The Borough is calling, are you answering?

Recent articles in “The Free Press” have shown where downtown merchants are asking you to make their business’s a regular part of your shopping trips this summer and into early fall. Are you taking note? The road construction necessary has unavoidably kept merchants in our downtown Quakertown Borough from doing their normal trade of commerce. We’ve seen where Sines has decided to wait until Christmas 06 to decide whether they will stay at it. Here’s what this man has noticed in traversing our town over the last few weeks.

My sons have begun a regular ritual out of visiting the Quakertown pool, just a few short blocks from the main thoroughfare of business in town. The boys are far from alone in the water. On any given hot day the pool is standing room only, On a recent Sunday visit ( Sunday 7/2 ) I waited patiently to get a chair while the boys played in a crowded pool from children’s to the diving boards. The snack stand had already sold out of pretzels and was dealing with a line of hungry swimmers who looked like Ticketmaster@ selling tickets to this summer’s biggest concerts. The pool is a hit, clear to see everyone in town and from parts beyond enjoy. Here’s the question that’s burning as I see it. Where are we all going before and after the splashing around? Are we stopping to eat in town? Shop? Hang out? It doesn’t seem to be the case. Why?

The reasons are too endless to list here. My guess is we are all creatures of habit. Having already grown accustomed to the big box stores we seem to take our dollars to the big boys along Route 309, missing without even thinking, that there are many items we can get right in our town patronizing those merchants that live and work among us. Our town has a variety of stores that has a wider selection than I’ve seen since moving here in 1994. You have an anchor grocery store, Italian Restaurant and 2 Pizza shops, Jewelry store, Mexican Restaurant, Pretzel bakery, general bakery, Café, book stores, art and frame shops, clothing stores, 2 water ice stores and more. Last and certainly not least, Sines. Sines has plenty under its one roof that you may find yourself needing or desiring.

If we have no trouble pulling into town for a day of swimming, then clearly we have the ability to leave the vehicle parked and walk the short stride into town for shopping, or even just looking and asking merchants what we need so they have a better idea on how to serve us going forward.

Back to school season is coming up, much to the sadness of our youngsters in town summer passes quickly and in a few weeks parents will start working our lists. Clothing, school supplies, book bags and other necessary items are all coming due. It would be a clever use of our time if we stopped in town a few times while taking in the summer fun at the pool or pouring over our favorite book at the library. Why not catch a good meal at the variety of good restaurants mentioned earlier? A city, town, neighborhood or village is a mirror reflection of the people who live there.

Ask anyone over 35 and we always seem to romance our past and the vibrant communities we grew up, here or elsewhere. Well, that call to action to that sense of electricity in our downtown falls now on our shoulders. What will our kids say they remember about our toting them around? Will they remember shopping in our town? Or will they remember hitting the bigger box stores? Neither is a bad choice, it’s this man’s view that the better choice is to stay true to the character of our town. Shopping our downtown friends and neighbors says we put our town first. Another startling reminder that we have no trouble getting in and out of town is the recent fireworks and community day in the borough earlier this month. Once again, we have no trouble crowding the parks, pools and streets for recreation, entertainment and relaxation.

The last turn of that mental wheel is commerce. Many tell me that a big part of the reason that shopping in town isn’t on their ‘to do’ list is the traffic, congestion and parking problems. Again, as evidenced by the fact that we get in town for events and summer fun, the objection doesn’t hold a lot of water. Can you see the day when there is a line waiting to get into a downtown merchant? Or reservations are suggested for a table at a downtown restaurant? If you can then you have the vision many of us have that our town has the foundation for a great future.

One of the reasons I rant about our town getting our disposable dollar is that local owners tend to support civic, community and non for profit groups in the area from their proceeds. They better our downtown merchants do, the better we all stand to gain. Before you think I am paid to tell you this, rest assured I’m not. I take my approach from my youth, like so many of us do. I grew up in a section of Northeast Philadelphia known as “Mayfair”. This community rose to the occasion and supported much business’s in the area and has become its own thriving community away from the bigger center city.

Choice is your decision. You have it, you always will. Make the better choice to spend time and some money in downtown. You’re coming in town anyway to go swimming. Make a splash in your downtown before or after and you’ll be glad you did. The call to action is and has been made clear. Are you listening?

See ‘ya around town.