Alessandro’s Premieres Salem Downtown DVD in Global Gallery (VIDEO)

The downtown of our State Capitol is returning to it’s own grandeur, becoming the pulse of our city, and identifying itself as an integral piece of Salem’s future

(Salem) - “Creative, Artistic Global Destination" was the emphasis for Tuesday night’s event at Alessandro’s Restaurant showcasing a DVD on downtown Salem’s increasing role as an art and entertainment “Mecca.”

This culmination of efforts demonstrated that Salem is awakening to a new dawn, one of becoming an entertainment and arts city. While this quiet capital city of Oregon continues to grow, it maintains its ties with the past. In Salem you will find no skyscrapers, no discernable downtown “slum” area, a lot of trees and a lot of very nice people.

Salemites are true to the northwest tradition of friendliness but have a touch of Oregon toughness, which sharpens the vision of environmentalists and is becoming the spawning ground for budding artists and a permanent home for established artists. The refurbished Historic Elsinore Theater has become one of the hubs of entertainment expressions.

Tuesday night’s gathering at Alessandro’s Restaurant key noted a DVD produced by Tim and Bonnie King of Salem-News.com and spearheaded by Rebecca Maitland, Director of Marketing for QA Properties, also representing the Reed Opera House. This DVD about Salem’s historic downtown will be used as a promotional tool to educate others outside our beautiful state just how great our town really is and the potential opportunities offered here.

By the scheduled start time of 5:30 PM, Salemites began their entrance into the conference room to view the DVD and exchange their thoughts and visions for our city’s downtown.

Cori Frauendiener, President of the Downtown Association, opened the event with acknowledging gratification to all the businesses instrumental in bringing this to fruition and working together. She was delighted to see everyone attend and take part in this event.

In speaking to some of the individuals who attended this event, it was clear that they were there for a common goal, well put by Tony Nielsen, Residential Development Consultant, “There are two generations of civic community leaders dedicated to keeping the downtown vibrant.”

Jeff Hamm, Salem-Keizer Transit System, said his organization’s interest in this event and public relations push for Salem to be recognized as a viable, active community is vital to their transportation goals for all of Salem.

Roy John, a designer goldsmith who has a shop in the downtown area says there has been a dramatic improvement in the last ten years for the downtown area.

Roger Yost of the Reed Opera House, and owner of Alessandro’s hosted the evening event and gave praise to Tim and Bonnie King’s creative efforts they put into the production of the DVD showing the dynamics and diversity of Salem and it’s growing trend for the arts, and to Rebecca Maitland’s vision of downtown Salem becoming an art and entertainment center. He stated many businesses represented the downtown area and gave thanks to the City of Salem for recognizing the vision and saying “yes” to the promotion campaign for our city. He also acknowledged Tony Neilsen’s part in going to Salem Electric to share in the matching grant, making it possible through their dollars to promote Salem to other parts of our country and the world.

Don Drake of the Salem Art Association says he feels Salem has a way to go but is definitely on the right track. He emphasized that Salem not only attracts the foot traffic of pedestrians but also brings the shoppers and visitors via their cars, continuing the downtown bustle of activity well into the late evening. He feels the “First Wednesday” event is very positive and a good draw for people to visit the Salem downtown area.

Rebecca Maitland summed up the event, expressing her belief in future of downtown Salem, “Becoming a global destination, artistically, and historically.” Rebecca noted the hard work and momentum that the group invested has been a worthy venture. “It’s not Paris, France, but Salem has a lot to offer that surprises people. Our history is deep, and the art and music here is superb. I hope this DVD entices people to come from far and wide. I think it will.”

The evening was relaxed and entertaining, and the premiere of the downtown Salem DVD was very rewarding, an excellent reflection of our fair city. Through projects like this one enlisting the combined efforts of our community and civic leaders, Salem will become not only a “must” for tourists to visit but a desired opportunity for new businesses. Most importantly, though, it will be a wonderful place for our children to grow up. It takes all of us to make our community work, and the downtown of our State Capitol is returning to it’s own grandeur, becoming the pulse of our city, and identifying itself as an integral piece of Salem’s future.