
{"id":3837,"date":"2008-11-06T07:40:56","date_gmt":"2008-11-06T15:40:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.carrborocitizen.com\/main\/?p=3837"},"modified":"2008-11-06T07:40:56","modified_gmt":"2008-11-06T15:40:56","slug":"halloween-short-on-treats-for-business-owners","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/2008\/11\/06\/halloween-short-on-treats-for-business-owners\/","title":{"rendered":"Halloween short on treats for business owners"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Margot Carmichael Lester<\/strong><br \/>\n<em>Staff Writer<\/em><\/p>\n<p>Despite predictions of mind-boggling gridlock and a horde of marauding revelers heading to and from Franklin Street, Halloween 2008 did not deliver as advertised.<br \/>\n<!--more--><br \/>\n\u00e2\u20ac\u0153It was unbelievably easy,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d said Carolyn Hutchison, Carrboro\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s chief of police. She attributes the lack of incidents to what she calls the \u00e2\u20ac\u0153media blitz\u00e2\u20ac\u009d that instructed people to stay home or \u00e2\u20ac\u201c if they must go out &#8212; walk, bike and take public transportation. <\/p>\n<p>Judging by the number of pedestrians, it worked. <\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Foot traffic was as heavy as we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve ever seen it,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d said Capt. Joel Booker. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153The sidewalk from [police headquarters] to Brewer Lane and Rosemary Street was full; people sometimes had to step into the street.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d <\/p>\n<p>There were few calls to 911. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153A few involving people being extremely intoxicated and three or four calls we don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t usually get \u00e2\u20ac\u201c about fighting and intimidating behavior,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Hutchison noted. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Otherwise, it was business as usual.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d <\/p>\n<p>Well, sort of. Restaurants saw fewer diners, despite reserved parking and special promotions. <\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Dinner business was way off, as most people that would go out to dine stayed away from Carrboro and Chapel Hill,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d said Mike Benson, owner of Southern Rail and the Station at 201-C E. Main St. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Bar business was good, but not that much better than other Friday nights when we have good weather.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<br \/>\nBusiness also was off at the Open Eye Caf\u00c3\u00a9 at 101. S. Greensboro St. <\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Business was probably less, and in a different way &#8212; fewer folks hanging out, more fly-bys on the way to somewhere like a party, Franklin Street, etc.,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d said Scott Conary, who owns the caf\u00c3\u00a9. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153We would see some surges pre-party or pre-Franklin Street walk-up times, but retention was low.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d <\/p>\n<p>The local police realize the restrictions and warnings may have impeded business, but say they have to go for safety first. <\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153We\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re in the business of having to plan for the worst-case scenario,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Hutchison said. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153It wouldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t be prudent for us to not plan the way we did.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d <\/p>\n<p>Business owners don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t disagree, but they would like to see the town do more to encourage locals to come out. <\/p>\n<p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Let people know Carrboro is family friendly,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Benson suggested, pointing to Southern Village and Meadowmont, which promoted a local Halloween and had large numbers of families early in the evening.<\/p>\n<p>Conary agreed. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153I would like to see us have some more events here in Carrboro to try to retain more folks now that the allure of Franklin Street has tapered off,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d he said. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153But not street-closing kinds of stuff. We will try to have an event of some sort next year, music, etc., and see if we can get people happy to party in their own town.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Margot Carmichael Lester Staff Writer Despite predictions of mind-boggling gridlock and a horde of marauding revelers heading to and from Franklin Street, Halloween 2008 did not deliver as advertised.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3837","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3837","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3837"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3837\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3838,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3837\/revisions\/3838"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3837"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3837"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3837"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}