Flemington Visitors Center (click to expand)

This weekend, merchants on downtown Princeton’s Chambers Street held their first ‘Chambers Street Holiday Stroll‘, to try to tempt shoppers along one of the town’s lesser-travelled commercial areas. As one business owner said,

“When asked what is undiscovered about Chambers Street, Ms. Schussel good-naturedly replied, “Most of us, that’s why we’re doing this.”

It’sreally too bad that quality local merchants find themselves off the beaten track. An example from another walkable local town might provide a solution…

In Flemington, NJ, 2o miles away in Hunterdon County, local business owners have teamed up to place a ‘Flemington Visitors Center’ right in the middle of the Main Street. It’s not a particularly grand or expensive monument, but inside, anyone from out of town will find a bunch of information and leaflets about stuff going on in the Flemington / Raritan area, plus a detailed listing of all downtown businesses.

Inside Flemington’s “Visitor Center” (click to expand)

Princeton’s visitor center is inside the U-Store at 114 Nassau Street. It has useful information, but do all visitors see it? Some of our best local businesses are on streets like Chambers Street, South Tulane and Spring Street. It’s possible that with a little extra visibility, we could give these stores a boost, and help protect our local merchants. Of course, it isn’t that long since an initiative to repurpose downtown kiosks with more informative displays was shot down by Council.