Viva Downtown with John Truitt

Viva Downtown with John Truitt: Audio automatically transcribed by Sonix

Viva Downtown with John Truitt: this mp3 audio file was automatically transcribed by Sonix with the best speech-to-text algorithms. This transcript may contain errors.

Steve:
Welcome to a City of Redding podcast. Today we connect with John Truitt, executive director of Viva Downtown. If you aren't familiar with what Viva Downtown is or does, John is the perfect person to walk us through it. Even downtown has been an integral player in the continued growth of downtown and is a big supporter of the arts and culture scene in Redding.

Katie:
Redding was named one of only 15 cultural districts in the state of California, and Viva is directly involved in making sure the downtown cultural scene is vibrant and exciting. If you've been to a block party downtown or a first Friday event, Viva Downtown was most likely involved working to ensure businesses were taking part and the community was invited.

Steve:
John is super passionate about a thriving, walkable, enjoyable downtown experience and he works hard collaborating with various organizations, including the City of Redding, to make positive change happen.

John Truitt:
Hello, my name is John Truett. I'm the executive director of Viva Downtown Redding Main Street America Organization. We are accredited. It's our 10th year of accreditation. I serve as the Chief Administrative Officer and the chief fiscal officer of the nonprofit corporation.

Katie:
And I think people might have heard of VIVA before. Just because you're involved in so many different things that go on around Redding, but specifically downtown. But for those who've never heard of Viva or have no idea what it is, what is Viva downtown and what's your role?

John Truitt:
Well, we are a non-profit organization and our mission is that we are dedicated to the social, cultural and economic development of downtown Redding. So that can cover an awful lot of territory. So not only do we draw attention to downtown in as many ways as we possibly can, but we host events. We help other people, host events. We advocate for downtown development, and we work with other organizations that can improve the social and cultural and economic climate here in downtown. And that includes some advocacy as well. For a number of years, we focused a lot on planning. So downtown specific plan has been very important to us. Downtown parking plan has been very important to us, Traffic plan has been very important to us. So there may be some years where our number one focus is actually on planning. And then once the planning happens, then we're ready to move into some implementation activities. John On that note, what is the relationship between Viva Downtown and the City of Redding? You mentioned a few things, like the downtown specific plan and other pieces of the city is actively working on as well. Are you active partners in that? Are you leading those efforts? What does that relationship look like? As a Main Street organization? We have found the City of Redding to be a great partner organization. We provide a lot of feedback to folks that work in downtown Redding to elected officials in downtown Redding. We're kind of the ears and the feet that are on the ground to let people in the city know what's going on in downtown Redding. And because of the different things that we do, such as events and advocating for uses and advocating for traffic controls and parking and all of the different issues that come up with just basically concentrating on a downtown. We've ended up knowing a lot of people that work in the various departments in the city of Redding, and I'm happy to report that we have a good relationship with practically every department in the city of Redding. There's some really good people that are working that the city of Redding.

Katie:
Downtown has seen a lot of changes and growth over the last couple of years. But what people may or may not know is that this has been a process that's been in the works for 20 plus years to try to get downtown, kind of headed the direction that it is now. I think currently a lot of people are really talking about the parking situation in downtown. What do you think about parking in downtown and what do you tell people about parking in downtown?

John Truitt:
I don't think that we have a parking problem in downtown. I think that sometimes there is a walking problem in downtown. So, I mean, if you want to park in downtown, you can find a parking space. Now, are you going to have to walk from the parking space to where it is that you want to get to? Absolutely. But one of the things that I know about parking is that a lot of people, what they would prefer to do is park right out in front of the front door of the place that they're going to. And unfortunately, there's only one parking spot in front of every door at a business in downtown Redding. And you can basically pay from here to Red Bluff. There will still only be that one parking spot. So basically that's why we want downtown to look good. That's we want to have nice sidewalks. That's what we want it to be well lit, because everybody that comes to downtown, if they come by some sort of vehicle, becomes a pedestrian.

Steve:
And on that note of downtown, in addition to the parking element, there's obviously quite a bit of construction and development happening downtown. What has Veeva's role been in that development and how is Veeva helping to both publicize what's happening but also embrace the changes happen in downtown L.A.? Even this kind of goes back to the planning.

John Truitt:
I mean, years ago we were strong advocates for developing more mixed use properties in downtown Redding. Zoning pretty much allowed for commercial spaces or retail spaces. But the idea of constructing any any new built. Things are developing new properties that have like commercial and retail below and residences up above that that wasn't really highly regarded in the 1970s or the 1980s. And then kind of starting in the 1990s and the aughts, we started really pushing for the idea of, well, you know, maybe we should have more high rise development, more mixed use development. And so first you got to get the idea of doing these mixed use projects through and then and then and then as properties in various different districts are open to that type of zoning, then you have to sort of host some events in downtown Redding and make some of that amenities happen in downtown Redding, like opening up the Cascade Theater, making making streets more amenable and well lit. And then the private sector starts taking a look at, Oh, that might be a good place to invest. Then the investors look at kind of what's available, what they can build in that district. And if you have basically the zoning is there so that people can develop those kind of properties and you have amenities like well-lit streets and some social amenities, cultural amenities that are going on, it makes the property more desirable and then the private sector moves in and starts developing.

