Curtain Up on Oneonta’s Next Act
**Date:** 04-16-24
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The Renaissance begins.
Not with lords and ladies. Not with knights and squires.
But with artists, performers, and shop owners. With friends and neighbors. With you and with me.
This is Oneonta’s Renaissance.
A time of optimism and comradery and unique, entertaining things being created and shared by a growing community of neighbors and visitors.
It begins on Saturday, April 27th when our beloved Oneonta Farmers Market rolls out their carts and stands in a newly imagined Dietz Street Marketplace – a little elbow of a street and adjoining alleyways.
Rising from the pavement, gleaming new balusters will welcome passage of pedestrians while redirecting vehicles to a well-considered detour.
The day will be a celebration of nature and our environment, with booths and vendors and food and music. When the day is over, the balusters will be removed and all will be quiet for a week. Then, every Saturday in May, the Farmer’s Market will return.
But these five weeks are a tease, a little something to whet our appetites for what’s to come. Presuming an affirmative vote at this evening’s meeting of the Common Council, beginning on Saturday, June 1st, Oneonta’s downtown will be transformed.
For five days every week, Tuesday through Saturday, from late morning until early evening, vendors, artists, crafters, performers, and more will transform this quiet corner of our downtown into a daily bazaar!
Diagonally across Main Street, Muller Plaza will begin its second year as a host to unique family-oriented entertainments such as water features, baseball toss, oversized chess, and other activities. Brightly colored umbrellas will again offer shade to outdoor seating, making the plaza an inviting place to relax while enjoying a meal and conversation. Following up on last year’s success, the staff of Club Odyssey will serve as Downtown Ambassadors, providing locals and visitors with information to help them take full advantage of all that Oneonta offers.
Adding to its attraction, the plaza will be a focus of activities as we reconnect it and our Main Street with Oneonta’s storied past, once again celebrating Late Night Thursdays with entertainment and extended shopping hours.
This is exciting. And it’s a lot. But it’s not all…
Look for our vacant store windows to become home to art and display. Watch as non-descript utility boxes and other innocuous bits of infrastructure come alive with the creative talents of local artists. See murals transform boring facades into beckoning artscapes. (The Foothills will be among the largest and most visible of these, and through its collaboration with our Public Arts Commission, a call for artists is already underway.)
This will be Oneonta’s Renaissance.
With its success we will attract more people – visitors and residents – to our downtown, and through promotion, to our businesses in the east end, and on Chestnut and River Streets.
Our shops and restaurants desperately need this, as do our efforts to recruit new neighbors. But to be clear, this will require EVERYONE’S assistance.
This Renaissance will only succeed if we ALL embrace its potential, and that of our community. The budget is shoestring, but we can and will reimagine our city by working together, volunteering time, art, performance, and our creative energies.
FYI – It’s a given that all performing and visual artists should be compensated for their talent. However, for those performers who were provided a financial lifeline during the pandemic through our “Survive, Then Thrive” efforts, I ask that you consider this opportunity to pay it forward. Your gift of time and talent will be truly appreciated by all, and it will ensure our success.
Contact me: mayor@oneonta.ny.us.
Together… we are the Renaissance.
