|
 |
Snow won't quell party plans
By Diane Urbani
Deseret News staff writer
It's beginning to look a lot like payback time.
Salt Lake City was flush with good weather during the Olympics. Throughout the Games, Mayor Rocky Anderson repeatedly touted the wind that "blew the muck out of the valley" the morning of opening ceremonies on Feb. 8.
But though the Winter Games left town, wintry weather hung around, dampening the mayor's "keep the spirit alive" effort on Main Street. For the first two Fridays and Saturdays in March, the city hired bands, strolling musicians and "karaoke cop" Kevin Joiner to play outside shops, whose owners had been urged to stay open late. But with biting cold the first weekend and snow the next, Main was not quite the "gathering place" Anderson hoped for.
"We were too lucky during the Olympics," he said. Yet this weekend Anderson, an honorary Irishman if there ever was one, hopes for a little more luck.
Snow and lows in the teens and 20s are forecast for Friday and Saturday night, but the mayor has his staff engaging another slate of performers, plus Joiner, the Salt Lake City police officer who becomes a karaoke facilitator when off-duty.
An event Anderson talks about all year will start Saturday's downtown festivities: the Hibernian Society's annual St. Patrick's Day parade, which starts at 10 a.m. at 600 E. 300 South. Some 200 entries will proceed to the Gallivan Utah Center, where Irish music, dancing, food and drink will flow from 10:30 a.m. until 4 p.m.
On both Friday and Saturday afternoons, Joiner will run his karaoke machine on the Gallivan terrace, 235 S. Main. He'll be followed by four Utah-based rock bands who will play until 10:30 p.m. both nights. Roving performers, from the Street Legal stilt walkers to the Street Swing dancers from Davis County, will also use surrounding sidewalks.
"They're all donating their time and talents," said city event coordinator Jon Blanchard. "For them to come down and perform out of their own generosity is just incredible. I hope people come out and recognize that."
Blanchard has also heard from a dozen craft vendors who may set up shop on Main Friday and Saturday. He hopes to bring vendors from the Games-time Ethnic Village into downtown — though he admitted that for the past two weekends the cold weather has hurt sidewalk merchants.
The cold "was discouraging," he said. "But the Olympics were cold, too. We were just distracted." Blanchard, who drove the city's downtown shuttle bus, added that the Olympic revelers he saw were largely Utahns.
"The Olympics were great for everyone's psyche. The feeling was, 'Wow, we're a real city.' Now they see this" — Friday and Saturday music and art on Main — "as an opportunity to be part of reinventing downtown. We've got beautiful buildings, the streets are clean, it's safe."
Now "I would love to get some nice weather," Blanchard said. He plans to coordinate downtown performers and vendors every weekend into the spring. "I've gotten a really good response from people who want to come down . . . and make Salt Lake City into a hub again."
As for Anderson, he'll end his stint as host-city mayor with the Paralympics closing ceremonies Saturday night at the Olympic Medals Plaza. Sunday he'll fly to Washington, D.C., for a week's vacation. While he's away, the Salt Lake City Council will take its own look at the future of Main Street, with a Tuesday meeting devoted to briefings from the Downtown Alliance and the Chamber of Commerce.
E-MAIL: durbani@desnews.com
|
|
March 15, 2002
|
