As I neared the fourth year authoring the Punxsutawney Phil Twitter account (@GroundhogPhil), I cut my losses on attempts to hand the account over to the Groundhog Club and just went for it.

Read previous year’s posts and subsequent coverage here:

• 2011: A big day for @groundhogphil
• 2010: Huffington Post, Good Morning America, National Geographic, Urlesque and more pick up @groundhogphil
• 2009: Punxsutawney Phil on Twitter: a lost opportunity?

For 2012, it is clear the growing interest in animal based Twitter accounts (see @BronxZooCobra and @NYTChicken) amplified the general public’s interest in chatting with a forecasting rodent via 140 characters or less.

Building on three years of prognostication-related tweets, this year’s momentum was strong and resulted in even more big name coverage of Phil’s tweets. Like doing an interview with Mashable in character, for starters.

Again this year, The Huffington Post, The National Post, local media and weather sites again retweeted and/or referred to @GroundhogPhil’s tweets.

And the data was just tremendous. The RT’s were flying!!

In the spirit of good faith, I again offer up the account to the top-hatted groundhog bunch. However, given they’ve ignored this offer and opportunity for four years now, I’ve decided I’m happy to keep it until Phil predicts Twitter is a relevant audience for their event.

Long live @groundhogphil!

As a downtown resident, Chaska advocate and branding/marketing expert, I was honored to part of the Downtown Chaska Master Plan Task Force that helped craft this recommendation.

Here’s the Star Tribune photo with an arrow pointing to the roof of my house:

Photo by David Joles, Star Tribune - updated with arrow to my house

As part of the year-long process, I learned a lot about the history of the community, civic government, community development and parking. Parking? Yeah – it’s actually a big deal when it comes to new business.

Most banks require businesses to prove they have a dedicated number of parking spots to even get a loan. This factor is a huge impediment to downtown development and is part of the reason the Mix Diner/Ember’s restaurant space is still empty. Although I’m still not a fan, now I understand why a parking ramp keeps coming up for discussion.

There is also a limit to how far people will park and walk to frequent a business. We’re talking about merging suburban mentality — where you want to park within sight of your destination — with downtown mentality — where you park nearby but expect to walk at least a block to your destination.

People in Uptown, 50th/France and Hopkins don’t balk at walking a block, so why should Chaskans? People will walk 200 yards from the parking lot of a Big Box Store clear to the restrooms in the back of the store, but they won’t walk 40 yards to go Dunn Bros.? Ridiculous.

Although the plan sets up the infrastructure for growing businesses, it lacks specific guidance for 1) how to pay for these new recommendations, and 2) how to leverage everything historic downtown Chaska has today for short-term impact.

Per #1, many of the recommendations will put into place a process for ongoing maintenance and updates. For example, as streets are rebuilt in the coming decades, they will be narrowed, have better defined parking areas and feature bump-outs on the corners to reduce the crossing distances. I heartily endorse this type of city planning.

However, many of the redevelopment recommendations that made it through the plan — city park additions, the levee housing development, strip-mall across from City Square Park — involve bulldozing tax-paying residents and businesses, which I was a vocal critic of in every meeting we had. With home values decreasing, taxes rising and downtown businesses flailing, this is not the time for a slash and burn planning.

One house here or there seems easy to swallow, until you add them up. At one point I counted more than 14 residential homes on the chopping block for redevelopment of city parks. You know, parks that are built for residents who have homes downtown?

So I guess I’m still not clear at how the majority of these suggestions will be funded without heavily assessing downtown property owners, particularly in a climate where government grants are few and far between — not to mention an unsustainable strategy. As for the Field of Dreams mentality for Fireman’s Park redevelopment, I think there are ample investment opportunities in leveraging existing downtown assets without building another destination using unknown funds.

On the other hand, I’m in the process of renovating our 120 year old historic downtown home. That investment in the downtown community I will gladly make, however, it is costing me enough without paying rising rates for infrastructure. If the city would offer no- or low-cost renovation loans for homeowners to fix up the downtown housing stock, that could have drastic and immediate effects across the board.

Per #2, historic downtown Chaska already boasts a wealth of character and assets that should be packaged to attract new businesses, residents and investment today. Even with all of the recommend infrastructure improvements, eventually Chaska will need to do some marketing to get the word out about its heritage, special events and daily offerings.

At the most basic, tactical level, erect “Historic Downtown Chaska” directional signs on key roadways to raise its visibility and direct traffic to downtown businesses. I know it sounds simple-stupid, but I think it would go a long way towards awareness and traffic-driving – - particularly at the new 212 Medical Center and on Highway 169, just a few miles down from the “Downtown Shakopee” sign.

