It may have been a case of the local rumor mill— fueled by social-media activity and an inaccurate report from an otherwise trusted newspaper of record— working itself into an exponential frenzy of misinformation, but recent claims that the Bixby Knolls First Fridays Art Walk has been canceled are wrong, according to the one source who should know better than anyone.
In an interview Tuesday morning at his office, Blair Cohn, executive director of the Bixby Knolls Business Improvement Association (BKBIA), reiterated the information he had written two weeks ago in a statement in which he explained that the BKBIA will no longer serve as organizer of the event and that interested local businesses will again assume responsibility for hosting activities the first Friday of each month on their own.
“Beginning in May, the BKBIA will transition out from being the organizer of the First Fridays Art Walk and hand the event back over to our business members to program the fun in their individual locations,” Cohn wrote in his April 18 announcement. “Many businesses will continue to stay open late for the community, and we encourage you all to come out to support them as you always have.”
On Tuesday, Cohn expressed frustration with the ill-informed rumors and jumped-to conclusions that spread on Nextdoor.com and Facebook, including speculation about why the event had been “canceled.”
“When you read a headline, hear a sound byte or snippet, without knowing anything at all about the decisions behind it, it’s easy to run and imagine and twist it,” Cohn said. “If you spend any length of time on social media, the negativity is just overwhelming.”
The fact is that, with the BKBIA’s contract for (now former) redevelopment agency (RDA) funding getting closer to its expiration date, the association must now plan carefully for the future and maximize the value of those funds, Cohn said, adding that it is critical to manage the resources to further the BKBIA’s primary mission of supporting its members, making improvements to the district as a whole, ensuring a clean and safe environment and creating manageable, fun and safe events for the district.
Cohn explained that, for a year, the BKBIA’s board has been discussing how to stretch redevelopment dollars and “leave nothing on the table” when those funds disappear.
“As a side note, we’ve started these conversations through my role on the Economic Development Commission and as a BID (business-improvement district) leader and the other BIDs, with the mayor, city manager, council offices and the Economic Development Department, in finding what we’ll now call ‘economic-development funds’,” he said. “As the leader here, I have to look way past the immediate horizon, and I have to look past the first Friday of every month to say, ‘How are we going to stretch [the funds] and what is the impact?'”
The RDA money helps to fund: the BKBIA’s staff; security patrol; all façade improvements, including painting building exteriors, signage and installing and repairing security lighting; landscaping, including trimming trees, pulling weeds and installing new plants; murals; and events such as First Fridays and Concerts in the Park(ing Lot).
“Everybody’s seeing what the results of these funds are,” Cohn said. “Prior to [acquiring RDA funds], we had just the BKBIA’s operating budget.”
He explained that the City, upon hearing the announcement that the State would be eliminating redevelopment agencies, granted a 10-year contract to the BKBIA.
“They locked us in for 10 years,” he said. “That was as far as they could go and be accepted. They couldn’t do a 20-year, 30-year [contract] because the State would have said, ‘We’re not going for that.’ So, that locked us in for the max. Well, here we are getting close, because it’s another year and a half before these funds go away.”
Therefore, it has become infeasible for the BKBIA to continue sponsoring the First Fridays events because the cost of doing so has grown significantly over the years.
What began 12 years ago as a small event that one business hosted has transformed into an immense attraction that stretches multiple blocks. As the art walk grew, so did the costs of advertising, security, post-event cleaning crews and compensation for live bands and deejays, for example.
“Once we got the RDA contract, we budgeted $3,000 a month,” he said. “So, it went from $100 up to $3,000 a month because we started to book all the music to connect the dots.”
Cohn said residents seem to think the art walk just pops up once a month without planning.
“People think First Fridays just happens,” he said. “Well, it doesn’t just happen, because the coordinating of it is all month in this office— all month.”
He explained that, eventually, the budget for the walk reached $5,000 a month, and that’s when he began to question whether it had outgrown its original purpose.
“So, at some point, we have to say ‘time out: the event has traction, we’ve got to maximize what we do, and are we off the path of our mission?'” he explained. “What’s the mission? To put people inside the businesses. Now, you could easily say, ‘Yes, the restaurants are full— no problem.’ But are [residents] going there and spending money in the shops? And it hit a point where it went the other direction, where there were so many people on the sidewalk […] it just got to the point that this is a festival again, which is why we canceled the street fair and the snow events, because everybody was then in the street and they weren’t in the businesses. So, we hit that tipping point.”
Then came liability, Cohn said.
“I’ve seen people of all ages stepping out into the street and walking around the parked cars to get around the crowd,” he said. “Maybe the band is great. Maybe there are people stopping and talking. Maybe there’s a vendor. The liability shoots through the roof. We have fun planning it all month, until 5:00 the day of. Then I hold my breath and keep my fingers crossed that nothing happens, because I see people running across the street.”
For now, in lieu of coordinating the art walk, the BKBIA this June will launch its new “Summer Saturdays” event, which will be scheduled in the afternoon during normal business hours to make it easier for BKBIA members to participate and for families in the community to attend. Cohn said the late-afternoon scheduling takes into consideration that many families attend events such as little-league games earlier in the day. The event will feature art, music, free classes of various types, tastings and food pairings, movies, the trolley and perhaps even a petting zoo, he said, adding that all activities will take place inside businesses to “strengthen the connectivity between community members and business owners.”
Prior to that event, the BKBIA will coordinate a Small Business Saturday on May 19, similar to the national Small Business Saturday that takes place in November. Cohn added residents can also still look forward to the summer Concert in the Park(ing Lot) series, the new “Knights of the Round (Turn)Table” group, the Strollers walking group, the Literary Society book club meetings, the Good Spirits Club and Kidical Mass group bike-riding programs.
As for what to expect the first Friday of each month, the BKBIA’s sponsorship of the art walk is not completely off the table. Cohn said the BKBIA will revisit the possibility of resuming it later in the year. Additionally, many local businesses are planning to proceed as usual.
In a phone interview Wednesday, Ernie Henson, owner of Willmore Wine Bar on Atlantic Avenue, said his establishment has featured live music on the first Friday of each month and will continue to do so.
“Not a whole lot, if anything, will change with us,” Henson said.
Another Bixby Knolls business owner, Cassandra Vitale, said activities in May and June at her yoga studio, FreeSpirit, also on Atlantic, will be in line with what the business has always done for First Fridays.
“We love to feature local artists, artisans and craftspeople, as well as local bands,” she said. “Moving forward, we plan to have a free yoga class sponsored by the BKBIA on Small Business Saturday, and for Summer Saturdays we will have a barefoot dance party with a deejay and Fine Feathers Kombucha and other fun party things like hoop dancers and face and body painting.”
Vitale said she and her staff are looking at reworking their First Fridays activities starting in July to something that is more yoga- and wellness-related, but those plans are still in the works.
“No matter what,” she said, “we will have events and keep our community rocking and connected.”
