Recently I was honored by the Governor as an Agent of Change and inducted into the Keystone Society for Tourism. It was something I had not expected but the category and the spirit of the award fit the style of downtown management that I employ and I was happy to be recognized. I am the first Main Street Manager to be honored by the award.

I was thinking about what I had done in the tourism because much of the time when you seek to reposition the commercial districts you deal with the regional marketplace and not really a cohort group residing more than two hours away. I thought about how I worked in Baltimore County and directed an 11-day County Fair in 1976, which was a bicentennial event. The show featured Cypress Gardens Ski Show, circus acts booked through Ringling Brothers, Jack Kotchman Hell Drivers, Lionel Hampton and a host of national performers and some guys that dove into 10 feet of water from a 100 foot tower every hour on the hour. Then I thought nah…that was just a show and although it brought in 250 thousand people…and lost money I may add, it really did not fit into what the award was about.

The circumstance that really rang true for me concerning this award related to my time on South Street in Philadelphia as Director of the South Street/Head House District. Prior to my hiring, the previous year had been a rough one for South Street, the sexual assaults of the Greek Picnic and the riots during the Mardi Gas celebration had the street reeling. I was hired to reposition the street and make it more appealing to people to come to South Street. It was an effort that I thought long and hard about. 

The first thing that I did was to develop a public awareness program to let people know what was acceptable on the street. The fact that the residents were concerned about safety on the street was a good place to start. I worked to develop a plan with some of the merchants; to let people visiting the street knows the rules of the street. Every Friday and Saturday night we handed out informational leaflets on 4th and South with one person in front of the COPA and one person in front of Starbucks. 

The rules were easy, don’t grab people, and do not verbally assault people who look different, pretty basic stuff. It was during this time that the residents surrounding South Street started to realize that the district going to address the safety issue. One resident came up to me and told me that she teaches in the school system and some people attending the student performances did not know how to act. She said it was embarrassing to the students as well as the parents of the other students. She said the school did the exact same thing. The school passed out leaflets alerting people what they could do and what they could not do and it pretty much solved the problem. Similarly, our public informational campaign which included radio and TV Public Service Announcements seemed to have an impact and after a while proved to be effective. 

Once we felt it was safe on the street we moved to increase the foot traffic. By good luck we were visited by the “ducks” fairly regularly…like 10 times a day.  The ducks were military style amphibious vehicles that went in the Delaware River and then drove around town with bunch of tourists with quackers, quacking at people. Needless to say the neighbors hated the “ducks.”  They were coming out of their house and tourists would quack at them. Anyone who has ever worked in the city knows when people get upset usually there is a council person or maybe even a state senator who will step in and try to work on behalf of the complainants.

Newspaper articles abounded with everyone saying bad things about the “ducks,” everyone but me.  I said I loved the “ducks” and soon was approached by the owners of the “ducks” for some sort of strategic alliance. It was the “ducks” and I strategically working together for a better Philadelphia. A political deal was cut for the “ducks” to stay out of the neighborhoods and come down South Street for a longer journey. The “ducks” were mine. More than 500 tourists a day were coming down 11 blocks of my street seeing the brightly colored shops and the dining establishments was good for the street. 

I received a call from the head “duck,” he wanted to thank me for my support and wanted to meet. In my meeting with the head “duck” guy I told him how I had a street music program and I sought for him to highlight the music. He uttered something that I thought was affirmative and the meeting broke up with consensus that we would be joined at the hip even though he did not want to change the route.  But true to his word they did highlight the music and we started getting larger crowds on the street. 

So fast-forward to Greek Picnic weekend. This is a weekend that many, many Afro-American fraternities come to Philly to party and renew old friendships.  The residents hated that weekend because it had been the scene of sexual assaults, the so-called “whirling” incidents. “Whirling” was when 10 or so kids walked up to a woman, disrobed her and left her standing naked in the street as everyone laughed at her. By the time my second year was underway that was a thing of the past.  The police presence and the behavior modifying informational campaign diminished that activity. 

The first year I had the Greek Picnic I soon realized that the police would string ropes along the curb and make everyone walk in a circle from 11th to Front Street. No crossing the street you had to go to 11th Street before you could cross.  The foot traffic on the street was 99.9 percent Afro-American, along with me and a few Caucasian people visiting the orgy club at the 900 block of South Street (they had their own agenda).

So the second year rolls around and it is Greek Picnic time again and the streets are roped off and all of that. This time there was one big difference 25 percent of the people on the street were Caucasian tourists.  The “ducks” were putting people on the street for me and doing it in a big way. The entire vibe on the street changed as 60 and 70 year old people were walking around in a circle with about 75 percent Afro- American youth.  It was eye opening. The first thing I thought of was what is going on at the orgy club tonight that brings this many people…but then as I looked at the people I thought “no that ain’t it…it’s the ducks.”  It was a weird way to separate tourists out but it looked like a pretty effective way to me.  A unique situation had developed, a blending of different people and a new vibe on the street.

To a great extent I realized that my tourist effort, by embracing the “ducks” was responsible for about 25 percent of the people on the street. I was astounded as were many of my board members when they heard about it. I spoke to the people that run the “ducks” afterward and they said the number on question when people got off the “ducks” was “how do I get back to South Street?” it was a tourism success and I did not even know it was until that night. I will never forget that night…I was pretty proud of how it turned out in our favor. 

When you introduce change sometimes you are unsure what the results will be and sometimes the results are unexpected.