SPRINGDALE -- Downtown merchants gathered twice last month to discuss the role of the city, the Downtown Springdale Alliance and themselves in communicating about events along Emma Avenue.
Restaurant owners said a recent Saturday event downtown brought few diners to restaurants even though officials predicted crowds. The restaurant owners added -- and paid -- extra staff for the event, they said. The crowds, participating in the semiannual Square 2 Square Bike Ride, gathered, but few came inside the restaurants and businesses, owners said.
Then, about four days later, 300 high school students attending a state conference hosted by the School of Innovation descended on downtown without notice and overwhelmed those same restaurants, they said.
Merchants said the city might be looking too far into the future, to a completely revived and expanded downtown district, but ignoring the current businesses.
"We're concerned about it because we're here now," said Brent Hale, owner and chef of Big Sexy Food on Emma. "But they need to keep us here. It sounds great in the future, but it feels like nobody is looking at what it is now."
Jill Dabbs, director of the Downtown Springdale Alliance, said no merchant nor city official has talked to her about communication or any other issues.
Jennifer Matsubara said the meetings Oct. 18 and Oct. 25 were a way to educate business owners about the role of the Downtown Springdale Alliance, especially with newly opened businesses. Matsubara has operated Shelby Lynn's Cake Shoppe on Emma for 20-plus years.
She and Hale both chalked up the difficulties to growing pains.
"Isn't it nice to have growing pains downtown," Hale asked.
Business marketing questioned
Several business owners asked why the alliance is not marketing their stores individually.
Patsy Christie, director of the city's Planning and Community Development Department, told them that's not part of the alliance's mission.
The mission of the alliance is to create a vibrant downtown. Events sponsored by the alliance are designed to bring people downtown and bring people of Springdale's various communities together.
The Hot Cocoa Crawl each Christmas season brings customers into various stores to fill their cups, Dabbs said.
"They plan these events, so people can see your businesses, see what you have to offer," Christie said. "They'll come back to shop."
Christie was invited to speak to the downtown business owners. Dabbs was not.
With all the plans downtown, the alliance board of directors and Dabbs have worked to stay focused on the vision, Dabbs said. The alliance board includes 21 business and community leaders. The board also has hired the alliance's three executive directors since the inception in 2011.
Much of Dabbs' attention over the past year has been focused on raising $11.5 million to match a grant from the Walton Family Foundation for the construction of Luther George Park, which is poised to play a significant role in the revitalized downtown.
Dabbs said the fundraising might have been outside the scope of the mission, but the board knew the park was important to downtown.
"The board decided it was something we should do," she said.
"Credit goes to those in the community," she continued. "If the citizens didn't have confidence in their local officials, they would not have given the money to match the grant and build the park."
Before the alliance was formed, downtown business owners worked together to promote the district. The duties of running a business haven't left them much time to cooperate, said Jeffro Brown, owner of The Odd Soul on Emma.
Business owners have cooperated to host the Holiday Open House at their stores Nov. 12. Merchants also planned Ghouls Night Out in October and a teachers appreciation day in September.
Dabbs said the alliance works with the merchants to create branding for these events and then promotes the events with grant money from the city's Advertising and Promotion Commission.
The alliance doesn't create marketing content for individual businesses, Dabbs said. And it doesn't sponsor every downtown event.
"Marketing our business is on us," Hale said. "We don't expect anyone else do our job."
Brown thinks some of the newer merchants feel isolated as they keep their shops.
"I guess I could take some of that on myself," he said. "I'm vice president of the Downtown Springdale Alliance. I used to put my daughter in a wagon and pull her up the street, stopping to speak to every merchant. I just don't have time anymore."
Business owners up and down Emma said they received no promises about marketing, the size of crowds or the money they would make. But they also noted they still are trying to build or rebuild their businesses after the covid-19 pandemic.
"It's hard to stay in business," said Rex Bailey, who for 45 years has operated a barber shop one block north of Emma. "It's always been hard downtown."
Closed, opened
Bailey serves on the City Council and addressed Dabbs during a council meeting. He said he had tried to contact the alliance for a week, but got no return phone calls.
Dabbs and merchants agreed people are stuck in an information overload, with no one having time to check or post on every communication platform available today.
Dabbs said the alliance's website is kept up-to-date and opens to an events calendar. A newsletter listing events is emailed every Thursday to subscribers, and the alliance is very active on popular social media platforms.
But these information sources include more than just alliance events. The website includes a list of stores and restaurants by their specialties.
Thursday's newsletter included information on Saturday's Celebracion del Dia de Muertos event, a special beer brewed by a downtown restaurant with proceeds going to support research in pediatric cancer, an illusionist performing Sunday at The Jones Center and the merchant's downtown Holiday Open House, sponsored by the business owners.
"We unashamedly, unabashedly share content," Dabbs noted. "We will put your event in our newsletter."
She said the alliance creates content for its events, which business owners are welcome to use. But the alliance will not create content for individual businesses.
Often, when businesses are losing money or are short on money, they are looking for someone to blame, Dabbs said.
After a meeting with Christie and Dabbs, Bailey said he was no longer upset.
"The communication lines hopefully are open," he said. "The DSA, the city and downtown merchants will work together. But when nobody communicates, the merchant take the brunt of it."
The City Council soon will vote on accepting an updated master plan for the downtown district. The plan includes new roadwork and streetscapes on the eastern and western reaches.