Downtown Committee Looking at Ways to Host Events Safely
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As a subscriber you can listen to articles at work, in the car, or while you work out. Subscribe NowThe newly-formed Downtown Indy Rebuilding and Recovery Committee met for the first time this week and the president of Downtown Indy Inc. the group is looking at ways to bring events back to the city. The organization says the committee’s goal is to spur economic activity and community support in the city’s downtown.
In an interview with our partners at WFYI, Sherry Seiwert said the key is being able to have events safely.
“Monument Circle is a great space to host events and I think that we can figure out how to bring in small groups on an hourly basis for social distancing purposes, certainly,” said Seiwert. “The artist community certainly would love to have some work right now and I think that the general population is eager to have some entertainment and that’s what we’re looking at right now is how can we put that together.”
Seiwert says the city is currently hosting its weekly farmers market on Monument Circle instead of its original location at City Market, which has seen an increasing number of visitors each week.
With downtown Indy’s tourism business at a standstill, Seiwert says many businesses continue to struggle with the lack of support from the thousands of visitors who otherwise would be in downtown. She adds that is compounded by many other downtown businesses continuing to operate remotely.
“You know, with the larger employers, most of them likely are not going to return fully back to work until late fall if not January of 2021, so we’re really dependent on residents and so we want to do everything we can to make sure that folks feel comfortable and that they want to come back into downtown even if it’s to come and have lunch, come and have dinner, come and attend an event. We really just need to generate more foot traffic to support the retail community.”
Seiwert tells WFYI the committee plans to have recommendations for accomplishing its goals within the next two months.
Seiwert said the key is being able to have events safely for residents.