Beyond signage, I’ve been doing a lot of thinking about the branding and marketing opportunities in downtown Chaska we didn’t address in our monthly meetings. Because I do branding and public relations strategy in my day job AND because I live downtown and have a stake in its perception and success, this was a key reason why I volunteered to be part of the task force. It became apparent this in-the-weeds level of strategic thinking did not fall within our purview, but I went ahead and drafted a sample Downtown Chaska Branding Initiative program for their consideration. I’ll be sharing it on the blog later.

Overall, this was a fantastic opportunity to jump in and get involved in the future of the community. And it was fun to think big picture. Mike Huang and I even spent a day at the Chaska History Center steeping ourselves in Chaska lore.

I’m looking forward to hearing the community feedback and more importantly, learning how the City Council will enact (and pay for) these recommendations. I can tell 2011 is going to be a great year for historic downtown Chaska.

Recent Coverage of the Downtown Master Plan:

• A revitalization plan for downtown Chaska: Star Tribune, February 22, 2011
• In search of a spark: First look at Downtown Master Plan: Chaska Herald, December 16, 2010
• Making a mecca: More from the Downtown Master Plan: Chaska Herald, January 27, 2011
• UPDATE: Downtown plans draws skepticism: Chaska Herald, February 23, 2011

I actually found it quite difficult to log-in to my personal GoGo account to see how much GoGo Unlimited pricing was….$35/month = certainly not free.

A true freemium campaign should make it easy for me to upgrade my current account from the denial of service screen.

Because encountering a “Sorry, we’re limiting your internet” screen is extraordinarily frustrating (particular to a business travel with an e-mail inbox full of billable work) it should be as easy as possible for them to use the stick in the “carrot and stick” marketing strategy to take money from me in this situation.

But no. Not easy. Then I tried to just buy a one-day pass (thinking maybe that wouldn’t limit my usage), but I can’t report if that works since the payment system didn’t remember my billing information from my flight last week.

And since my wallet is in my jacket and since my jacket is in the overhead bin and since I’m in a window seat three people down from the aisle, I guess I’ll just stick with the freemium service for today.

GoGo is a NoGo. We’ll see if it opens back up enough for me to publish this post.

What lessons can we learn from this event?

1. People will park and walk downtown: For all the conversation bemoaning lack of downtown parking options, the flood proved that people will park and walk more than a block if the draw is compelling enough. People were parking on residential streets (even over by my house) to walk up the levy to see the river, then across the bridge, then back again. Nobody complained about lack of parking to go see the river. I don’t want to get all “Field of Dreams” on you, but building an attractive business climate is more important than building accessible parking lots.



2. Downtown restaurants benefit from pedestrian traffic: Tommy’s Malt Shop has been packed for more than a week. Perhaps one of the only businesses to benefit from Highway 41′s closure, the restaurant’s location nestled next to the closed bridge perfectly poised it to fill the hungry bellies of the river gawkers. Although their normal customer flow may have been down, I expect Dunn Bros. benefited from some tourist traffic, too.



3. Low speeds on Hwy 41 make for happy families: It sure was quiet downtown without those semi-trucks, but you know what else? I didn’t have to cling to my three year-old’s hand for fear he would be sucked off the sidewalk into the street with traffic whizzing by at 40+ mph. Where are those “Your Speed Is…” blinking signs that were promised and the 2nd Street stoplight? A slower downtown is a happy — and walkable — downtown.



4. River development will always be less than ideal due to the difference between “normal” and “flood stage”: Unlike Saint Anthony, Stillwater and San Antonio, our piece of riverside fluctuates too greatly to build a romantic riverwalk lined with businesses and street vendors. Best Western’s small patio overlook built high atop the levy is the only — and most strategic — place for business to meet the river. Sad, but true.



5. The community cares about downtown and will come together to protect it: Despite the misnomer that folks “up the hill” never come downtown, they do. There are critical businesses downtown that compel essential traffic (dentist, optomistrist, butcher shop, grocery, coffee shop, burger joint, movie theater, banking, insurance, city hall, DMV), but we need a constant drum beat of reasons other than natural disasters to spark incidental traffic and help keep antique shops, art galleries, restaurants and gift shops buzzing. River City Days only happens once a year, you know.

What lessons did you learn? What do we do now?

Articles in our truly superb local resource, the Chaska Herald, have detailed preparations of the course, the history of Hazeltine, how the communities of Chaska, Chanhassen and Jonathan were impacted by the development, and even a story on the snazzy new PGA banners hung on lamp posts throughout downtown Chaska.

From all outward appearances, Chaska has been gearing up for an event to remember.

So it’s safe to say I was quite surprised to read this quote from a Herald article titled “Golf fever strikes – but will it pay off for Chaska?”:

“Our experience says there’s no large economic impact,” said Chaska City Administrator Matt Podhradsky. “Other than setting foot at the golf course, [attendees] don’t really set foot in town.”

This is the most depressing local government official statement I’ve read all year. In my opinion the shuttle stop argument for not even trying to bring a fraction of golf dollars into town lies in laziness on behalf of the local government, the Chamber and downtown business community.