John Truitt:
As the private sector starts developing more and more, then there's more of a demand basically for different kinds of traffic modes, different kinds of parking situations, putting streets back through where there used to be a mall. So things sort of grow on each other. And that's why we started with the idea of, well, let's start at the planning phase, because you folks work for the city of Renton. You know this, you know, buildings don't just happen. There's a whole host of things that have to happen before buildings go in, before roads go in, before streetlights go in. And that's planning. And so that's why we involved ourselves for many years in planning and making downtown specific plan that would be amenable to the type of growth that we have going on right now. It just so happens that it appeals to some pretty big property developers. And so a lot of properties came up for development boom all at once. But this has actually been a process that's taken about a decade.

Katie:
And what's your opinion of downtown right now? Like ten years ago while this planning was going on and now we're ten years in the future, how do you see that growth happening now? Like what's your opinion of of how it's grown? And then what do you see for downtown in the future?

John Truitt:
Well, downtown is definitely going through a physical transformation. So you have a lot of new properties that have been developed in downtown. And true to form and what is common in most places is that the residential properties are getting filled up first and then people start moving in a little bit slower with commercial properties and retail properties and and it might be going a little bit slower due to the COVID pandemic. But I think if you look at downtown Redding, sort of block by block, you can you can see like sort of a terrific improvement that's been made here, a wonderful thing that's happening over there. Cascade Theater sort of catalyzed the process of taking things on one block at a time. So we sort of looked at that model that worked with the Cascade Theater. Cascade Theater opened up, and then some restaurants started opening up around it. And then the street was better lit and started getting more traffic. And as it got more traffic, you know, other stores and other places to be started opening up. And we see that emerging in downtown right now. The Ioffe Hall, for example, on the corner of Market and Butte Streets received a big facelift. There's an art gallery that has moved in there attracting patrons. And so that's starting to get a little bit more traffic. I'm excited to see what's going to happen when the bike depot opens up there on the corner of California and Shasta Street.

John Truitt:
Shasta County Arts Council has been reinvigorated. So I think we're going to see more evening and weekend activities happening there. So when you take a look at downtown, downtown isn't just one sort of big thing. It's an aggregate of like small little things that start adding Right now we're going through some big transitions. So sometimes it's hard to kind of wrap your head around all the different things that are going on. But I always recommend to people that if you want to know what's going on downtown, definitely get out of the car, find a place to park. And like I said, there's not a parking problem in downtown. There's plenty of parking in downtown. But if you're curious, park the car and walk around. And when you start walking around and start, you start noticing these small things that are going on. You know, downtowns are not designed like freeways. They're supposed to be experienced on a human scale level. They're supposed to be experienced by pedestrians, Get out of the car, start taking a walk around. You'll see that there's some beautiful additions that are happening in downtown. Dynamo is curious. I like to ask our guests in your unique case, given your proximity and work downtown, to your point, there's a lot of excitement and development occurring downtown.

Steve:
The whole base of downtown is really being transformed, but there's also a contingent of residents who aren't crazy about what's happening downtown, who worry about losing the small town feel that Redding is known for historically. What do you say to those folks?

John Truitt:
Well, you know, downtown Redding right now has less people living in downtown Redding than it did in the 1930s. In the 1940s. Most of the buildings in the 1930s and the 1940s had commercial and retail properties that were below and had residences that were up above. There were also several hotels in Redding Residential Hotel. So when people talk about, oh, Redding is Redding is not the same. Actually what's happening is that downtown Redding is is becoming a lot more like it was in the 1920s, in the 1930s and the 1940s than it was necessarily in the 1980s. In the 1990s, when basically the heart of downtown was walled in and covered over with a roof. And they tried to make it into a mall, into, into like a suburban shopping center. So if people miss the suburban shopping center, you know, that's okay. There's definitely room for that. The Mount Shasta Mall is great. Go visit it. Done.

Steve:
One of the other exciting elements of downtown, it seems like wherever you walk now, there's art features being installed and murals going up. What's Viva's role in that process and what's the strategy behind that?

