WACO, TX — Every Thursday a new voice, a new story about downtown Waco.
"We were shut down just as much as Waco was," said Alison Frenzel, co-owner of Fabled bookstore in Downtown Waco explained in the second video released by City Center Waco.
"I think people gravitate toward stories. It's different when you can see the business and hear their story," said City Center Waco Project Coordinator Michael Carpenter.
Wendy Gragg and Michael Carpenter are part of the City Center Waco team that launched a 6-week video campaign that has one message.
"The whole thing is to get people excited about downtown again and remind them why it is special. I think it was Michael who said why downtown? Why does downtown matter to the rest of Waco? Why come downtown? That became the overall theme," said Gragg.
Each weekly video answers those questions.
"There's kind of this narrative that downtown is kind of only for tourists and I think a lot of local people don't go downtown and some of them don't even know what's going on down there. But there's so much diversity and so much quality businesses and people downtown," said Carpenter.
And there's still so much happening in spite of the pandemic.
"We hope our businesses can hang on and get through this. But also the great thing about downtown and something that makes us different is we still have so much growth. There are so many developments underway. You'll see that in our 6th video, we talk about the future of downtown. During quarantine it was tough but there was still construction. People were getting vertical and there are new places opening still. There's still a lot of hope there," said Gragg.
And that's what you see in the faces and places highlighted in the campaign.
You can view and share the videos as they are released each Thursday on the Downtown Waco Public Improvement District social media pages on YouTube and Facebook.
