 Welcome to Serving Locally with me, your host, Michelle Dynas, the podcast where we spotlight service in the Longmont and surrounding communities. Alright, let's connect. Welcome to today's episode of Serving Locally. I am here with Colin Argus of the Longmont Downtown Development Authority. And I just want to say thank you for coming on today. And I'm excited to learn about what you guys do. So could you just give me a little quick overview of who you are and what your organization is about? Absolutely, yeah. Thanks so much for having me. I really appreciate it. I am, as you said, with the Longmont Downtown Development Authority. We are basically at the heart kind of responsible for just maintaining a kind of vibrant and vital downtown district here in Longmont. And our boundaries roughly are from about Longspeak Avenue on the north side to about First Avenue on the south side. And then a couple blocks either side of Maine in general. We do on the south side kind of kick over to Martin. So it's kind of a big L shaped district. It's kind of funky. So yeah, really just kind of maintaining, keeping downtown clean and safe for visitors and business owners and employees. And yeah, just keeping things vibrant and vital down him. So yeah, so we also manage the Longmont Creative District. We're a certified Colorado Creative District. The Creative District certification happened about five or six years ago. And our organization kind of took the initiative to get that certification and also manage the Creative District for a while. Last year a non-profit was spun up called Longmont Creates. And so they have kind of created a board of directors and they're hoping to kind of take some of the management of the Creative District over from us. But yeah, so we're a downtown development authority district as well as a certified Colorado Creative District. That's fantastic. That sounds good. So can you give us a little background about your organization? Yeah, so the downtown development authority was formed in 1983, way back when. The state kind of creates created this mechanism for funding a downtown development authority using property taxes from the district itself. So that's how we're funded. And I've been in this role doing marketing and events for the downtown for about seven years now in different capacities. And so yeah, so really at their heart kind of downtown development authorities are mostly geared toward again that clean and safe piece, keeping it clean and safe for people to visit and enjoy the downtown. Also working on different redevelopment projects and just business owner support, things like that. So that's kind of at the core of what a downtown development authority does. We also with the creative district portion and my role also want to, you know, market the district, bring people here, help them have fun, create memories, things like that with events and things like that. So that's kind of a general overview. Great. So what is your focus at Longmont Downtown Development Authority? So the focus is kind of really twofold. So as I mentioned before, kind of just keeping it clean and safe, making it a pleasant place for people to visit and spend time helping our small business owners, you know, thrive, helping property owners fill vacancies, helping with redevelopment projects, things like that. Believe it or not, there's actually more than 470 businesses within just our downtown district. I did not realize that at all. That's a huge number, right? It's a, yeah, they're obviously not all like retail storefronts, like there's like 470, you know. My dentist is there. There's a super wide variety. There was a business owner a few years ago who posted on Facebook and it was just like, you know, anything you need is in downtown Longmont. You need to go to the dentist. It's in downtown Longmont. You need obviously to get some food. It's in downtown Longmont. But do you need to get your car windshield repaired? It's in downtown Longmont. Anyway, it's just, it's shocking how many different types of businesses there are down here and how many, you know, personal services, business services, wellness, health and wellness and beauty. Obviously restaurants and breweries, retail stores, things like that. Well, you have the library, you have, is the police department in that too. So then here at Longmont Public Media, that's also part of it also. We've got a bunch of awesome kind of more, more nonprofit or public organizations like that. Absolutely. The library is a huge, huge anchor for us and LPM is doing great things here. So yeah, super happy to have all that different diversity within our business, within our district. And then kind of the focus from the creative district side, you know, we were certified as a creative district because we have a large concentration of creative based businesses here in downtown. So, you know, that ranges from things that you would normally think of like an art gallery or a firehouse art center or things like that. You know, live music venues, but it's also things that you might not necessarily think of as a creative business right from the get go. So things like, you know, craft beverage producers, the brewers and distillers creating those recipes. That's a creative, creative industry. Things like graphic design, the more digital pursuits, web design, architecture firms, those are all creative based businesses. The saying for what qualifies as creative is