By Sophie Pappas
For owner of Ballerinas and Bruisers Steve Schwartz, relocating to Zionsville years ago and opening a store on Main Street meant coming back to small-town roots, where the community is supportive of local businesses.
Schwartz spent more than 20 years in New York City, and was used to paying exorbitant prices just for renting retail space. While he has no plans to move from Zionsville, he does have one concern in the village: street closures.
Schwartz, who owns one of the few businesses that is open on Sundays, said he is disappointed when the town closes Main Street for events that don’t seem to benefit the town or the shop owners.
One example of this was a bike race that went through the village last month.
“I don’t understand how that event would have benefitted the merchants,” Schwartz said. “And [the town]didn’t even notify [the merchants].”
Schwartz said he called four other merchants on Main and none had received notification.
Schwartz said he is in favor of bringing events to the town and making Zionsville a destination for tourists, but that an event such as the bike race only brought several spectators and even fewer shoppers.
“I’ve been open on Sundays for seven years. And I pay rent 365 days a year, so I should have the right to do business 365 days a year,” he said.
Schwartz emphasized that he loves running his children’s boutique, but that the town “has to do something to step it up” in the communications department.
“I don’t have any complaints about [Brick Street Market],” Schwartz said of another street-closure event that happens every year. “Not a lot of people come in but at least they are shopping that day.”
For the bike race, Schwartz said the street was closed all day for an event that didn’t start until 3:30 p.m.
“My biggest frustration is it’s tough enough for the merchants here,” Schwartz said.
Earlier this summer, the Zionsville Town Council approved a street-closure ordinance.
At the June 2 council meeting, Councilman Steve Mundy introduced a document to the council that was drafted with the help of the Zionsville Chamber of Commerce.
This document later was approved and states: “After a review of the special events policy, [the chamber thinks]limitation is the best route to take,” thus potentially limiting the number of street events in Zionsville.
So how could a bike race, such as the one in August, close the street all day?
The chamber recommended that an addendum be made to the special events policy, only addressing Saturday street closures, and only full-day closures that prohibit parking, and “not rolling closures for walks, runs, and events like March-a-Thon.”
At the time of approval, Councilwoman Candace Ulmer said this policy is to help the merchants, because they “are affected by what happens on Main Street.”
Chamber Downtown Committee Chairman Tom Casalini said that the chamber is not in favor of or in control of when the streets will be closed for events.
“It’s totally out of our hands,” he said. “But our hope is after this ordinance is in place in 2015, then (the chamber) can have more say in when the streets are closed.”
Casalini said the chamber was notified about the bike race in February but failed to communicate this to the merchants. He said this was a result of human error and that this event, like all events, was first approved at town hall.
“People are misinformed if they think the chamber is closing streets,” Casalini said.
Casalini, who runs a business in the village, said he and the chamber are looking forward to “having more say,” in when streets are closed next year and that the chamber is always “wanting open dialogue with the merchants and the town.”
“We are happy that this ordinance is the first step to limiting street closures,” he said. “We are for the merchants not against them. And I think everyone knows that once Rosie’s (a cafe opening on Main Street) comes Sunday closings like for the bike race will be detrimental to that business.”
