The Brick Cafe

[Danno]

Maybe holding a market research under a slice of the populace to ask what they would like to see in the Downtown area, so the planning department can plan according to the wishes of the populace?

A questionaire to be filled in by <person> for the development of the Downtown Area.

1. What would you like to see in the Downtown Area?
2. Would you like to have more Eateries/BArs in the Downtown Area?
3. Would you like to have more places of venue in the downtown area?
If Yes, please state which venues you would like to have.
4. If interested, would you like to assist in keeping the Downtown Area clean by donating an hour per week?
5. Should there be more Green Spots (parks etc.) in the Downtown Area
6. If interested and you are a landscaper, would you like to assist in tending the Green Spots (parks etc.) in the Downtown Area by donating an hour a week?

Something like this would be a good start, so the local government can see what the people want.
And react according to it!

I'm sorry Dennis but that wouldn't work very well. What a few people want in the downtown area and what would work are two very different things.

The marketplace will decide what works and what doesn't. People wanted a book store downtown. The Brick was a bookstore. The marketplace decided that would not work.

What we need are UOPE's.... Urban Oriented Pioneering Enterprises, a phase I made up. These are exterprises that would be attractive to the rest of Lake County and even the other surrounding counties such as McHenry and Kenosha.

These enterprises would have to be unique enough that the people who would be attracted to them couldn't get what they offer in their own communities. I like to think of such unique enterprises as BCUO's... Big City Urban Offerings.

Waukegan should aim to be the Urban Center of Lake County. The deciding factor should be whether or not you can only find such an enterprise in Chicago or Milwaukee or other big cities. These UOPE's will serve to "prime the pump"... to get people down there on a regular basis. After that occurs, and only after that occurs, can you go in other directions. To me it's realistic, simple, and possible, but you have to follow the formula or it wont work.... as demonstrated by The Brick and all the others that failed before it. If the mayor hired me on at $100,000 a year I'd get it going