Keep East Main Street weekend walking mall in place – for people and shelter animals

Regarding the request of “the few” who are calling for a reopening of Front Royal’s East Main Street to traffic on weekends.

Town Council wisely banned traffic during the pandemic from early Friday evenings to Monday morning in order to help small businesses, particularly restaurants, get customers back, some by simply reopening, others by expanding their customer areas on to the sidewalks and into the street.

To my mind, it has worked and could work better if the two or three store operators pressing for reopening to curbside parking used their imaginations and made themselves more customer-friendly. First, they claim that banning parking on Main on weekends adversely affects their businesses (mostly antiques, jewelry, and an art gallery/store).

What?

How about the public parking lots less than a block away from East Main, a minute’s walk away that is no problem for this 87-year-old!

My personal experience, helping in a fundraiser each Friday evening called “Yappy Hour” (6-8 p.m.), has been to see more people strolling Main Street in the late afternoon than at any time during my 18-year residency in Warren County. I have also noted shop owners sitting in darkened stores, whatever the hour of the day, awaiting customers to come to them rather than displaying samples of their wares on, say, a sidewalk table, or easel, and chatting up the browsers and inviting them into their places of business to look around. It’s called salesmanship.

In short, use your moxie and don’t disturb what is a good thing for the majority. Handled with resourcefulness this could be a good thing for all – including our Julia Wagner Animal Shelter which sorely needs the funds from our outdoor Main Street weekend event that could not successfully be held without the outdoor space provided.

Malcolm Barr Sr.
Warren County