Spring is arriving downtown! There are more pedestrians on the sidewalks, the trees in Elmwood and Kennedy Parks are about to bud, and CityCenter is gearing up for its upcoming events. Mark your calendar for all the exciting things headed downtown, the urban core of the Housatonic Valley.
You’ll want to keep plugged in to all the good music emanating from Main Street: City Ale House has musical offering Sub Rosa Party (MySpace.com/SubRosaParty), Cousin Larry’s continues to crank most nights of the week, and the Heirloom Arts Theatre (MySpace.com/HeirloomArtsTheatre) has a special weekend of music planned in conjunction with WXCI April 18 and 19.
April is also the month that season tickets go on sale at the Danbury Ice Arena for Danbury’s new hockey team. In a March 24 press conference, the Eastern Professional Hockey League (EPHL) enthusiastically announced their arrival in Danbury. Downtown will once again have its own professional hockey team—and we can name it! The new owners want the community to get involved; you can enter your ideas at EPHL. com. I’ve submitted my two: The Danbury CityCenters and The Danbury Hat Trick . Season tickets go on sale April 1 with the season opening November 25.
And, so, that’s April. Now, looking ahead to May…
Mark your calendar for the Connecticut Film Festival. On February 6, the Danbury Common Council met to discuss the city’s sponsorship to name Danbury as the host city for the CT Film Festival (CTFF). Their approval to sponsor the event for $75,000 is a ringing endorsement of our efforts at CityCenter and will definitely be a boon to downtown—there is no doubt that cultural and arts offerings contribute to the quality of life and define our community as a great place to live and work.
CityCenter is working with the CTFF organization and the Housatonic Valley Cultural Alliance (HVCA) to stage the three main events. The first event will take place opening night, May 20, at the Palace Theatre. Yes! The Palace Theatre will be available for film screenings.
To build downtown Danbury
into an arts, culture, and
entertainment destination is
what we at CityCenter see as
one of our most important missions.The opening reception will also be held at the Palace Theatre with the help of the creative minds of Carter Boyajian and Peter Castellucci, who brought downtown the amazing sound, light, and photo montage installation at the Palace for First Night Danbury. We are also in talks with the Ancient Order of Hibernians, who have a club next to the Palace, to take over their space during the film festival. Our creative team is hoping to establish an after-hours, invitation-only club with a 70's disco theme for the duration of the film festival. Wouldn’t you like access to the Green Room, the place to see and be seen during CTFF?
We’re planning to stage the industry bash downtown, too. At present, we are eyeballing the “Grassy Alley” across the street from the CityCenter offices for the Friday night event. There will be a big tent, lights, and music spilling into the street and lots of buzz in the air. The filming of the Rebecca Miller movie The Many Lives of Pippa Lee (the cast includes Winona Ryder, Robin Wright Penn, Monica Belushi, Keanu Reeves, Alan Arkin, and Parker Posey) will be in full swing downtown by then, and we’re hoping that there will be real industry types at our industry bash. Check out CTFilmFest.com for the latest info.
And, don’t forget this downtown tradition: the Memorial Day Parade! Downtown plays host to the Danbury Council of Veterans, who plan and execute this time-tested and true all-American event on May 26. A memorial service at St. Peter’s Church begins at 6:30 am followed by the placement of wreaths at area monuments. The parade will commence at 9:30 am from the intersection of Rose and Main Streets and terminate in Rogers Park.
Of course, there’s more to come: our new Gateway Mural, the Hat City Music Festival, summer concerts on the Green, Meeker’s Hardware 125th anniversary party, the Danbury Symphony Orchestra, the return of the Farmers’ Market to Kennedy Park, a car cruise and bike night, Nutmeg Games Exhibition Sports Night, Ghost Walks, “Wall of Food” food drive (we want to collect 100 tons this summer), and our headline talent for the Taste of Danbury, Blue Oyster Cult.
Downtown Danbury is a place with unlimited potential. To build downtown Danbury into an arts, culture, and entertainment destination is what we at CityCenter see as one of our most important missions. As always, your thoughts are welcome. Write to
City Center Update
Wow! It has been a full year since I have taken over the role of manager for CityCenter Danbury and what a year it has been. I am still filled with just as much hope and optimism for downtown as I was a year ago. Being the urban center of a region comes with both great opportunities and potential pitfalls. My understanding of this has been sharpened recently by actions taken by the Danbury Common Council in response to some difficult and controversial issues. After fifty-two weeks on the job, my experiences have highlighted for me how strongly the Danbury community feels about their downtown, while my initial expectations of what the community can accomplish here have only been somewhat altered.
