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As a small business owner in downtown Pleasanton, I protest the planned increase of taxes to fund the Pleasanton Downtown Association. As a 25-year resident of Pleasanton, I would love to see downtown Pleasanton revitalized.
Here are five reasons why giving more money to the PDA appears to be the wrong approach:
1. PDA activity has been exclusively focused on increasing foot traffic to restaurants and retail stores on Main Street. There are 500-plus businesses who are mandatory members of the PDA, and many aren’t located on Main Street; even fewer are on street level. Second-floor and service businesses are invisible to the PDA.
2. The PDA provides no accountability. While I employ detailed lead-tracking and can prove that I have generated zero clients (or leads) from PDA membership, I have yet to see meaningful statistics from the PDA on how they have helped to “revitalize” downtown or actual numbers that prove a conversion from foot traffic to sales.
3. The PDA has been doing the same things for years, and instead of “revitalizing” downtown there seems to have been an increase in open storefronts. Maybe what the PDA is offering isn’t what downtown Pleasanton needs? My clients (and leads) come almost exclusively from referrals and online marketing. I don’t need the PDA’s help to generate business. Foot traffic isn’t the solution.
4. Having worked out of a historic building in downtown for four years, I believe that what’s eating downtown Pleasanton is not an inability of local businesses to attract their own clients (that’s frankly insulting). Rather, it is old buildings that are hanging on by a thread. PRIMM Boutique is a prime example of building owners being allowed to let their properties fall apart to the detriment of talented entrepreneurs.
Local businesses need functional spaces to do business in (we also need proper signage). Maybe more storefronts would be filled if there were higher demands put on building owners to maintain them? It’s exhausting to have to fight for things like A/C or a working elevator on a regular basis.
5. PDA membership dues are simply an unfair penalty on service businesses downtown. Service businesses like mine generate foot traffic to other downtown stores. Many of my clients eat, drink and shop downtown before or after seeing me for therapy appointments. Some of my clients come from out-of-town and some have experienced downtown Pleasanton for the first time.
In a nutshell, PDA membership should be voluntary. And, city of Pleasanton, please find a solution to keep our downtown buildings functional or more businesses will have to move somewhere else.
Editor’s note: Natascha Thomson is a licensed marriage and family therapist who offers psychotherapy at her praxis in downtown Pleasanton.
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