The AJC is reporting that the Brown Bag Lunches on the Marietta Square have been canceled…what do you think about this? At a cost of only $200 a piece it seems a bit much to cancel them. I’m guessing that merchants were upset, but how many of those moms took their kids to lunch on the Marietta Square and also spent money. Most of them, I’d bet.
Your thoughts?
Photo Credit: Bob Andres, bandres@ajc.com
Bella Simmons, 3, from Marietta (right) splashes in the renovated fountain with Daniel Horne, 3, from Marietta. The Thursday Brown Bag concerts on the Marietta Square during May and September, a tradition for years, may be ending. The Marietta Square just underwent a four-month long renovation that included ornamental poles for lights and traffic signals, decorative lighting and consolidated signage, brick crosswalks, and a refurbished fountain.
Here’s the quote from the AJC on the issue:
At least, that was the way the Brown Bag Lunch Concert was supposed to work.
But few of the city and county employees headquartered just blocks away ever showed up with store-bought fare. In their place came moms toting dancing toddlers, said Mike Gabler, a city parks official.
“It rapidly turned into a moms’ day out type of thing,” he said.
Businesses complained about the parking spaces lost to the concert.
And the city finally relented to their appeals: after this month, Marietta will cancel the series, which has run at noon on Thursdays in May and September as long as Gabler can remember.
“The September concerts are canceled at this point,” said Gabler, the recreation services manager for the Marietta Parks, Recreation and Facilities Department. And it’s a “good assumption” that May will be canceled, as well, he said.
The concerts, which cost about $200 apiece, were not originally intended as merely an economic stimulant. They also were meant to provide cultural enrichment to the public, Gabler said.
3 Comments
really??? I don’t think the Moms and Tots are the problem for these merchants. Maybe if half the restaurants would let us bring our kids to eat or had faster service then we would get our “lunch” from them. I have attended many of these concerts and never had an issue with parking. Most of the time, before or after the concerts I have shopped around the Square. I would love to know of the specific merchants, although I can probably guess, who are complaining so I could make sure to avoid giving them my business in the future!
I’m sad to see these end. This was a fun community event. The vendors should have set up sandwich, hot dog and lemonade stands, if they wanted to capture business. They would’ve had my business every week if they set up on the square and made it easy for me, a mom of two who loved dancing at the square to the music.
As a shop owner on the Square,this really saddens me. We usually have our store’s door opened and can hear the concert and the people over in the park. Most of the moms and children actually DO come stroll around before and after the concert. Events like these are what separates the Square from other places.