On Wednesday, February 6, 2008, the Danbury Common Council met to discuss and decide their twenty-nine (29) agenda items. Of particular interest to us at CityCenter were items #27 and #29. One of the proposals explored was for the city’s sponsorship to name downtown Danbury as the host city for the CT Film Festival this May 20-25; the other was for ICE ACCESS resolution 287(g). On Friday, February 8, 2008, you may have read with interest the double headlines about downtown on the Danbury News-Times front page. On that day, CityCenter phones began to ring and I realized that my job just got twice as hard.
The approval of the CT Film Festival will be a boon to downtown - there is no doubt. Cultural and arts offerings contribute to the quality of life and define our community as great place to live and work. I really feel that the changes in the past year have helped shape the public perception that downtown Danbury is a place with unlimited potential to grow into a cultural and arts destination. And this perception is not a pipe dream!
There is hope; there is excitement; and there is support from local citizens and people residing outside the city to bring downtown back. Most exciting is the Mayor’s commitment to organizing a task force to create a strategic plan for downtown development, as well as the generally favorable response by major property owners and business developers, to such an initiative.
Downtown Danbury’s time has come and the time is now! To build downtown Danbury into an arts and culture destination is what we at CityCenter see as one of our most important missions. The undeniable success of First Night Danbury speaks to the appetite in the area for cultural happenings and the interest people have outside the downtown area to support CityCenter events. The recent launch of the Housatonic Valley Cultural Alliance compliments the growing interest in the region’s artistic vitality.
Signs of a re-energized CityCenter are visible all around:
New signage and downtown banners with our updated logo
Next site selection for another Gateway Mural Project underway
Expanded and improved CT Grown Farmers’ Market returning to Kennedy Park
Plans to build on the successful Concerts on the Green Summer Series in 2007 and record attendance at the Taste of Danbury in 2007
Work with property and business owners to create more visual arts space downtown to host gallery shows and create cooperative artist space
Ongoing dialogue with music festival promoters and the Danbury Ice Arena to present shows in a 2750-seat venue
Discussions with WSCU on how to make CityCenter part of the college experience
Response to i-95 WRKI FM broadcasting their morning show live from CityCenter on December 20th and the once-monthly Comcast call-in show ‘Ideas at Work and Beyond’ have been overwhelmingly positive.
Assisting the property owner of the Palace Theater in his commitment to restore the Palace as a cultural hub of downtown.
The proposal by the CT Film Festival organizers to name downtown Danbury as the host city offers a unique opportunity to work towards the goal of creating downtown as a destination and build on the energy that already exists. Approval of a festival of this quality and recognition will help create a signature event for downtown Danbury and put downtown Danbury on the map locally, regionally, and, potentially, nationally. The continued growth and success of the CT Film Festival as demonstrated in the past two years makes this endeavor a very promising one not only for CityCenter but also, for the Greater Danbury area. For this reason, CityCenter wholeheartedly encouraged the members of the Common Council to endorse the plan as proposed and we are so grateful that they did.
The euphoria resulting from the city allocating $75,000 to the CT Film Festival was somewhat tempered by the community’s response to the ICE ACCESS resolution. The evening of the Common Council meeting, I found myself in a crowd of 3500+ people standing outside City Hall concerned about the proposal. The fact that this topic is so emotional and thousands more showed up than anticipated and nothing nearing police force was required reflects our community in a very positive way.
Danbury has always been a place about community
and no place can the community convene,
congregate, and celebrate better than downtown. By the end of the week, though, I think all of us working together downtown were exhausted by the push and pull of a hot political topic, the shouts of support and protest, and the stream of local and national media reporters and satellite trucks.
While we at CityCenter feel it is not in our purview to take a position about ICE Resolution 287g, we are concerned about the potential economic impact it may have on the downtown district’s merchants and property owners, many of whom have focused their efforts on serving the immigrant population. It is our hope to serve as a conduit which will enable our constituents to receive clarification and communication regarding the true ramifications of this resolution, versus current misperceptions.
We welcome City Hall’s support of our efforts in this capacity as we continue to serve the CityCenter community – churches, banks, business, government, and academia – for the betterment of downtown Danbury.
Danbury has always been a place about community and no place can the community convene, congregate, and celebrate better than downtown. At CityCenter, our focus is the ongoing revitalization and economic vibrancy of the Danbury Downtown Special Services District. By instituting the principles of organization, design, promotion, and business restructuring according to the National Main Street USA guidelines, we work very hard for the continued sustainability of our beautiful city. As always, your comments are welcome.
Spring is arriving downtown! There are more pedestrians on the sidewalks, the trees in Elmwood and Kennedy Parks are about to bud, and CityCenter is gearing up for its upcoming events. Mark your calendar for all the exciting things headed downtown, the urban core of the Housatonic Valley.