anything made of the hand or mind, which I really like because it's something kind of broadens people's perspective a little bit. So we may not have the highest concentration of art galleries here, but we do have a very high concentration of creative based businesses that can people can enjoy. So, yeah. That's great. See, it'll always be, that's great. That's awesome. Fantastic. That's what I think. Sounds good. Awesome. Very cool. So who are you trying to reach with your organizations? So yeah, our reach is pretty broad, obviously, as just kind of a downtown area. We want, you know, anyone and everyone to feel welcome and comfortable and feel a reason to come enjoy downtown, whether it's for shopping or dining or coming to an event. So, you know, one of the main focuses is definitely the people that are the heartbeat of our downtown, our small business owners, the employees, the people that are down here every day and kind of living and breathing downtown Longmont. But also, you know, we want to be a very welcoming and inviting space for people throughout Longmont, throughout the Longmont area and throughout even, you know, the state and even visitors that come from across the country will want it to be a place that they can enjoy and make memories and have fun. Great. What makes the work of your organizations different than other similar serving organizations? Yeah. So there are a lot of DDAs throughout the state, downtown development authorities throughout the state doing similar work. There's also kind of similar but different downtown organizations like a business association or a business improvement district. So just different tools that people can use that districts can use to kind of help keep their downtown area or their business area vibrant. Arts is kind of interesting because a lot of communities, especially bigger communities have, they'll have a downtown development authority, but then they'll also have a, you know, business improvement district on top of it or they'll have a merchants association. And so a lot of downtown development authorities really just focus on the clean and safe, the redevelopment and kind of the that piece, whereas the business association or something like that might do more of the marketing events. So at a different, you know, in a different community, my job might not actually exist as the marketing and events person for the downtown development authority. But I'd say our organization is a bit unique because of that. We're also a small staff of four. So we've got, you know, a lot of things going on. You know, everybody's happy to hop in all hands on deck. We've got a really great team there. But yeah, I think it's kind of unique for the downtown development authority to also handle kind of the arts and entertainment piece, the marketing and events. The DDA board way back when decided that that needed to be a priority, partly because there's such great representation of creative businesses downtown, but also because it's an important part of having a thriving community. So, you know, I think that might be one thing that kind of sets us apart a little bit. Very cool. Okay, Colin, what are your greatest needs? Yeah, so kind of in terms of, you know, just needs from the community, we love to have people participate and kind of take ownership. We had a marketing campaign a few years back right before I arrived and it was kind of own downtown. So like making downtown your own and taking some ownership in it. So anyway, yeah, we always invite people to kind of take some ownership and have a little bit of skin in the game for what's going on downtown. So we love, we invite people to come participate in any way that they want to or can. We really each year have a strong need for volunteers, both at events, but also just with some of the kind of day to day stuff occasionally. I imagine with your staff of four, four hundred and how many businesses? Yeah, just a little bit of help would be great. Yeah, yeah, it becomes a lot for sure and you know, every hour is sacred. So if we can get, you know, even just an hour or two out of folks to help out for a little bit, it goes a long way. So we, you know, the events that we produce and host are our downtown summer concert series are, you know, summer events are starting to ramp up right now. And so the summer concerts will happen every Friday, not every Friday, the first four Fridays in June. And those are at fourth and Kimbark right here in LPM's backyard. And so it's a street concert. We close the street, we bring in the stage bands, food trucks, drink vendors, things like that. Kids activities. So it's a really fun night. We just need volunteers. Is it a free event for the community? Yeah, totally free. So even if you don't want to volunteer, please come on down and enjoy some live music and dance in the street a little bit. But yeah, so volunteers, it's basically we just need some help with setting things up, putting up tables and tents and that kind of stuff, helping with some fencing. And then during the event, we do get a alcohol permit for the event because we have our craft beverage vendors come set up. And so we just need people to kind of monitor entry exit points, but you get a nice stool and a nice view of the stage and get to listen to some music and people watch and see people. So that's fun. And then always need help with kind of tear down and cleanup type stuff. I found the later night shifts are a