What do you Wish for the retail space at LaSalle Hotel?

For Immediate Release:

> October 23, 2013: With the announcement of the conversion of the former LaSalle Hotel to apartment units, attention turns to the retail space available on the ground floors. Through the "I Wish This Was" project community members have had the opportunity to share their ideas for what they'd like to see in DTSB at this location. Contributing ideas through stickers on the windows of the LaSalle Hotel building, people have highlighted their wishes for shops, restaurants and services. Some of these wishes include; a gym, arts & crafts store, children's center, record/music store, coffeehouse, nail/hair salon, pharmacy and more.




>The "I Wish This Was" sticker campaign is a low cost platform for community engagement with an online tool for broader discussion. Stickers provide a forum for all people to share their ideas for vacant businesses on the spot. Community members are encouraged to share their contact information at wishsb.blogspot.com if they are interested in further discussing their ideas through focus groups. These groups will categorize and flesh out ideas to identify needs expressed by participants and organize them for developers/ entrepreneurs. In addition, wishes will be shared with current DTSB  business owners to determine if these needs can be met within existing stores, restaurants or programs. In conjunction with the Code For America fellows, the CityVoice technology also offers a phone-in alternative for those wishing to share more detailed thoughts or respond to others' ideas. (wishsb.com)

The primary goal of this program is to give  a voice to community members not often invited to the table to discuss revitalization efforts downtown and plant the seeds for further empowerment and ownership of development planning. In addition to the former LaSalle Hotel, Targeted properties currently include the Brazy building, Center City Plaza and Jefferson Center. For more information see wishsb.blogspot.com or contact Mara Trionfero at mara.trionfero@thestatesb.com.
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The State, South Bend
214 1/2 S. Michigan St.
South Bend, IN 46601

JOIN THE CONVERSATION!

I love the way people are entering into discussion about the wishes for DTSB through the stickers!  If you look closely above, you can see the comments letting people know that there IS a card shop next door, that there IS a tattoo parlor downtown and the name of WHO to contact about a record store.  This is what the Wish project is about, dialogue and equal access for participation.  It goes beyond the stickers though... All of the ideas will be categorized and we'd like to hold informal meetings/ focus groups for the categories to flesh out ideas a little more before we bring them to entrepreneurs and developers.  If you're interested in sitting in on one of these discussions, please share your email and we'll contact you by the end of November.  Also remember, you can offer lengthier thoughts through the Cityvoice option (wishsb.com) or here in the comments of this blog.  Get engaged and keep the wishes coming!

Call in your Wishes!!

Good news to those of you wishing for something particular from afar... there's a call-in option for the I Wish This Was project.  Thanks to our friendly Code for America Fellows, you can go over to wishsb.com, click on a property to get its code and share your ideas over the phone.  Even better, you'll get to hear others' ideas!
We've got stickers up on the former LaSalle Hotel storefronts, Brazy building between CJ's and Back Stage Grill, Jefferson Center next to SB Choc Co and Center Plaza next to the DTSB offices-
Think about what you wish was there...  stop by to add it to the posted stickers or call it in today from the convenience of wherever you are ;)  Stay tuned for an update on the ideas we've heard so far!