As was done in the past by the Kenosha Lakeshore BID, Downtown Kenosha, Inc. will be purchasing additional bike racks for the downtown area courtesy of the City of Kenosha budgeting funds to purchase them. If you are interested in having a 5-bike (approximately 3' long) or 7-bike (approximately 5' long) rack installed in front of your business or property, please contact Zohrab Khaligian via email by Friday, September 5.

After all the requests are received, City staff will assess each location to determine the best locations.  Criteria will include proximity to existing (and proposed) racks, space available on the sidewalks including distance from doorways, lightpoles, sidewalk furniture and other obstructions, and how much bicycle traffic might be generated by the business and surrounding businesses. Once the assessment is completed, the City will purchase and install the bike racks.  

By now I hope you've heard that the City of Kenosha is planning their Third Annual Fall Fest, and that this year Downtown Kenosha, Inc. is looking to expand this event and bring some of the focus Downtown. This event coincides with Downtown Second Saturday on October, 11th.

Much of the daytime activities will be concentrated in Library Park from Noon to 3:00 pm and will include face painting, live music and pumpkin decorating. Fall Fest will also coincide with the Kenosha Public Library and UW-Parkside's annual Big Read event. The book this year for the Read is Fahrenheit 451, so as the Fall Fest is happening in the park, the Library and Parkside will be putting on events related to Fahrenheit 451 and The Big Read.  This looks to be a great opportunity to attract some of the visitors to Library Park into the Downtown business district.

Below are a number of activities being planned and where our Downtown businesses can get involved to help their own business and contribute to the overall success of the event:

Carriage Rides & Storefront Decorations

Black Tie Carriage Service will provide rides from Library Park (for a fee) to customers. This is costing business owners nothing, but in order to maximize the effectiveness of these rides and give the riders a reason to come Downtown we'd like to see widows and store fronts decorated in a fall, Halloween or even a Fahrenheit 451 theme.  Much like what the ice sculptures did for the SnowDaze festival, we believe some creative fall displays will attract visitors/shoppers to Downtown.

Outdoor Movie
Thanks to a partnership with Happenings Magazine and Kenosha Public Library, an outdoor movie will be shown on City Parcel A (the vacant land across from Trolley Dogs) at approximately 6:00pm (depending on sunset). At first we wanted to show Fahrenheit 451, but that is already booked.  Instead, we are keeping with the theme of the book and showing a more current movie which deals with similar dystopian themes: Divergent.  Once again, this is costing business owners zero. In case of rain the movie will move indoors to the Rhode Center for the Arts.

Costume Contests

Just prior to the start of the outdoor movie, we plan to hold a number of costume contests. The contests would be held in four categories: pets/children/teens/adults. What we need are prizes. If you'd like to contribute prizes please contact me.

Build-A-Monster

The next planned activity is a "traffic generator" much like the Scavenger Hunt during June's Second Saturday. This activity will be called "Build a Monster". Participants will be given a master sheet with a monster printed on it. They will then have to go to participating businesses to collect body parts (pieces of paper with parts printed on them), which will be taped to the master sheet. Once completed, the customer will receive a card containing the names of participating businesses. These businesses will then offer a one-time 20% discount on their next purchase.  If you'd like to participate, please contact me.

$4.51 Specials

We'd also like to see businesses get creative and come up with a $4.51 (for Fahrenheit 451) special for the day. This can be anything, depending on your business.  We think this is a really fun way to tie into the Big Read event, and as with the above listed ideas, very low cost idea to implement.

Zombie Ride

Another event happening on October 11th (by coincidence) is the Ride of the Living Dead ("Zombie Ride").  We really have nothing to do with this, but feel it is another asset to the Fall Fest and really makes it a large event catering to many different ages and interests.

The success of events like this really depends on the participation of our Downtown businesses. As word spreads about these events, more people will find reasons to come Downtown. But as the saying goes, (and I'm taking liberties here) if we DON'T build them, they won't come. I have already heard from some of you with some good ideas to add to the event.  I look forward to hearing from the rest of you.