University Star

If Austin were a book it would be Where the Wild Things Are. The party people of 6th Street are enough to prove this on any given Friday night. If San Antonio were a book it might be Finnegan’s Wake. It’s so dry and you can’t help but wonder what the point was once you’ve gone through it all. The literary equivalent of San Marcos is definitely A Tale of Two Cities.

The city south of Guadalupe Street includes the new convention center, outlet malls and Target shopping center. Then there is everything else.

Brian Montgomery, owner of the Wine Cellar and president of the Downtown Association of San Marcos, said city officials were slow to react to revenue erosion in the downtown area. The city focused much of its effort on attracting businesses to the southern part of town.

“That’s great for tax revenue, but it really drew people away from downtown,” Montgomery said. “And the heart of a city is its downtown.”

The city is taking a much more active role with the health of its heart and Montgomery thinks help is coming just in time. The Downtown Association of San Marcos and city officials are organizing programs in conjunction with the convention center to bring tourists downtown. They are also working together to devise ways of subsidizing businesses like music venues, art galleries and theaters. Such a system might have prevented a venue like Lucy’s from closing.

More savvy San Marcos residents might be thinking the city has its own art gallery. I can’t argue with this. The San Marcos Activity Center houses the Walkers’ Gallery in a hallway between a basketball court and a couple of meeting rooms. You and your friends can go admire the artistic talents of Jane Doe, age 9, from a local elementary school after a hard-fought game of H-O-R-S-E.

On a recent trip to Marfa, I noticed the town has art galleries the way Houston has Starbuck’s coffee shops — everywhere. The tiny community in the mountains of West Texas even has a few original Andy Warhol paintings.

Montgomery suggests a civic center might do something to liven San Marcos’ downtown by attracting people to music and theater performances.

Businesses like Tantra Coffeehouse, the Coffee Pot and the Root Cellar Café have helped keep the arts alive in San Marcos. They provide platforms for musicians and visual artists to perform and display work. However, a civic center could provide a much larger stage (literally) for bigger artists to showcase their creations for San Marcos residents and tourists. This would increase profits for hotels and motels, which could, through a subsidy system, be poured back into the downtown area.

It’s safe to say most San Marcos residents would like to see an increase in fine art performances and venues so it’s time to make that happen. Or as Montgomery put it, “Stop fighting about how we want to get there and get there.”

Students can do more than go out on Fridays to support local businesses — although that helps. Seats 5 and 6 are open in the upcoming election and students’ votes will help determine the future of the city.

“There are a few (candidates) who have visions for what will happen downtown,” Montgomery said. “We had a debate-forum at the Downtown Association meeting and it really was striking to see how many have no clue about what’s happening. And that’s scary because we could end up right back where we started.”

—Brett Thorne is a general studies senior.