Plattsburgh Downtown Association

The PDA is working hard to make downtown Plattsburgh a hot-spot again

Story and photos by Todd Costello

Drunken college students stumbling around at 2 a.m. Specialty nights and gallons of beer are offered at a dirt-cheap price. Downtown Plattsburgh has become a place that serves the sole purpose of satisfying college students' thirst on weekend nights. It is also a place that is being visited less by community members.

These are some of the perceptions that surround downtown Plattsburgh.

"Downtown used to be a vibrant spot for the community, even on the holidays," said president of the Plattsburgh Downtown Association (PDA), Chris Dominianni. "We are trying to revitalize downtown and make it a place people want to come to."

The PDA is made up of about 25 businesses and individuals who want to clean-up downtown and its primary goal, according to its Web site, is to, "initiate special events that will continue to draw people back to the Downtown area on a year-round basis."

Dominianni has lived in Plattsburgh for 16 years and owns The Great Adirondack Soup Company on Oak Street in downtown Plattsburgh. He remembers when the streets were filled with members of the community and not just the students. "We want to re-acquaint people with downtown like in the '80s," he said.

"Downtown used to be a vibrant spot for the community, even on the holidays"

He went on to say how it's not bad that college students enjoy partying downtown. For those who don't remember, Plattsburgh was a campus town voted in the top 10 in the nation by Playboy for partying. It came to a point where it got so crazy on St. Patrick's Day, the school scheduled spring break during the holiday just so some students would go home and bring the craziness down a notch.

To keep the party atmosphere, and to lure the community downtown again, the PDA sets up several events the whole community can enjoy.

Throughout the summer the PDA holds free concerts and asks for donations. With normally good turnouts turnouts for the events, Dominianni already has plans for next summer:

"What we might try different next year for a bigger turn-out is have some bigger bands play along with the local bands and have different genres of music every week."

Another contest held to make downtown a little more pleasant to the eye was the storefront cleanup. Several businesses downtown cleaned up the front of their shops, planted flowers, and set up tables and chairs to give it the café environment. The top three shops won prizes for their efforts.

For the contest, outside businesses donated the prizes for the competition winners. The Butcher Block, Regal Cinemas, and the Plattsburgh Farmers and Crafters Market all donated the prizes for first, second and third places.

Matt Ray owns the restaurant Living Goods in downtown Plattsburgh, and took first place. He sees a good mix of students, community, and traffic from different towns go through his restaurant. "During the dinner hours we definitely get more of the locals coming in, ages 30 and up."

This is, ideally, what the PDA wants to get other places in the downtown area to accomplish.

With winter coming fast, the PDA is hard at work planning for their next event.

On the second weekend in February, a day of festivities is already being organized for the community. The PDA is trying to collaborate with the art department of Plattsburgh State University College for a snow sculpting competition. Dominianni said snow sculpting is very popular and several SUNY's have competitions every year. This will be the third year that there will be snow sculpting. In the same day, a chili cook-off will be held, as well as a new event in the planning called Cabin Fever. This event will be held at night, and the PDA hopes to get live music in some of the businesses downtown to wrap up the day.

"But, they forget that there are thriving, family-owned shops in downtown Plattsburgh"

For events like this one to be successful, public cooperation is key. The PDA encourages the public and local students to volunteer. They meet the second week every month at different locations, and the public is welcome. To gain some on-campus support in PSUC, he is trying to send out flyers making students aware that many businesses downtown give student-discounts.

"Living in the community, I see how much is going on on-campus and we want to get more involved," Dominianni said. "People just aren't aware of what's going on."

Along with events, the PDA also focuses on cleaning up the streets and making it more appealing. Small efforts like planting flowers are being done to make downtown a place that is more welcoming to the community.

"They have the right idea for downtown, but it's hard to get the programs off the ground without cooperation," said volunteer and Plattsburgh Campus and Community Partnership co-chair, Nancy Monette. By doing small jobs like this, it helps the PDA accomplish their main goal of gaining more attention to the collective businesses and shops working together in the association.

"A lot of people are going up to the mall and route 3 for their shopping, which is great. But, they forget that there are thriving, family-owned shops in downtown Plattsburgh," Dominianni said.

Have you ever taken part in a PDA event?

Competitive Snow Sculpting

With winter comes cold weather sports. Football, skiing, snow boarding, the Olympics, and of course, ice sculpting.

Right now, the PDA is holding another ice sculpting workshop, but they hope to eventually enter the New York State Snow Sculpting Championships.

Every year in Cooperstown, teams from across New York meet up and compete by sculpting ice to a certain theme.

The teams have their own sponsors and come from across the state. Ice sculpting isn't just a state event either. Every year there is a national event.

In 2006, the winners of the New York State competition were from Malone, and the winners of the people's choice award, for their creative ice carving, were from Potsdam.

This year, aside from holding a workshop, Dominianni hopes to compete in the competition.