My answer from the Civic Association Commissioner Forum about our downtown businesses.
Haddonfield has two economic engines: the school system and the downtown. Both of those engines drive the economic value to our taxpayers with their property values. We have two main streets in town: Kings Highway and Haddon Avenue. I applaud the programming and the care of promotion of our Kings Highway businesses, but more can be done and should be done for our Haddon Avenue merchants.
Better signage, promotion of their existence on every trash can and flagpole, and even a possible permanent weekend market on Mechanic Street to offer King's Highway Traffic opportunities to our Haddon Avenue merchants should be considered. If a town like Ocean City can close a major thoroughfare like Asbury Avenue every Wednesday for their town merchants and their farmers’ markets, then we can look at closing a side street on the weekends to support our businesses not located on the Road. Our foot traffic is terrific, and all merchants should have a chance to benefit. For merchant (Partnership for Haddonfield) ideas, I would take a “Yeah, let's try that!” approach instead of the high hurdles stores like Cacia’s bakery faced this year to open - months later than they had planned due to unacceptable bureaucracy. We need to be friendly with our small businesses.