Video by Express-Times Photographer, Bill Adams
Posted by: Noël Jones
Check out the Express-Times article by Bill Weichert on just how full Easton's downtown area was yesterday for the Drinky's Red Bull Rail Jam in Center Square. Kudos to Mayor Panto for getting solidly behind this event--we need more of this kind of thing here (and the marketing that goes with it) to attract more tourism and create fresh excitement about our town.
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19 comments:
We happened to catch the tail end of this as Jeanette was coming in from NY sat. night.
Parking was a bear, but it looked as though the city was really on top of things.
The police presence was large and the crowd seemed happy and into it all. I have no doubt this was great for local business, and was all in all a very good idea.
Would love to see more of such things.
Thanks,
David
I am looking at this from the hind end, but I am equally impressed with the clean-up of the event. We were in Centre Square Sunday afternoon after brunch (at Porter's of course!) and there was not a sign of the event left. I had feared leftover...whatevers, and there were none!
Nice job!
UT
I took my children with us in the later afternoon and was very impressed with the crowd. I believe the ET reporter may have been there too early because by the time the finals started at 6PM there were thousands there. There were also hundreds in all of the retaurants all day long. We went to one of the m for a late lunch to get out of the cold and the manager told us it was their best day ever. With the crowds who booked Valentine's Day diners and the State Theatre show sold out I am sure it was a great day. The good news was the event was over by 7:15 just in time to make way for the theatre and dinner crowds.
And yes, the clean up was superb. With more and more events people from the burbs who haven't been to Easton in more than a decade will come, have a fun experience and return.
Nice job to all invovled.
Anon 10:56 you are absolutely correct. I had to go downtown today and I was in several of the establishments. The following said they had their best day ever on Saturday:
Terra Cafe
Carmecorn Shop
Dunkin' Donuts
Valenca
Pearly Baker's
RiverGrill
I was there on Saturday as well and it was awesome.
I was sorry to miss the actual event, as I had a conflicting appointment, but as I was driving downtown for my appointment (down Ferry and then turning on to 2nd street) was that there were so many health, middle-class youths walking around and looking excited on the peripheral streets radiating out from Centre Square. I thought, "this is how Easton should look ALL the time--like a COLLEGE town--after all, Lafayette is IN OUR CITY." I have often lamented that we don't see more Lafayette students on a regular basis frequenting the restaurants, cafes and shops downtown, and I continue to blame this largely on the Sodexo contract that Lafayette has, that requires that students by full meal plans whether they want to or not, making it more likely that they will stay and eat on campus rather than coming downtown to spend money in the city.
It was really nice to see all that youthful energy walking around downtown--it reminded me of other great college towns like Providence, RI and Austin, TX, where students are an integral part of the economies there. I want Easton to be like that all the time--bring that money down the hill!
Hi all, I'm going to go off topic here, but I have a local issue.
Clearly some one with the city recycling crew does not care for my politics. I've kept quite on the matter, but it's been months since they've taken our recycling, and shocker, I go out today, everyone elses is gone, and my bucket sits there pristine and untouched.
The question of course is, other than hiding my recyclables in my regular garbage, what exactly do I do about this ?
Any thoughts?
Contact the city--if you just call the main number, someone will direct you to the right department.
There is a link to the city web site which has all contact info for them on the right side bar of the home page on this blog.
Thanks, because yeah, it's time.
We've really had about enough of this and it's utterly clear that it's personal.
The neighbors throw unbroken down boxes willy nilly onto the street and they get taken, I break my boxes down and even use twine, I follow the law to the letter and yet almost every two weeks, there sits my recycling untouched.
Thanks Noel.
David
So, I called the city and they've promised to look into it. I'd like to pause here to mention that I'm not suggesting some odd conspiracy, but more likely a single individual with a grudge. And to be fair, some weeks our recycling does get picked up, but they are few and far between and yet our neighbors stuff get taken regardless of how it's put out. So I think I'm right to make a noise about it.
hopefully it gets dealt with, I really don't feel like having to start getting up at 4 am to video tape the recycling guys just to get my recycling taken, but I will if it comes to that.
Anyhow,
Thanks,
David
And thank you city of Easton public works, my recycling has been picked up, and hopefully that ends the problem. I should have done this months ago, but I wanted to be truly sure that I was being fair in my assumptions before raising my voice.
Nicely done Easton I'm a big fan of conservation and such so, I look forward to being able to do it again.
Thanks,
David
A quick BTW here, we love our garbage guys, they are an "all go no quit" sort of crew.
We used to love our recycling folks, and respect the extra work they do dealing with the majority who don't follow the rules. Most are spot on, and we liked the service, about a year ago that changed for us and only for us, and that...not cool.
I will be tapping the day before and the after pick up this next trip just because I'm a paranoid sort.
Oddly, if it is some odd form of personal protest I actually kind of support it, but as it is me it's being done against, I invite the protester to just knock on the door and start a conversation.
Peace,
David
I have to agree--the garbage guys have been great on my street. They work at a vigorous clip, do a good job and are always friendly.
I, too, have been very pleased with trash and recycling in Easton lately, (David's problem has to be an outlier), but a friend reports that the latest pickup on Nesquehoning Street was at 3:55AM. They come early here too, but it seems that earlier than 4 AM is a bit too early, no?
Allentown picks up all their trash at night.
Back to Noels comment about the Lafayette college disconnect... we have a babysitter who goes to Lafayette, and she said that from the moment of her orientation she was made to feel that if she went downtown she'd get mugged. I know strides are being made to connect city to college, but something has to be done about the culture of fear being intentionally or unintentionally conveyed to Lafayette students. Its ridiculous.
Last Thursday I asked her if she was going to the Rail Jam. She had no idea about it. Now if I was promoting such an event and had a college under a mile away, you can bet I'd have flyers and posters all over that campus. Strange that this event, a perfect venue for attracting students downtown, was not hyped AT ALL from what I can tell.
ikindle--thanks for the post--very interesting...and disappointing to hear...I hope Mayor Panto is reading this so that he can address it with the college.
I think that most likely this is a liability issue on the part of the college. And for that reason, I know that the college has very strict rules about volunteers and such. I can't really blame them. Would it be nice to have more college folks around the downtown area, sure. But at the end of the day the college has responsibilities under law to it's students.
So I get it.
Peace,
David
David--that makes no sense. Why would it be any more of a liability issue for Lafayette to encourage its students to hang out downtown than it is for any other college in any other college town in America? Students are responsible for themselves when they are not on campus.
And as far as those who want to perpetuate the idea that downtown isn't as safe or unsafe as anywhere else in the Valley, don't forget that the female student who was attacked (unsuccessfully because she fought him off) at knife point by a guy who tried to put her in the truck of a car was ON CAMPUS.
And regardless of what the college tells them about not going downtown, they manage to get downtown to drink at Drinky's anyway. I really think it has much to do with the fact that they are forced to pay for Sodexo meal plans, and therefore if they buy dinner downtown, they are paying twice for that meal. Sodexo doesn't sell students alcohol, so they go downtown to get it.
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