little bit more or more difficult to staff, which makes sense. I would be partial to being home at that point, but if anybody likes being out late at night, not late at night, but toward the end of the evening, we would really appreciate it. So we have our summer concerts. Those are in June. There are some other organizations that host events downtown that we kind of help facilitate. So Firehouse Art Center does a lot of really cool events. They're doing summer on the streets, they're calling it kind of a mini art walk event. That's the second Saturday of every month, May through August. And then they have their big Main Street Art Walk Festival in September. So they always need good people to help out with that. And those are fun things to participate in. And then in terms of the smaller things that I mentioned, kind of the more day to day stuff. Honestly, things like just distributing meeting invitations to all of our businesses. Just walking a few blocks along Main Street or Kim Barker Kauffman to hand out meeting invitations or taking out marketing materials. So posters and flyers for our concerts, asking if business owners would mind hanging one in their window, things like that. Again, you can get out on a nice day and get a few steps in, walk a few blocks. But it really does help us out because even those couple hours are a huge help for us. So I think those are kind of our greatest needs just in terms of general help from the public. And you guys the Unity and Community, that's not you guys or is it you guys? That's the Chamber of Commerce. They do a fantastic job. That's one of my favorite events. They'd be great. Karen Sallard is awesome. The whole team is awesome. Ruby and Leah and Scott, Karen and Kathy. But yeah, so they're the ones that produce you in the community. That's one that I talked about we kind of just facilitate. So I help with the road closure piece and some of kind of the infrastructure things like that. Behind the scenes. Exactly. But it's nice because we don't have to have the responsibility of producing the whole thing. So a lot of work goes into that. So yeah, Unity and the Community is a great one. We've hosted the Pride Festival in past years. They're moving that to Roosevelt Park this year. But that's always a great event. The Day of the Dead festivities, Dia de los Muertos. The Longmont Museum produces that. But they do it on 4th Avenue, 4th and Coffman. So that's always a really, really great community event as well. And then we have our holiday events, our Plaza Lighting event to kind of kick off the holiday season. And I was going to do that this year. I think it was you that I talked to. Because I remember I'm like Holland. That sounds kind of familiar. They already hooked us up and then yeah, couldn't make it. Totally understand. Yeah, we'd love to have you back in a future year. But yeah, so those are the big ones. But yeah, there's a bunch of fun people doing really, really awesome events. Oh, another one is Bricks Retail here over on 4th Avenue just across the street from Longmont Public Media here. They host what they call Miracle on 4th Markets. And so it's like basically a local gift market. So they bring a bunch of vendors in that produce kind of handcrafted local items. And so they're doing one, their first one is going to be April 30th. And then they'll do like a Christmas in July one that'll be, I think July 30th as well. And then they usually do one in early November to kind of kickstart the holiday shopping season. So yeah, it's really fun to help facilitate these events. Again, when I don't have to do all the legwork, but I can help help something cool come to life. So it's a good gig. It's rewarding. So how can people contact and find out more about your organizations? Yeah, so feel free to reach out to me directly. I'd be happy to chat with anybody or answer questions or find some time to meet if you have ideas or want to talk about anything. So I assume you can share my contact info with them. I'll have everything in the show notes, my QR code as always. So you go into serving partnerships and they'll be under there as well. Their website. QR codes are the best. And then our website is downtownlongmont.com. And so that you can learn more about our organization. We've got a creative district portion of the website as well as just the kind of general downtown Longmont piece. And then we do have a volunteer form that my colleague Delray puts together. And it's basically just a sign up form or an interest form for all the different opportunities that we have throughout the year. It includes the things like the material distribution, but as well as like those event volunteer positions as well. So that can be found at downtownlongmont.com slash volunteer. So set up an easy link there. So yeah, I think that's the main ways to get hold of us. Is there anything else you'd like to add? Again, I just really appreciate this opportunity to come chat with you. And yeah, absolutely. And I think just kind of touching on a couple of things. So just really the importance of choosing to spend your money locally and how far that goes. You know, I mentioned the small business owners are kind of the heartbeat of our community. And they're also, you know, our neighbors. They live here. They live four blocks away or they live on the north side of town. But really when you're spending money with them, you're spending money directly in our community. And that