Packed house for Economic Development Board workshop; residents say use of waterfront is big priority

By Keri Luiz
Assistant Editor

Wednesday night’s Economic Development Board meeting used a unique format. A room at the Benicia Community Center was set up with five tables, with a group at each table made up of merchants, community members and a member of the board.

Each table had three large pieces of paper and a few markers. The sheets were labeled “Vision,” “Assessment” and “Communication.”

The goal, said Mario Giuliani, acting economic development manager, was to brainstorm potential events to be held on First Street and discuss how to make them more successful.

“The idea for ‘Vision’ is to talk about activities, events,” Giuliani said. “If you’ve been to another community and said ‘Wow, this is a great activity, why don’t we do this in Benicia?’ — I want you to try to note that.”

Assessment, he said, is an evaluation of events currently held in downtown Benicia and how to “determine its success,” and Communication is simple: “How do we get the word out? How do we communicate among merchants when there is an activity?”

With about 50 attendees, groups in the packed room were turned loose to brainstorm. After each 20-minute segment, participants were given a few minutes to choose three ideas from each category to discuss.

Under Vision, taking advantage of the city’s proximity to the Carquinez Strait was brought up at several tables.

“We need to make creative use of art in Benicia and water in Benicia,” Gretchen Burgess said. “We need to make a better use of our waterfront properties. … You can’t enjoy that view if you can’t get to it.”

Pat Ryll concurred. “One of our choices was to utilize our waterfront, for kayaking, for kites. How are we different from other communities? Not as many communities have what we have, which is right by the water, the history of the water and Jack London and all of that.”

EDB member John Johnsen agreed that “leveraging our waterfront is an important thing — water taxis, canoes, kayaking, dinner cruises, outriggers, ferries, clowns, as long as they’re on the water.”

Other ideas involved big downtown events like the Farmers Market and the Peddlers’ Fair. Getting artists involved was key, several residents said.

“We have such a group of artists in this town that are known throughout the world. We need to bring them down and help to stimulate that downtown area,” Burgess said.

Under Assessment, social media was a common theme.

“Create a Benicia Yelp and other social media pages. I know Yelp can be kind of deadly at times when you get some bad reviews, but that’s where we are these days. It will also help create some excitement for our town,” board member Ellen Kolowich said.

Another board member, Duane Oliveira, suggested distributing a citywide questionnaire to ask residents “why they’re not shopping downtown and going elsewhere!”

Jeanne Steinmann urged “a consistent message with all media. Text messaging, advertising, social networking — everything having a consistent message.”

Jon Van Landschoot suggested what he called “street jewelry.” “You go to most other towns, they have banners, flags. I think it could be done economically — not only down First Street, but also a block or two off where First Street meets Safeway.”

EDB Chair Kimble Goodman said the workshop was “one of the best things I’ve seen since I’ve been a part of anything here in Benicia.” Giuliani said city staff would collect the information, “and we’re going to try to utilize it and disseminate it out into the best possible place.”