• DTA & Economic development Partner on Holiday Marketing Effort
  • Downtown Partners with Local Start Up, In Stock- Sign up!
  • Outdoor Dining into Winter
DTA & Economic Development launch Holiday Marketing
Recognizing that this could be a make or break holiday season for many Downtown businesses, the Downtown Association and the City of Santa Cruz, Economic Development Department, have partnered with local marketing firm, Miller Maxfield to launch a high impact marketing campaign to encourage people to choose Downtown businesses over large national online retailers, this holiday season.

Because we know that every day counts, this campaign will launch in early October. We will be reaching out to you shortly, offering easy to share marketing materials for use online and in your storefronts.
In Stock Partners with Downtown to Encourage Local Sales
Now more than ever it so important that we make it as easy as possible for locals to shop right here in their neighborhoods, rather than with large online retailers.

Local entrepreneur, Ian McHenry, created InStock, a website to help people find what they are looking for close to home.

Ian will be creating a landing page specific to Downtown Santa Cruz and we are asking that ALL of our Downtown retailers sign up by sharing their current inventory with In Stock. The more that participate, the more impact it will have.

Here is an example of a local business listing as a point of listing.

They have made it very easy for us. Just click here to start the process.

We are hoping to get as many of our retailers up as possible by October 5th.


Also, check out their new Chrome extension. It pops up when you are on Amazon to tell you where you can find that same product locally.
Outdoor Dining Into Winter
As you can imagine, we have have had a lot of inquiries about plans for outdoor dining moving into winter. Unfortunately, there are no easy answers.

What we can tell you is that as far as we know, there are no discussions to end outdoor dining and expansions any time soon. The outdoor expansion permits are not set to expire until the City’s emergency declaration is lifted. While that doesn’t give a definite timeline we expect to have the expansions areas in place through the end of the year and more than likely continuing into the new year and will continue to support our businesses as they experience the impacts of reduced occupancy and restrictions on use of interior space.

There are efforts to create guidelines for implementing use of heaters as well as discussion about creating more lighting infrastructure as the days get darker.

Economic Development Department met with the Fire Department last Thursday to talk about weatherizing the expansion areas. They are now developing guidelines and we hope to have updated information about what will be allowed for tents, lighting, and heating in the coming week or two.

We are certainly aware of how important it is to keep our Downtown restaurants up and running and will continue to keep you posted as we advocate with our partners at the City and state.
Is your Downtown business hiring? SUBMIT A JOB HERE

Current list of DOWNTOWN JOBS HERE



JOIN THE DOWNTOWN BUSINESS SLACK MESSAGING APP TO STAY IN COMMUNICATION WITH OTHER DOWNTOWN BUSINESSES.

Downtown Association Staff:
Sent to you by your good friends at the Downtown Association of Santa Cruz!