money stays in our community. You're helping moms. You're helping dads. You're helping families. I love working with small businesses and local businesses. That's kind of what I want to do. Get them marketed and advertised and just share that they're out there because they're hard to find. Because when you've got Walmart or whatever, it's hard to find anybody else. And so, and it's not something that always is the easiest thing to do. So, yeah, absolutely. Yeah, it's, it's always super easy to, you know, click add to cart and have it show up on your doorstep a couple of days later. Right, right. But you say you're right. It is a conscious decision and it does take a little bit more effort, but it also, you get an experience with that. You know, you get to talk to the person that, that purchases product or talk about why they started their shop. You know, as you mentioned, it's, you know, families and moms and dads and we've had, we have countless businesses that are, you know, on their third generation. Longmont florist, for instance, just passed the business on to their son and he's, you know, it's going strong. And so, you know, find that, you know, elsewhere. We have the largest concentration of small, small businesses in the, in the town in Longmont, in the city of Longmont. So, yeah, so just really important to, you know, choose to spend your money locally and make that conscious decision. We do have a downtown Longmont gift card. If people are looking for gift ideas for teachers or coaches or family or friends, there's, I think, more than 70 participating locations, both retail and food and beverage. And it's really great. Just kind of choose your own adventure. You know, you can buy a gift card and, and then they get a list of all the businesses that are participating and they can choose where they want to go and where they want to spend that money. So, that's a really cool. Yeah. That's really cool. It's like a Visa gift card or just, just to a specific restaurant or something. Exactly. They can choose what they, I didn't know that. Yeah. That's really cool. It's a really awesome thing. Yeah. So obviously holiday time and into the school year, we often get inundated with those, but we love it. So, just wanted to throw that out there. You can also purchase them online through our website. They're not digital cards. It's a physical gift card. So, you do have to come pick it up or we can mail it, but you can check those out on our website as well. One note there. The businesses don't actually receive the money until you purchase something because it does act like a debit card because that money is just in a holding account. So, anyway, if you have a gift card, please go spend it. What else? I think the only other big piece is just people often, you know, parking is probably our number one hot button issue down here and totally understand obviously everybody, you know, wants to have easy access to their favorite businesses. I think we need to do a better job of communicating all the different parking garages and lots and spaces that are available because people, you know, drive to their business, look out front and maybe those parking spots are taken. But within maybe a block and a half maximum, there's still, you know, there's 50 more spots available. So, just wanted to mention that as well. We have the new development on Kauffman at between 5th and 6th on Kauffman. The spoke on Kauffman there has a public parking garage as part of it. Wow. It's free just like the rest of our parking downtown. I think it's a two hour limit during the workday and then nights and weekends are free. So that's the spoke on Kauffman garage and then we also have the Roosevelt Park Apartments garage at Longs Peak in Maine. And then all of our public lots are free. All the parking downtown is free. So, again, there's a link to directly to our parking map and all that at downtownlarmont.com slash parking. So that's really good to know. I didn't know that stuff either. I love this. Yeah. For the downtown summer concerts here at 4th and Kimbark, those are again the first four Fridays in June. So June 2nd, 9th, 16th and 23rd. And those are from 6 to 9 p.m. here at 4th and Kimbark. Again, it's free to attend the public's welcome. Kids, dogs on leashes, everybody's welcome to attend just a big community gathering. There is food and drink available for purchase. So there will be food trucks you can purchase directly from them or we do have alcoholic beverage tokens available for purchase. Working on a way to take a credit card payment for those, but we do recommend cash if you can bring it just in case. And those are $6 per token. And then we do have the like kids bounce houses, kids activity slide, things like that. And those are also $6 for a wristband that you can play all night during the concert. It's not babysitting, it's just... Right. Yeah, we do ask. Yeah, the kids are so supervised, but yeah, it's something to get out all the energy and get them a good night's sleep. Awesome. Yeah, I think that covered everything I wrote down. Sounds good. Thank you very much. I appreciate it. This was a really good time. Thank you to my guests, my listeners and my supporters. Serving together, we can strengthen our community. Please like and subscribe. Do all those other things. You know you got to do them because that's the easiest way that you can serve right now. Alright, now go. Connect with others and be a blessing.