Kid-friendly
Downtown Chico businesses seem to be geared to a couple of specific populations. Cheap places to eat and bars are for college students (of legal drinking age, of course) and expensive places to eat and specialty stores are for high-end shoppers.
There isn’t much that appeals to families, which seems strange when you consider that the charm of downtown is supposed to be based on a wholesome, small-town atmosphere. So I was pleased when Old Town Rootbeer opened a couple of years ago and Powell’s Sweet Shoppe made its debut last year. They inject an element of kid-friendliness that had been missing. They are kin to Shubert’s Ice Cream and Candy, a downtown staple.
It’s a shame there are no longer any move theaters downtown. They have disappeared over the last 10 years. They offered family-oriented activites. I’m not forgetting The Pageant, but it offers mainly grownup fare.
I’m not trumpeting the virtues of families over other demographic groups per se. Families are well-represented in suburban parts of Chico, but they are in short supply downtown, which ought to be a place that feels comfortable to everyone.
The success of City Plaza depends on the willingness to Chicoans think of it as their front yard, just as they have laid claim to Bidwell Park as their back yard. The more downtown businesses that appeal to every age group, the better the mix of people using the plaza.