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We find it hard to believe that some of the downtown business owners are complaining about events such as Mule Camp Market, saying those events stifle business. Don't those business owners realize that people come from different areas for these events and would otherwise never know their stores existed?
My husband and I have lived in Clermont for the past seven years and we always try to go to the shops and restaurants on the square rather then go to the ones on Dawsonville Highway because we want the downtown to survive. But you need to draw people there with more events, not fewer. I lived in a town that had car shows every Friday night and the square was always crowded, not just on the days the events were held.
Your business also has to be open more than a few hours here or there. We have visited downtown to have a late lunch and found no restaurants open at times.
We also never have seen any drunk downtown deviants or have ever had a problem finding parking downtown. If there were any parking problems in the past, the new parking deck has surely taken care of that.
Downtown squares are made so communities can gather and to have a chance to get to know one another, it would make sense to have as many events as possible.
Ellen and Tom Jelly
Clermont