Owen Sound’s Downtown Improvement Area has a few more strategies to help the city’s core thrive.
At their recent AGM, Chair Sue Carlton talked about a new initiative called the Owen Sound Marketing Alliance involving not only downtown merchants but also the mall and big box retailers.
She says people will come to Owen Sound for a specific reason..maybe its the mall, maybe its Walmart or maybe its the downtown — but there’s no reason they can’t all work together and share resources.
Carlton says the DIA is also going to partner once again with Summerfolk and the Salmon Spectacular to offer a shuttle to the downtown.
She says while it wasn’t terribly busy last year — they were told by many that had they known aboutthe shuttle sooner..they would have made plans to use it.
Another event the DIA is working on is a city initiative to hold a buskerfest in August.
Carlton says they’re also talking about adding buskers to the downtown through the summer as an added attraction.
As for the hot button issue of parking — Carlton says it seems to have improved recently with metre and municipal lot rates finally uniform across the city.
And Carlton says they’ve also made improvements to the DIA website making it more interactive and user-friendly for both Owen Sound residents and members.
www.owensounddia.ca