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You
may not have noticed…or maybe
you have. But there’s
been a new addition to Jackson’s
Downtown sidewalks. (Actually
it’s not really a new thing
… they’ve been around since
mid-October 2005.) They’re very
subtle but also very complimentary
additions to the aesthetics
of our historical downtown.
Special black & white,
sandwich-board style “Open”
signs.
Each
business establishment downtown
is eligible to in essence “borrow”
one of these unique signs designed
and provided by the Jackson
Downtown Development Corporation
and the City of Jackson.
Ironically,
downtown has a uniformity of
sorts that it didn’t have before.
The idea was originally
the brainchild of Mary Bearden,
JDDC’s Executive Director as
a way to create uniformity downtown
and at the same time overcome
potential hardship of enforcing
the City’s downtown sidewalk
sign ordinance.
I’d
have to say, the whole project
has come along very nicely.
You can walk (or drive)
down any downtown street and
know right off the bat…just
by taking a glance which businesses
are open and which ones are
not.
It’s
exhilarating each morning to
step outside and place that
open sign and smile while taking
a quick look around at your
neighbors and their signs. It
seems to have created a subtle
but recognizable cohesiveness
around town. It’s also
not unusual to meet your neighbor
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while
you’re both prominently placing
your “open” sign outside in
the morning or while bringing
it in in the evening.
In
the works for quite some time…it
was invigorating to go through
the process to receive and be
permitted to display one of
these signs…as I know it was
for others like me. Granted
I’ve pinched my fingers in the
thing enough to know better
how to put it out and bring
it in each morning and evening.
But well worth any momentary
pinching for the long-term benefit.
In
the big picture of downtown
renewal…everything we do leaves
an impression around us. And
it’s in going head on with the
“little things” one-by-one that
collectively adds to the whole.
Like so many things, the
magnificence of downtown achievement
is proportional to the attention
applied to every step of its
creation.
Special
thanks to ALL the powers that
be (the City of Jackson, Jackson
Downtown Development Corp.,
and the task force members that
worked in conjunction with the
Urban Land Institute) for recognizing
the necessity for taking action
one step at a time.
Dickson
is the owner of The Dickson
Gallery of Fine Art at 118 E
Lafayette Street. She may be
contacted by email at rachel@dicksongallery.com
or by phone at 423-9708.
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