On Saturday, March 19th, the first annual “Pancake Lounge” was held at Westwood Lanes.Organized by Alysen Wade, 25, the event featured a live band, DJ, dancing, and of course, a pancake buffet. You can read more about the event
here.
Approximately 70 people were in attendance.
Westwood Lanes is a bowling alley has always given me the impression that that it was just hanging by a thread. And quite frankly, the area has been a little on the scary side. It is safe to say that this area would not be a place a 22-year-old girl would want to be late on a Saturday night. To the left of Westwood are a gas station and a strip club called Shangrila. To the right is a large vacant lot.
However forsaken this part of town appears, it seems as though it is beginning to show signs of life. Sweetcars, a car dealership located in front of Westwood, opened its doors last year and is selling low-mile performance, exotic and luxury cars. The owner of Sweetcars could not be reached for comment, but it's curious as to why they decided to open such a business on this lot.
Why shouldn't this area be revitalized? It is a gateway to downtown, and let’s face it, a strip club and a gas station aren’t going to be attracting anyone.
It will be interesting to see if Westwood, or this area in general, will be having a revival. After Pancake Lounge ended, the owner of the lounge was so enthusiastic about the success of the event, she asked Wade to help coordinate future events at the lounge. The bulk of people in attendance were those in their twenties, which was a clientele Westwood was not so successful at attracting previously. Could other businesses follow suit and set up on this block too? We'll just have to wait and see.
Now if only Westwood and Sweetcars could just get along...
Photo courtesy of News-Sentinel.
Interesting. I understand that businesses need to have events like this to be able to withstand themselves, but I wonder why so much energy is put into an area of town that's dwindling and not into areas that have traffic but don't succeed in pulling people in. For instance, the stretch of road just south of IPFW on Anthony Blvd., there are a lot of businesses that would attract college students but there's no link to actually pull them closer.
ReplyDeleteI'm wondering what your thoughts on that would be.
that sounds good! I missed that.. :)
ReplyDeleteI don't think much has really been put into this part of town at all. And this is a heavy traffic area because you drive past it to get from the Aboite and the suburbs into the downtown area, and vice versa. I think I know what area on Anthony you're referring to. I'm not really sure why those places aren't more popular. Maybe if there was a more walkable/bikeable path to get there? It would be great if the River Greenway ran through that area.
ReplyDeleteI like how the alley spontaneously decided to have a pancake buffet. The fact that the event actually attracted a decent amount of people, I feel, definitely shows that the area is becoming a little nicer. There is not a lot going on in that area for sure, but give it time and I'm sure capitalism will over take it and the area will become more neighborhood friendly.
ReplyDelete@kristan are you talking about the stretch of road that Old Crown and Firefly are on?
ReplyDelete