Grow business on Elm,
Create a Pedestrian-friendly Main Street,
Leave neighborhoods to the north alone.
Well, we have had some good conversations online. Thank you!
Based on what i heard, this is the direction that seems to make sense to me. Naturally, more discussion is invited.
i was told to go back to the drawing board. Okay. Well these are just simple concepts, hardly finished construction drawings. i'll leave that to others. like civil engineer and street designers. I'm just a process analyst, a very seasoned experience designer, and web marketing information architect. But that brings up another thing I wanted to talk about.
The primary goal that I began with remains to simplify traffic on Main by making it one way and thereby freeing the space previously required for left turn lanes to be given to widening the sidewalks on either side.
See the previous blog post, WIDE SIDEWALKS PLAN FOR HISTORIC DOWNTOWN FRISCO https://www.belveal.com/blog/2017/9/24/wide-sidewalk-vision-for-historic-downtown-frisco
Bring traffic to business in the hope of converting visitors into customers
In the web world, our goal is to literally bring in traffic to the business in the hope of converting visitors into customers. We do this by understanding the needs and motivations of visitors, giving them a pleasant and productive experience while they are on our site, and giving them reasons to come back. We want to give them a sense that the site is alive, it has a heartbeat, a pulse, and so they have reason to keep returning just to see what is happening here lately. This is how we bring people back repeatedly, frequently, Habitually.
It is all about designing great experiences.
in the course of all this, we build a relationship and our site with our visitors and our site or virtual store becomes part of their personal world. Tell me is there any part of this that does not apply to a physical site or store or city location, including historic Frisco downtown?
i used to think that architecture and city spaces were a great metaphor for eCommerce web sites. I have come to realize that they are all parts of the same thing from a human perspective. It is all about designing great experiences. Whether physical or virtual, the spaces we inhabit need to perform certain things to keep us engaged and coming back.
Five years is a long time in this economy for such a prime location to sit vacant
Ferguson Welding was a terrific family owned business. I used to shop there regularly. Jon Ferguson was a great supporter of my metal art. That was five years ago.
Ferguson Welding is right in the middle of Frisco. The store has been closed for five years ever since Jon Ferguson sold the family business. I used to shop three for all my welding needs. I loved doing business with them and was very sad to see them go.. My understanding is that it was a great opportunity for them and that's great, but that isn't the point.
My point is that five years is a long time in this economy for such a prime location to sit vacant. I don't even know who owns the building now. But I sure would like to see it and other businesses in the area thrive. Wouldn't you?
A very simple plan
Let's bring in some traffic on Elm. Let's bring the right kind of traffic, Let's bring people who like downtown Frisco and are interested in seeing it grow. And they're interested enough that they will keep coming back and making it a part of their world. It's a very simple plan.
Grow business on Elm,
Create a Pedestrian-friendly Main Street,
Leave neighborhoods to the north alone.
Feel free to respond here or on the Frisco Intersections Facebook page. https://www.facebook.com/FriscoIntersections/
Thanks!