Must Downtown be a town for the rich and old?

It’s silent and empty and dead. It sells wooden owls, bridal gowns and snails.

From its overly specialized and futile stores to its unsuccessful marketing plans, Saratoga’s downtown is weighed down by its ineffective and often overly posh entertainment and food options.

According to the article “Turning Around Downtown: Twelve Steps to Revitalization” from The Brookings Institution towns like Saratoga should not focus on the typical suburban development that puts “car-friendly access and parking” as the priority. These initiatives only “financially perform well in the short-term.” Instead, downtowns should strive to become a “walkable urbanism,” areas that are aesthetically pleasing and offer a diverse selection of entertainment.

Efforts to “beautify” Saratoga’s downtown are already in place, as seen in the Village Enhancement Project that is renovating the existing architecture and adding more vegetation. These additions help to improve downtown’s appearance. When it comes to entertainment, however, the downtown is tremendously lacking.

According to The Brookings Institution entertainment in downtown should  be able to occupy people for four to six hours. By refocusing its audience, downtown should diversify entertainment beyond the restaurants and cafes — the only exceptions in downtown’s culture of stagnancy — to the rest of the businesses.   

High-quality restaurants such as La Fondue, The Basin and Bai Tong, each rated with four stars on Yelp, generate some of the most foot traffic in downtown. At the same time, these expensive restaurants also fail to attract many potential customers, who are unable to afford gourmet food on a weekly basis.

Wildwood Market, a small convenient store located across the street from Starbucks for a year, closed down mainly due to its expensive offerings such as $7 sandwiches. Residents chose to drive 10 minutes to Safeway rather than stop by at the local market.  

Another problem arises from the stores scattered in between these restaurants that fail to attract customers and limit downtown’s popularity. Most of these stores carry outdated and useless knick knacks or are too specialized, marketing only to a small portion of potential customers.

The Barn Owl, for instance, sells eclectic decorations such as glass-blown figures costing up to $60. While the shop may suit a touristy area, where the overpriced and somewhat futile products fit right in, it doesn’t add much to our downtown.

For Saratoga’s downtown to revive itself, it needs to bring in stores that meet the general public’s demands, or even better, appeal to young people. After all, Saratoga High is just down the street.

Incorporating more upbeat, modernized and cheaper food options is a simple solution to meet these demands because restaurants attract younger customers that will inadvertently promote their products on social media.

Yolatea is one of the few stores that has remained stable in downtown because of its appeal to younger consumers with its more reasonable prices, wide selection of sweet treats and modern ambiance.

The success found in food destinations such as Yolatea can be attributed to their smart marketing tactics, which should also be applied to events such as the farmer’s market held every Wednesday afternoon at downtown.

The Saratoga Village Farmer’s Market has been opened for the past few years, but it still attracts relatively few customers. Perhaps because of a lack of publicity, many residents are not motivated to attend this event. Sending out email reminders or even putting out signs and flyers is not only cost effective but would also gain more customers and thus more activity in downtown.

Focusing on strong marketing plans will give Saratoga’s Downtown the opportunity to revitalize its moribund atmosphere and ultimately create an area the entire community, young and old, can enjoy.