John Truitt:
We definitely encourage artists and especially young artists, to participate as much as possible in the design and in making downtown Redding look good. I mean, one of the things that that I'm particularly happy about are the new murals that are going up in and around downtown, and most of them are being painted by local, local artists. And what I like about that is that the artists are also getting paid for their work and people sort of recognize, like I was talking about earlier, sort of like pedestrians. When you start when you start thinking about your downtown as a place where people walk from place to place, a place where people live and work and play rather than as a shopping center and a big parking lot to serve that shopping center, you start seeing the desirability of things being on a more human scale. So that's why art is showing up, because downtown is not designed like a freeway. You can actually stop and look at beautiful things. And as soon as people start, start stopping and looking at beautiful things, then people are inspired to do something else that's beautiful. And then you have something else that's wonderful. And so basically what happens is that they call it a sense of place.

John Truitt:
Once people recognize that, Oh, this is the place where art happens is the place where I can hang something up, this place where I can paint something beautiful, or the business owners say, you know what? I want people to to look at my storefront. I want people to walk past and look in the window and see something that's that's really groovy, either during the day or at night, which means that I have to light it up. That basically starts developing that that sense of community. And and as things look better, people want to participate in making it better and better and better and just having a nice design. One of the things that's great about having a nice design and the sort of artistic elements is that once that becomes a place where people kind of want to hang out and look at groovy stuff, it's also an economic incubator because now we have a place where people want to be and it's like, Oh, look, I can I can get some food over here. I can get a drink over here, I can shop over here. So I love seeing the art come in because I recognize that the art is not just beautiful and doesn't just define our community as a cultural destination. But I also recognize that it serves for economic development.

Katie:
And John, what makes you so passionate about reading? I mean, you can hear it in your voice and you've been working in this a long time, but where does that passion come from?

John Truitt:
But, you know, one of the things that that I particularly like about downtown is that it takes so many different people doing so many different things. And and one of the things that that that fascinates me about being involved in downtown is this these these are projects that anybody can do by themselves. It takes so many people to do so many different things. And so when you watch a community kind of get in sync and people go, Oh, wow, this is this is really cool, or I like being here, the more and more people that get involved, it sort of has that interesting sort of snowball type of effect. And I really like seeing any project when a lot of different people can come together, bringing their own talents, bringing what they do best because. We don't require that. Everybody know absolutely everything. But what I like about downtown is that each person in our community has something that they do better than everybody else in downtown is a place where they can do that. And that's what fascinates me about it.

Steve:
John, I'm curious, before being in this role with the city, I was a little naive around downtown, not recognizing how much history and culture there really was. And I thought culture of the area, I would think San Francisco or Sacramento. But for Redding itself, downtown Redding specifically is historic Cultural District, which is kind of a big deal here in the state. Can you talk a little bit about that and what that means for the city? You know, absolutely.

John Truitt:
A few years back, I think it was in 2018, the state of California basically asked communities to apply to be designated as California cultural districts. And the idea was cultural tourism is becoming quite popular. And so the state of California thought, well, we'll give like out-of-state tourists or even in-state tourists, sort of some what we would consider to be cultural destination spots that they can visit. And at the same time, California Arts Council wanted to recognize communities that were cultural districts, not necessarily just San Francisco and Los Angeles. And so ourselves, along with Shasta County Arts Council, Turtle Bay McConnell Foundation and the City of Redding, got together and made an application. And it was so fascinating that in order to make this application, what we had to do was we had to make a list, an inventory of all the different cultural assets that were within the district. And it turned out that we had so many really cool art objects and places where people can go and restaurants and maker spaces and performance venues. It just it actually sort of surprised us as well. We applied and and we're named one of 14 original cultural districts in the state of California, which I think is pretty fantastic and speaks to just how many cool things are going on here. I mean, this is California. I mean, this is the home of the Silicon Valley and and Hollywood and Balboa Park in San Francisco. So to to kind of be considered in company with all kinds of other wonderful cultural destinations in California, just goes to show that we have a lot more than we thought we did.

Katie:
Well then I think that's a good time to ask John, what's your favorite cultural place to be in Redding? If you if you would somebody come visit Redding for the first time ever and you had to say, don't miss these places, where would you list?

John Truitt:
Well, you know, I have a lot of friends and colleagues who are invested in involved in all kinds of different cultural activities at venues and things. And so at the expense of putting any one group or any one place above another. I will demure on that, but I will say that what I like best about downtown, I think I've said this before, is that, you know, in in a 60 minute period just walking around, I can go to all kinds of different places. And and to tell you the truth, I think that my favorite place is actually on the sidewalks of downtown Redding, because the sidewalks night are well lit, our sidewalks are clean. Our downtown is pretty clean. If you've been to other downtown, it's actually it's actually kind of amazing how clean our downtown is. And we actually been in that alley that's in between Pine and Market Street. I mean, it's it's stunning. I mean, and in downtown is is safe as well it well lit there's there's people out on the streets. And so what I like about the sidewalks is that I discover things all the time. And now that we've restored a grid system back by removing them all, I don't have to walk from place to place the same way every time. You know, one day I can go one block over and two blocks down or maybe one block down, one block over, one block down. And so and every time I do that, every time still to this day, I find and see something that I haven't seen before. And so it's it's sort of the the getting there, the being there that I really like about it.

