West Chester’s Gay Street open-air marketplace recognized – Daily Local News

WEST CHESTER — The Pennsylvania Downtown Center (PDC) named the West Chester Business Improvement District a Townie award recipient for the Gay Street Open Air Market. The West Chester BID was recognized under the Community Partnership Category for its innovative response to the pandemic.

The Gay Street Open Air Market was a partnership between the Borough and the BID and was spearheaded by then-Mayor and now State Rep. Dianne Herrin. The goal of the Open-Air Market was to create more space for outdoor dining and shopping to help small businesses get through the pandemic.

“This community entertained the idea of closing main street to vehicles for years, but business owners were reluctant and the challenge of gaining state and federal approvals needed to close this state-owned road loomed too large,” said Herrin. “If the pandemic had a silver lining for West Chester, this was it, because it created the impetus to give it a try. The BID, West Chester’s small businesses, our first responders, West Chester University, residents, the Public Arts Commission, and the Borough’s government officials all came together under our ‘Main Street Strong’ initiative to create this Open-Air Market, so we could offer a much safer environment for people to gather during the pandemic. Together, we created an appealing outdoor dining and shopping experience, complete with art and music, which drew people back and continues to support our businesses during these challenging times. The Open-Air Market has lifted all of our spirits, and it’s here to stay.”

“Our hope was that by creating more space for outdoor dining and shopping along Gay Street and throughout other areas of the downtown, we could help businesses regain some of the losses that they saw during the shutdown. The response from the community and businesses has been overwhelmingly positive and there have been several businesses that have cited the Open-Air Market as the reason they were able to keep their doors open during the worst of the pandemic,” said John O’Brien, Executive Director of the West Chester Business Improvement District. “The mission of the BID is to support the businesses located in Downtown West Chester, and 2020 was an incredibly brutal year for our small businesses.  However, because of a very supportive community, hard work of our businesses owners, and the extra efforts like the Gay Street Open-Air Market, our community fared a lot better than many of West Chester’s surrounding areas.”

The Townie Awards are a festive and esteemed annual tradition designed to recognize the commonwealth’s core communities and individuals for creation and implementation of projects, programs and events that exemplify the goals of PDC’s community revitalization mission.

Eligible communities are part of Pennsylvania Downtown Center’s statewide network of nearly 200 organizations, including Main Street and Elm Street programs, making the Townies a competitive award process each year.