Quote:
Originally Posted by i-215
Growing up there, I disagree. There's plenty of residential feet away from Main Street. What it needs is an attraction which draws people beyond Magna Main (as you mention).
If Kennecott ever were to build it's Soldier Flats ski resort, both 3500 and Magna Main should route as the main roads up to the resort. That'll draw skier traffic through town, and be a real boom. But I don't see that happening for another 25 years.
Meantime, moving the library downtown helps. |
While there may be plenty of residential surrounding Main Street, there clearly isn't enough to support Main Street retail, either that or the retail that has opened and closed there in the past few years has clearly missed the mark of what those surrounding residents want in a neighborhood shopping district. Increasing the overall density on the vacant lots, or on those properties that may be not worth salvaging, on the surrounding blocks could bring in several hundred more people to the neighborhood, resulting in several hundred more potential clients to Main St businesses.
While an anchor or traffic generator would help. it can only do so much to draw people from elsewhere, and depending on the anchor it could be very seasonal or sporadic in drawing more people from outside of Magna. Seeing as it is as out of the way as it currently is from the majority of the SL Valley population, I really think it's local density that can provide a spark.
I'll be the first to admit I'm not really aware of the goings on in Magna, so some of these might already be happening.
It appears that Magna has an Arts Festival in August, The Empress Theater has live theater and seems to have a very full line up throughout the entire year.
What I am wondering is are there any places to eat on Main St, that patrons of the Empress can visit before or after the show. As I look on google maps street view of the Empress it is a very nice theater, but it has missing teeth on many of the properties surrounding it. There is a small building to the west and then a vacant lot, the property directly to the east, one across the street to the east of that, and another one across Main to the south. There are many great looking building on Magna Main. I would just love to see a couple of those missing teeth filled in with some additional two story buildings.
Some ideas to start to enliven Magna Main:
A weekly farmer market.
Free Summer Concerts in the street.
Food trucks invited to be present before performances at The Empress, on Summer Concert nights, at the farmers market.
The parking lot adjacent to The Empress could be the place that the Food Trucks park for many of these events.
Possibly do some marketing on the Maxx buses or at the stations promoting the above events. That will allow people that ride Maxx, but not all the way to Magna, that there are things going on and it's easily accessible from a bus they already ride.
Petition Salt Lake City to annex all of Magna, from 7200 W to Kennecott, and 2100 S to 4100 S.
Prev
Linear Mode