Steve:
That was a very diplomatic answer. Thank you, John.

Katie:
You on the spot, John.

Steve:
John, you've touched on it in a couple of different ways, but I'm curious, we hear time and time again that folks and maybe less so now, but that folks, when they think of Redding, they think of the place that they stopped to go to a a chain restaurant and fill up for gas on the way to Oregon or whatnot. What's your 30 second elevator pitch as to why someone should veer off I-5 and come check out downtown Redding?

John Truitt:
Because it's unexpected, because you think you know what you're going to see and you end up finding something much different than you thought you were. And that's what I really like about downtown Redding, is there's a there's a there's a part of me that sort of takes a little bit of pleasure that people think that it's just a freeway interchange and they end up going off the byway and end up discovering. That there's actually a vibrant social and cultural hub here. I like the fact that the downtown reading is able to surprise people. Now, do I want us to develop better our reputation of being a cultural hub and do I want everybody to be in on the secret? Yeah, eventually. But at the same time, I don't mind it when somebody discovers downtown Redding and goes, Oh, I had no idea that there was going to be something like this here. Those of us that live in downtown and those of us who live in Redding, we already know that we have a lot of gems and a lot of treasures here in downtown Redding. But I always love to hear people surprised to find something new and exciting here.

Katie:
Well, I'd say that elevator pitch actually works pretty well for a lot of folks in Redding who don't often go downtown to, you know, the river kind of divides Redding. And there's a lot of people who do stay on one side of the river or the other. And for those who haven't been to downtown in a while, that's a good reason for them to check it out.

John Truitt:
As I said, we're we're a main Street America model. And we understood many years ago that things happen in increments, that not everything happens at once. That goes to that whole idea of you start with planning. But we also understand that that there's no there's no silver bullet. There's no one thing that's going to make or break your downtown. So that's why I like seeing new things pop up, small things pop up, because everybody's going to have a different reason for going downtown. And so what I'm hoping for, and I think a lot of people downtown are hoping for, is that eventually we give everybody in our community a very good reason for going downtown. You like going to a concert, you've got the cascade. You like going to an art gallery? Well, we've got the. IOOF you like good food. We have several local restaurants with fantastic chefs. You like some nightlife. We've got some great nightlife happening on on Market Street and on California Street. So basically a lot of small things start adding up. So I don't want people to come downtown. Everybody can come downtown just for one reason. I want everybody to have a good reason to come downtown.

Steve:
John, you mentioned the Main Street America organization. When I hear that, I think Disneyland. Can you. What exactly is Main Street America and what does that mean for Viva Downtown Main Street?

John Truitt:
America is an organization that is outgrowth of the Office of Historical Preservation. So Main Street America is a large non-profit organization that designates and accredits Main Street organizations. And in order to be an accredited Main Street organization, what you need to do is they need to be a non-profit that basically follows what they refer to as the main Street approach.

John Truitt:
That is, is that you're you're a group that is organized, you're interested in good design, you're interested in promoting your downtown and you're interested in the economic vitality of your downtown. And that basically means in order to have a Main Street organization, you want to have that that leadership and that organizational capacity. You want to have those partnerships in place. You want to have people that are that are doing the work and doing the volunteer work that care about it. And then from there, those people then promote the downtown. They kind of define the district, They kind of communicate what's unique about about downtown. They support downtown businesses and support the idea of people going downtown to eat, to shop, to find services in downtown. And then once that starts happening, then you start paying attention to to that design, creating an inviting and inclusive atmosphere, celebrating the historical character of downtown and also making people centered, making it pedestrian centered. And so once you get that, once you get those organized people that basically are into promoting the downtown and into making a very good design, then basically what happens is that you have that economic vitality that comes up, that that economic base where people want to privately invest and catalyze smart investment and sort of cultivate entrepreneurship that's happening in downtown. And so basically what a Main Street organization is, is that it's an organization that follows sort of those four points organization, promotion, design and economic vitality.

Katie:
And then as part of that, how was VIVA specifically established and how is Viva funded?

John Truitt:
Viva is a private nonprofit, 500 1c3 Corporation. There's quite a few of them here in Shasta County, and we are one of them. We're volunteer led by a volunteer board of directors. And and over the past several years, our funding has come from several different sources. We've used events as in generating an income from events as a means to to support our mission. We've used grants from private and public sources in order to forward our mission. We make direct access to the public donations to do that. So sort of like any other nonprofit 500 1c3 corporation in the community, we get our support from multiple sources and from different sources each year, depending on what sort of projects we're.

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