Old Town marketing<\/strong><\/p>\nThree weeks before the solstice, Holly Peralta \u2013 the city\u2019s director of communications \u2013 sent out an energetic mass email.<\/p>\n
\u201cSummer is heating up in Scottsdale, and so is the excitement in Old Town,\u201d she proclaimed.<\/p>\n
\u201cJune Days returns throughout the month of June, offering residents and visitors a chance to explore exclusive events, limited-time promotions and summer-only discounts at local businesses.\u201d<\/p>\n
The release trumpeted \u201cmore than 30 activities designed to showcase the unique experiences, shops, restaurants and attractions that make Old Town Scottsdale a premier destination year-round,\u201d promoting the likes of Scottsdale Stadium tours, Stories and Sweets, the Tournament of Treats, an Afterglow Sunset Photo Competition and Global Run Day.<\/p>\n
Also in June, City Manager Greg Caton sent a bubbly email to Scottsdale City Council.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Old Town Marketing Program is focused on driving visitation and spending throughout Old Town by directing approximately $850,000 in advertising toward in-market visitors,\u201d Caton told Scottsdale\u2019s elected leaders.<\/p>\n
\u201cThrough June 5, we invested $740,793 in marketing, advertising and activations.\u201d<\/p>\n
So how are the Old Town task force and marketing program efforts and money working out?<\/p>\n
Unlike the weather \u2013 not so hot, according to Paul Mitchell, owner of the Old Town Tavern in the Civic Center for two decades.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is probably one of the worst summers that I have been through,\u201d Mitchell moaned.<\/p>\n
He recently moved the tavern to a bigger location next door.<\/p>\n
The space Mitchell vacated remains empty.<\/p>\n
How has Mitchell managed to make it through one punishing summer after another?<\/p>\n
\u201cThe secret is to have a nest egg of cash,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cHowever, that is going fast \u2013 with the expansion of the new space.\u201d<\/p>\n
Janie White seconded that.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe summers are always tough,\u201d White said. \u201cThe businesses have to make all their money during the season to get through the summer.\u201d<\/p>\n
White is an Old Town commercial property owner.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cMy tenants are having a difficult time,\u201d she said. \u201cThere\u2019s not a lot of people down there.\u201d<\/p>\n
White, who is a member of Borowsky\u2019s task force, complains that city promotions \u201care sucking business away\u201d from her neighborhood. She insists the likes of Canal Convergence and Scottsdazzle are pulling customers from Historic Old Town to the waterfront.<\/p>\n
She proudly notes her father, the late Malcolm White, was the first mayor of Scottsdale \u2013 coining the phrase \u201cThe West\u2019s Most Western Town.\u201d<\/p>\n
What would Malcolm White think of Old Town in the summer of 2026?<\/p>\n
\u201cHe would still be proud of it,\u201d Janie White said. \u201cBut I think he would want the city to stay out of trying to be restaurant-retail managers.\u201d<\/p>\n
As Pejman sees it, Old Town food venues closing \u201care a canary in the coal mine.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe restaurants are dropping like flies,\u201d the gallery owner and political activist said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s devastating, because restaurants are one of the main businesses that activate a downtown area.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Old Town \u2013 or Ghost Town? Scottsdale’s historic center is in the midst of its annual summer snooze,…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":1018873,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5131],"tags":[5229,5643,1587,138901,407768,43184,300550,407767,174547,1589,7600,117561,67,586,132,5230,68,2969,238087],"class_list":["post-1018872","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-phoenix","tag-america","tag-arizona","tag-az","tag-lisa-borowsky","tag-malcolm-white","tag-old-town","tag-old-town-tavern","tag-oldtown","tag-paul-mitchell","tag-phoenix","tag-scottsdale","tag-scottsdale-civic-center","tag-united-states","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-unitedstates","tag-unitedstatesofamerica","tag-us","tag-usa","tag-western-town"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/117144382957135604","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1018872","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1018872"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1018872\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1018873"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1018872"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1018872"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1018872"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}