Family-Friendly Activities Increased Foot Traffic to Main Street

By MONICA CALZOLARI
ONEONTA

Jump ropes, pogo sticks, sidewalk chalk, a bubble machine and a mega chess game were just a few of the family-friendly additions to the City of Oneonta’s Muller Plaza this past summer.

Kaler Carpenter, program manager of the Youth Clubhouses operated by Friends of Recovery of Delaware and Otsego Counties, summarized his organization’s contributions at a Common Council meeting on October 17, 2023.

Carpenter said, “Muller Plaza was designed as a community space and is underutilized.”
A concerted effort is being made to increase foot traffic on Main Street in Oneonta and to find other uses for the plaza.

Carpenter said, “It was Mayor Mark Drnek’s idea to reimagine Muller Plaza by having the plaza be full of activities and community events five days per week as well as have it be an attractive space where tourists can find information about local businesses and the surrounding area.”

When Destination Oneonta closed its retail storefront on Dietz Street, the city lost a central location where newcomers could visit and ask questions.

Carpenter was a member of the initial planning committee for “Muller Plaza Reimagined.” He reached out to Mayor Drnek and the Common Council about the possibility of having FOR-DO take the lead with this initiative.

FOR-DO is a grassroots addiction recovery community organization.

Carpenter said, “I proposed that we act as plaza ambassadors.”

The City of Oneonta agreed and contracted with FOR-DO to provide services at Muller Plaza for a total of $16,500.00, according to Carpenter.

For 62 days, every Tuesday through Saturday from June to September, for eight hours a day, FOR-DO offered games and activities on the plaza.

Carpenter explained that the goal was to “change the culture of the plaza” by making it more comfortable and inviting to visitors.

FOR-DO and The Redemption Movement supplied several tables and chairs, an umbrella, a speaker system, and a PA system for live music. The City of Oneonta supplied menus to area restaurants.
“A Wheel of Lunch encouraged conversations about local restaurants as well as helped people decide where to eat,” Carpenter wrote in his summary hand-out.

Approximately 100 guests attended a ribbon cutting in June 2023 to kick off the summer’s worth of activities planned and overseen by Carpenter, FOR-DO and FOR-Do’s Club Odyssey staff.

Carpenter counted 6,183 total interactions over the four-month period and estimated that the new, family-friendly activities attracted an additional 5,256 visitors to the plaza.

Carpenter said, “We had about 100 people per day visit the plaza. Many included the baseball families who visit Oneonta during the summer months. Participation doubled when the college students came back.”

On September 16, when the Community Arts Network of Oneonta hosted the City of the Hills Festival, more than 500 people visited Muller Plaza.

Some of the other community members who participated are: Junior’s Jerk Chicken provided food on Saturdays; Christina Perry offered dance workshops; Head Start provided children’s activities; several organizations provided live music; and SUNY Oneonta students helped Club Odyssey make custom Oneonta T-shirts.

Carpenter summed up the experiment this way: “This proved to be what I like to call a win-win-win arrangement; a win for FOR-DO’s youth programs, because we were able to generate revenue for the programs as well as promote recovery to the community; a win for the City of Oneonta, because FOR-DO was able to provide this community service much more economically; and a win for Oneonta, because the downtown experience was enhanced for everybody in a variety of ways.”

FOR-DO used money from its programming budget to fund the activities at Muller Plaza.

“The mega chess set was the biggest expense, at $539.00,” said Carpenter.

Water guns, a hose and sprinkler, pumpkins, and blank T-shirts were also supplied by FOR-DO.

FOR-DO operates two youth programs, Club Odyssey and The Oneonta Teen Center.

Club Odyssey, located at 80 Water Street, provides a sober space to socialize as well as recovery services for people ages 18-25 in Otsego County.

The Oneonta Teen Center, at 4 Academy Street, serves youth 12-18 years of age.

Three members of the Common Council publicly thanked Carpenter at the meeting on October 17 for his leadership and dedication as a Muller Plaza Ambassador. They were Mayor Drnek, Len Carson representing the Fifth Ward and David Rissberger representing the Third Ward.