Germany created its own local currency. It did so well, soon mayors from many many towns wanted to begin the process, at which point the federal government banned use of local currencies. |
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I was hoping you would post your ideas here. I was hoping we could get people to think outside the box and have this discussion. I mean, so many seem to think that development dollars are the only way to make money for the city.
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Berkshares This sounds like an excellent way to curb retail leakage and extend value/dollar without adding retail to every street corner. |
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I'm sure there are plenty of "keep Petaluma egg-centric" pins lying around...it would be fitting to use those.
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It's been three days now and still nothing, what does that say? But now that I've left this comment here I'm sure others will come up w/ ideas so maybe I did you a favor.
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Actually what about more festivals downtown during the summer, barbecue festival, chicken wing festival, maybe some type of wakeboarding contest on the river (that might be kind of tough w/ the width but you get more air in saltwater). Build a convention center/ hotel complex. Have a championship of something here and keep it. Make Petaluma a main attraction during nascar at infinineon for their 200,000 attendees.
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I'd love to see a business set-up that essentially acts as a 'localized' Amazon.com. The idea would be that if you want to make an online purchase, instead of going to Amazon, you could choose this site - for which sales tax revenues from your purchase would find there way back to your community. So you can essentially shop outside your city, and still capture local sales tax benefit. AND, not have to build. I am concerned that once we are 'built out' in this community (perhaps a ways in the future, but sure to come) we are again going to have big problems on our hands. We'll either start to re-think the urban growth boundary at that time OR have to start getting creative. Might as well start thinking now about economic growth from more angles than just development.
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Like I said, no other comments, sounds like development fees and new retail are the way to go. With some of my ideas less new retail and development would be needed though.
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| <Townsville>
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Just give us a second! I just got off the road! Okay, none of these have been vetted, and I wouldn't know how to do an FEIR if my life depended on it, but off the top of my head: 1. The Petaluma Trolley, from the Marina to the Outlet Mall. Dunno how much you'd have to charge (2 bucks? 5 bucks? it all adds up!) and the downtown trestle's in bad shape, but it'd promote local retail big time. 2. Parking meters downtown. Yep, I said it. If you can't pay a quarter, even 50 cents an hour, you need to stay home or go to Rohnert Park. Parking garages can remain free of charge, and local retailers and their employees can have preferred parking there, thus freeing up the streets for spontaneous and dedicated shoppers. \I'm sure this idea would be tremendously unpopular because people can't reconcile popping quarters in a meter with $100 bills in their SUVs' gas tanks. 3. Turning disused buildings into ersatz flea markets: the Line & Twine or the machinery on the South Blvd. come to mind. Vendors could pay a small fee to hawk their wares in all-weather marketplaces, without the high rent or stigma of strip malls or even farmers' markets. 4. Too late for this one: Petaluma could manage a motel on a site they own and not only reap the bed tax, but the total income from a nice close-to-town property with rooms and restaurant. Oh wait, they let Basin Street tear down the old Casa Grande Hotel which could've paid for a modest renovation by now for the cost of its demolition and idle waste. But that was the last city council's missed opportunity. 5. More...? |
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| <Townsville>
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It already is, much to my chagrin. |
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The parking meter thing will never happen again, I still have a original meter when they got rid of them, how would you tell business owners during a bad economic time that customers have to pay to park in front of them, would actually make it worse and drive others away from our downtown. Do you remember when meters were downtown? It was a failure and raised minimum money. I think they got rid of them during the howard the duck movie. Any suggestions that can improve revenue in the next year or so? |
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1. who/how does the trolley and all infrastructure get built/paid for? VERY expensive. 2. This is actually quite comical...from someone who claims to support downtown merchants. as king01 states, downtown merchants would fight this tooth and nail. if you support downtown merchants you don't suggest meters. you suggest target would take away business...meters would as well! 3. same as 1 above, who pays for all the improvements to get this done? where does the money come from to pay for this? and who manages it? who runs things? sets things up? 4. again, who pays for design/entitlements/impact fees/construction/management? and our city will now be in the development/hotel operation business? good outside the box thinking but i don't think these suggestions are real world/possible solutions. |
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Kick the bums out of town that are going on about putting the unneeded Target in there and turn that land into a world class organic vegetable garden. Put in a minimal operating infrastructure (nice fencing, gazebos, Victorian themed manager's unit/sales barn, etc) Divide it into 15' x 15' plots and charge $10 a month for each plot. How many plots would fit in there? 5 acres... A thousand plots? x $10 a month = $100,000 = $1.2 million a year less costs. Work out a deal with the new Seed Bank to supply the seeds. Have classes on organic gardening, tasting events, a weekly market where the growers could sell their vegetables and most importantly make people say when they drive into Petaluma "Wow! Look at those beautiful gardens, let's pull in there. Thank god they don't have a stinky Target store and Burger King like every other freeway exit in the world..."
Is that what you mean by thinking outside the box? |
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Need to add that we are right smack dab in the middle of a world renowned area already famous for progressive ideas as they pertain to agriculture. Capitalize on that!!! Not some old school chain store that's going to go belly up and make Petaluma look just like Rodent Park.
Oh, and of course we could bring back the famous Muffin Catapult Toss & Shoot on Saturdays. PULL! |
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