Canterbury Park in nearby Shakopee is the official shuttle stop, and this article quotes Shakopee’s Chamber, hoteliers and restauranteurs about how they plan to count their money. Canterbury Park is only eight miles from downtown Chaska — closer than many people drive to buy milk and bread.

Maybe it’s my one-year-Chaskan-resident-naivete here, but if Chaska is the place for golf this week AND thousands of out-of-towners are descending on a plot of land four miles from downtown, this sure seems like a tremendous opportunity for the local business community to pull together and make a reason for them to spend money in our town.

Shuttle stop be damned, we went to the trouble of printing and hanging lamp post banners, but nobody thought to dangle a carrot big enough to get folks to stop by our picturesque community, grab a bite to eat, poke through our shops and take in the ambiance that makes this place #20 best place to live?

Maybe these conversations were had, and I’m conveniently misinformed. It just seems someone dropped the ball, and I think it deserves a penalty stroke.

What would I have done? For starters…

1. Host a PGA-themed community event at Chaska City Square this weekend, complete with local bands, charity putting contests, kids’ games, celebrity speakers, etc. Perhaps more realistic than pulling off a new event, consider pushing back River City Days three weeks to the PGA week.



2. In conjunction with the community event and activities, coordinate progressive dinners at our stellar local restaurants (or at a very minimum, discounts for PGA passholders), including Spice Up, Mi Casa, Chaska My Love, China Pagoda and Cy’s with a dessert stop at It’s Just Perfect.



3. In conjunction with the community event and dinners, organize a “Drink with the Pros” campaign, featuring a bar crawl with stops at Pauly’s, Kelley’s, Cy’s, Dolce Vita and the American Legion. PGA caddies drink free all night every night.



4. In conjunction with the community event, dinners and bar crawls, host a golf film festival at Rex Movie Theater, including family golf favorites like “Caddyshack.”



5. During the events and PGA tour week, actually compel our downtown businesses to be OPEN — I’m talking to you Linda’s Cellar, Vintage Cottage, Mixed Company, Mill House Gallery and Lillian’s — so folks passing through town can come inside and buy things. The antique shops could have spent the past few months seeking out golf-related treasures to help draw folks in.



6. In conjunction with the community event, boutique and restaurant promotion, organize a “Golf Widows” day event, featuring a partnership between Tonia’s Salon, Hair & Beyond, M. Elizabeth and Forever Nails and Spa for spa treatments, manicures, pedicures or makeovers.



7. Paint temporary golf cart lanes throughout downtown Chaska and encourage PGA attendees and Chaska residents to take to the streets in their carts for the week of the event. Set up community recharging stations, have Chaska High School cheerleaders or band members host “cart washes” and organize the first-ever Chaska Golf Cart Olympics. The national and local media attention around this stunt would be worth it alone.



8. Invite local churches to collaborate and host an ecumenical service in the City Square for out of town Christians, followed by a “Bless the Clubs” event similar to Guardian Angels’ upcoming St. Francis of Assisi’s Bless the Pets Day in October.



9. Empower our fantastically delicious local pizza joints, Pizza N Pasta and Sarpino’s to have the busiest delivery nights of the week by hosting PGA specials, set up pizza stations at shuttle stops, deliver in-town pies via golf cart, etc.



10. During the community event and PGA week, turn those empty downtown storefronts into an asset. For example, Sundance Film Festival each year, downtown Park City residents rent their stores and apartment lofts to sponsors hosting corporate events, lounges and private concerts. Why send PGA sponsors to Minneapolis hotels to host influencer events when we have food, lodging and space only four miles from the course?

Easier said than done, I know. But as a downtown resident and daytime marketer, it kills me to see the PGA tour all but ignored because of small parking lot mentality.

Last night Mi Casa set out a sandwich board reading something like “PGA Fans Welcome” and listing bar prices, and around 8 p.m. watched a group of 15 people walk down my back alley toward it. It’s good to see Mi Casa trying, and it was apparently working.

I’m not a big Field of Dreams guy, but sometimes “if you market, they will come.”


Posted in Armchair Marketing, Chaska Tagged: 2009 PGA championship, Chaska, chaska high school, chaska my love, china pagoda, city square, cy's, forever nails and spa, guardian angels, Hair & Beyond, hazeltine national golf club, it's just perfect, kelley's, lillian's, linda's cellar, M. Elizabeth, mi casa, mill house gallery, mixed company, mn, pauly's, pizza n pasta, rex movie theater, sarpino's, spice up, tiger woods, Tonia's Salon, vintage cottage ]]> http://gregswan.net/2009/08/13/armchair-marketing-chaskas-top-10-lost-pga-opportunities/feed/ 7 Greg Swan Chaska Chaska Chaska Chaska Chaska Chaska Chaska Chaska Chaska Chaska