For all its many historic and aesthetic attributes, Kingston is in effect divided into three separate business sectors, united by one major boulevard. So Kingston has adopted a unifying strategy with a Main Street manager and last week announced the job is going to a longtime business and arts activist with a gallery on that key street.
The Business Alliance of Kingston, (BAK) a group formed in 2007 seeking to unify the commercial endeavors in the Uptown, Mid-Town and Rondout sections of the city, announced June 18 that Nancy Donskoj has been hired as the city”™s Main Street ”“ Broadway in this case ”“ manager.
Donskoj, a gallery co-owner and vice president of the Rondout Business Association, was hired from among 20 applicants for the post. Co-owner of Donskoj and Company at 93 Broadway in the Rondout section, she knows firsthand the opportunities and challenges along Broadway, having been in business at that locale along the city”™s main thoroughfare since 1987.
Donskoj is looking forward to the challenge, but said it is not a one-woman show.
“I think this job requires more than one person doing the job,” she said.
Donskoj will serve only part time as the Main Street manager, working with an assistant.
“I think I have the capability to gather volunteers and to implement the hundreds of ideas we could utilize here in Kingston,” said Donskoj.
The city”™s emerging unity is built on a natural foundation Donskoj said she will utilize in her work. “I think they are varied business districts, but I don”™t think they are that disparate as to what their goals are. They want to bring in customers.”
To that end, she said, she would start off using the “Main Street 4-Point Approach,” which starts with design, economic restructuring, promotion and organization. She also said the first endeavors will be modest to set a tone of success and encourage the business community.
“To me, the task is potentially very broad and overwhelming, so I will initiate something simple and concrete that gets done right away,” said Donskoj. “That is a way to get everyone on board and show you are moving ahead, and creates a positive feeling.”
She said implementing a coherent signage plan would be a valuable first project. Kingston has literally dozens of pre-Revolutionary war stone buildings in excellent condition with no way for many visitors to even know they exist, let alone find them. Donskoj tells of how she happened to stop at the tourism caboose, located at the traffic circle for the Kingston Thruway interchange and noted the caboose was closed. But even beyond that problem, she said, a group of tourists there wanted to visit the historic Senate House, but they could not find their way there, even though it was less than a mile from where they stood.   Â
She said that is an oft-heard problem with Kingston”™s many attractions, from the Hudson River waterfront to its art galleries, historic sites and ornate Performing Art”™s Center in the middle of Broadway.
“Instead of being the best kept secret, let the secret out.” she said. “People are always complaining the signage in city of Kingston is not enough to help visitors get around. I want to improve that first and I think that can be done pretty quickly.”
She knows she has to move fast. The Main Street manager position is funded by the city for two years using a community development grant of $100,000 and after that it must be financed by the business community.
The Business Alliance of Kingston hopes a business improvement district (BID) will be established to continue paying the Main Street manager after the initial two years and fund other initiatives. Donskoj said the BAK has split her position, with plans to hire an assistant manager focusing on getting a BID in place within two years to continue coordination and funding for business initiatives.
Kingston Mayor James Sottile strongly supported the Main Street manager initiative and welcomed Donskoj”™s hiring, but said he believes the first order of business should be to initiate a BID. Sottile cited the Times Square BID in New York City as the Mt. Rushmore of such initiatives, returning the once blighted neighborhood back into its historic status as the “crossroads of the world”.Â
Donskoj said that she agrees a BID is crucial for long-term success, but said her many endeavors, from running her business to helping arrange the annual Soap Box Derby, which she helped found and which is now in its 15th year, precludes her from serving full time as the Main Street manager. So she said the assistant manager will focus on arranging the legalities and agreements needed to vote on a BID.
“It”™s the cart before the horse, you can”™t sell a product until you have the product or the service to sell,” said Donskoj. “So my job is to define what the business improvements would look like, to create the kind of improvements people want to buy into, to make the job easier for the person who is selling the BID.”
