August 28, 2006

'First Nights' take wing in neighborhoods
Following South Congress' lead, other streets offer nights to shop and stroll and spread sense of community

By Sarah Frank
AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF

On East 11th Street, they're jamming to live jazz.

In Round Rock, they're singing along with a guitarist strumming Billy Joe Shaver covers.

On Guadalupe Street, they're dipping into alley markets and perusing handmade jewelry.

South Congress Avenue may have started it, but other area neighborhoods have quickly caught on to hosting "first nights," monthly street fairlike events that pair later business hours with live music and street vendors.

Each of the street markets has resulted in at least a small boost in business, say organizers and business owners, even though traffic wanes in some districts in the summer (Third Thursday along the student-driven Guadalupe Street, for example).

Most events are almost year-round, breaking for Austin's brief winter.

South Congress First Thursdays remain the busiest, drawing such massive crowds that it's almost impossible to walk along the sidewalk without being elbow to elbow with what seems like every Austinite and tourist in town.

The Austin Independent Business Alliance is working to encourage other areas to eventually launch evening strolls.

The alliance's Melissa Miller says some South Lamar Boulevard businesses, especially those near Oltorf Street, want to start a business stroll in September. Some North Loop Boulevard area businesses between Avenue G and Chesterfield Avenue also want to start a monthly event by October.

Miller said the mix of street vendors, musicians and local businesses creates a buzz for Austin's neighborhoods.

"Events like First Thursdays and Third Thursdays create a lot of visibility for local businesses," she says. "Even if people come and buy from street vendors, they see the businesses and might come back later. People like being in an area where it looks like neat stuff is going on."

A San Antonio professor agrees. "The moment you start one, everybody else wants one," says Char Miller, director of Urban Studies at Trinity University. He has written about the First Friday Art Walk in San Antonio's Southtown. "There's a great bit of urban rediscovery that such first nights produce. You get to realize the very dynamic many cities have, (that) not all neighborhoods are the same. These nights help us understand the diversity of the towns we inhabit and the people who share them with us."

At Austin's "first nights," the people and neighborhoods certainly have their own stories:

South Congress First Thursdays

First Thursday of each month along South Congress Avenue from the Congress Avenue Bridge to Live Oak Street. www.firstthursday.info

As the sun sets on Austin on a recent Thursday night, a crowd of people begins migrating south from the Congress Avenue Bridge after watching the nightly emergence of bats.

Once the crowd approaches the South Congress business district, just passed Doc's Motorworks, they hear the sounds of First Thursday: street musicians playing didgeridoos or accordions, rock bands atop the Japanese restaurant Zen, an a capella trio on a corner and a rockabilly group jamming outside the Hotel San José.

On the edge of the parking lot of the St. Vincent de Paul Thrift Store is Chuck Haberman, swaying back and forth, playing the clarinet from a squeaky lawn chair.

"I play music from yesteryear," says Haberman, 71, "music popular before most of these folks were born."

An upside down sailor cap at his feet holds a handful of change and a single dollar bill.

"If they like my tunes, they'll drop a buck," he says.

Along with the musical charm of First Thursday are businesses that stay open until 10 p.m. (sometimes later) selling merchandise along the sidewalk. Nearby are tents for street vendors such as 6-year-old Gabriel Guerra, who is helping his grandmother sell handmade aprons.

"They're good for presents," he says. "I've sold three already."

Although First Thursday is often crowded, it has an eclectic charm and draws a wide mix of people, making it the measuring stick against which to gauge Austin's nighttime street markets.

Third Thursday on Guadalupe

Third Thursday of each month, on Guadalupe Street, mostly concentrated between 23rd and 38th streets www.ibuyaustin.com/third-thursday.php

On hiatus most of the summer, Third Thursday on Guadalupe will return Sept. 21.

University of Texas classes start again on Aug. 30, so after that, many businesses on the Drag will stay open late on the third Thursday of the month, says Melissa Miller, executive director of the Austin Independent Business Alliance.

But the summer break for Third Thursday hasn't kept Cindy Haddock away. She sets up shop in the 23rd Street alley several nights a week, chatting up anyone who walks by and showing off her wire horse sculptures and beer-cap necklaces.

On the third Thursday in June, Haddock is the only street vendor past sunset.

"I used to do the long days, sitting out in the heat, but I found I wasn't making much," she says, putting the finishing touches on some macrame' bracelets. "I can stay busy being here in the evening. And I meet a lot of great people."

She says the Third Thursday events before home football games are the busiest. On those nights, you'll see musicians lining the streets, vendors such as Haddock and swarms of students.

Round Rock Main Street Stroll

First Thursday of each month along Main Avenue in downtown Round Rock. Centered around Main and Mays streets, the stroll goes along two blocks of East Main and one block of West Main. www.mainstreetstroll.com

Round Rock's monthly street market is quiet and quaint with local artisans setting up card tables and selling handmade crafts and homemade snacks along Main Avenue as they wave at passersby.

Strolling through the small downtown around dinnertime, you might hear 6-year-old Chloe Pellizzaro practicing her sales pitch at a lemonade stand outside Envy Salon and Day Spa, owned by her grandmother.

"My mom told me to say 'Please buy my lemonade, it's only $1 a glass and it's for a good cause — my purse,' " she says, simultaneously pouring a cup for a customer and talking to a family member on a cell phone.

A half block down, four women stand under a tent offering "free encouraging words" to those who walk by. A few steps farther down, Jesse and Josie Ancia, a retired couple, pass out samples of their homemade salsa.

"We're just starting to grow, so we like these strolls and craft shows," Jesse Ancia says.

Across the street is guitarist Joe Gee, who lives in Austin and has played the Round Rock stroll and the South Congress event. He says he prefers the small markets where people can actually hear his acoustic tunes.

"People at these things always seem to like songs about vehicles and animals," he says. "And what's the point if they can't hear them?"

East End Fourth Fridays

Fourth Friday of each month, along East 11th Street, from Branch to Navasota streets and at Kenny Dorham's Backyard, 1106 E. 11th St. www.ibuyaustin.com/ibiz-EastEndEvents.php

White plastic lawn chairs pepper the grass at Kenny Dorham's Backyard lawn venue at the inaugural East End Fourth Friday in June. Lights are strung between trees above Robin Diaz and friends, who sit in the shade swilling beer and sharing foot-resting room on a cooler.

Diaz, who lives in Georgetown, says she has just finished a long day at work, and there is one thing she wants: "It's time to get together with the girls and hear some jazz."

"It is so relaxed here," she says as she holds her arms up, grooving along with a recording of a saxophone solo playing though speakers. "You can just sit. You don't have to get up and move."

The event pulls from neighborhood merchants, such as New Orleans-style restaurant Gene's, but is not limited to businesses and entrepreneurs on East 11th Street. Most patrons are at the Backyard, although organizers say that in time the event will include more spots along East 11th, which has seen new buildings and redevelopment in recent years.

At the Backyard tables, Bernetta Gratten sells fresh peach cobbler and Martha Green displays jewelry and robes from Nairobi, Kenya.

"East Austin is becoming a real popular area," Gratten says. "It's nice to be a part of it."

Each Fourth Friday event ends with live music at 9 p.m.

 

http://www.austin360.com/calendar/content/events/stories/2006/08/29streetnights.html

©2006 American Statesman

 

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