Music Man at the Texas Theatre

The Music Man will be playing at the Texas Theatre July 28, 29, 30 and August 4, 5, 6.  For details, see www.thetexastheater.com  Enjoy!

Texas Theatre Update

The Texas Theatre has its own web site ( www.thetexastheater.com ) which lists upcoming events and recent news, but even so you may find late-breaking news here before it hits the official site.  For example, the new Main Drape has been installed and looks great, according to Michael & Amelia Cook with the Palestine Community Theatre.  If you have any suggestions for the theatre, here’s the place to put them!  An active theatre will bring more life to the CityCenter, especially in the evening.  And, the Texas has been one of the most enjoyable, memorable parts of Palestine’s heritage.

Present List of Promotional Ideas

Here is the set of suggestions for City Center promotion so far:

Items
1. Make all of downtown a free WiFi hot spot
2. Encourage absentee owners to fix up buildings
3. Give new businesses (especially restaurants) a break on building codes for first x years
4. Revise building codes for downtown area to only what is really “needed”
5. Promote downtown area via web
 a. Downtown’s own web site
 b. Get downtown links & info on other sites
   1. City
   2. CoC
   3. PEDC
   4. Others??
6. Define the City Center area(s)
 a. Map the various area(s)
7. Restore Link Building
 a. Consider pooling resources to purchase & restore
 b. Consider attracting one person to purchase & restore
8. Tour similar cities for ideas
9. Allow / promote use of upstairs areas for lofts
10. Promote Texas Theatre (encourage development, more events, different types)

… and of course, this blog!

Welcome to Palestine City Center!

Palestine is a beautiful city with a remarkable history.  The central areas of the city (what I think of as the Downtown, Old Town and the Courthouse Square areas) have what my mother calls “good bones”.  In other words, the surface needs some care and attention but what is underneath is still good – and would be great with some renovation / rejuvenation.

I certainly remember some great times in the downtown areas of Palestine when I was growing up in the 50’s and 60’s, including going through Davenport’s to get some candy before going out the back door to the Texas Theatre to watch a movie.  (I ate so much candy corn one day (a whole quarter’s worth) that I did not like candy corn for the next 30 years!)

The downtown area had a range of shops, jewelry stores, drug stores with soda fountains, etc. that made it a great place to go visit with friends and pick up whatever you needed that particular day.

A number of entities within the city are teaming up to encourage further renovation / rejuvenation – to build on the good start that has been made by some of the pioneers.  The goal is to encourage the building-up of the Palestine City Centre area, and let it reach its full potential as an enjoyable, beneficial part of the community. 

This blog has been created to let everyone who is interested enough to look it up(congratulations – you are one of those people!) know what is going on – AND HAVE SOME INPUT as to what happens next.

This is really a team effort – the City of Palestine, the PEDC as the development arm of the City, the Chamber of Commerce, the Downtown Merchants Association, interested individuals, and … wow, I hope I did not miss anyone!  If I did just let me know and I will update the list!

If you would like to be advised of upcoming meetings / events, please email me and I will add you to the notification email list.

Thank you again for your interest, and we all look forward to working together with you to build a better community!

Timothy