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Public Spaces & Linkages Category
The Alhambra Summer Jubilee
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Located eight miles east of Downtown Los Angeles, the City of Alhambra is often referred to as the “Gateway to the San Gabriel Valley”. A distinctive logo depicts a Moorish-style archway leading into the City reminiscent of the historic Alhambra in Granada, Spain which is the City of Alhambra’s sister city. The City received its name from a book entitled “The Alhambra” by Washington Irving, published in 1832, 71 years before the City’s incorporation in 1903. The majority of land within the City's current boundaries was included in a 1771 land grant that led to the establishment of the nearby San Gabriel Mission. While its history and origins retain a heavy Spanish influence, the City's current population of 85,804 consists of a wide range of ethnic groups, and many businesses in and around Alhambra have ties to international commerce.
The Alhambra Summer Jubilee was conceived as a grand entertainment
extravaganza that would lure families to the downtown on warm, balmy
summer Southern California evenings. At Summer Jubilee, adults and kids
alike have an opportunity to enjoy musical entertainment on multiple
stages, along with food, games, and a variety of artisan & craft
vendors. With a different entertainment theme for each weekly event (for
example, ranging from a specific musical genre to an ethnic-influenced
theme), Summer Jubilee attracts a wide audience of participants from
young to old, and individuals of a great many ethnicities. The
program runs weekly throughout the summer months on Saturday evenings
from 6 to 10 p.m., starting the first Saturday evening after the Fourth
of July and running through the Labor Day holiday. Themes for the 2006
Summer Jubilee season included:
- July 1, 2006-“Soul Grooves”
- July 8, 2006-“Hot R&B”
- July 15, 2006-“Sun Sand and Surf”
- July 22, 2006-“Flashback 80’s”
- July 29, 2006-“Icons of Music”
With the ongoing success of Summer Jubilee, the city has continued to
expand the program’s budget to attract more name recognition
talent to further enhance the program’s effectiveness and to brand
a new image of the city as the community’s “gateway to
unmatched family fun and entertainment.” Major “star”
performers have included WAR, KOOL & THE GANG, THE GAP BAND, SHEILA
E, MALO, TIERRA, THE BEACH BOYS, THE BANGLES, TEENA MARIE and others. In
addition, there have been many tribute bands, including THE FAB FOUR,
which is now a regular among Las Vegas performers. Upon the season
finale, it has become a tradition to wind things up with a Mardi Gras
style parade and fireworks display—immensely popular events in
themselves.
What was important to planners and redevelopment staff was the location
of the event. The goal was to bring folks downtown by creating a
“book-end” with two heavy-weight anchors—the Summer
Jubilee and the Alhambra Renaissance Plaza (location of the new
14-screen Edwards Theater—at each end. As a result, the
Summer Jubilee is held on South Second Street which serves as a
connector to Downtown Alhambra’s Main Street, the hub for a
variety of establishments- dining, retail and entertainment venues
within easy walking distance.
As intended, the location has proven to be a boon to downtown businesses
especially as more participants have come to regularly experience the
different themes and entertainment offered at Summer Jubilee. With its
close proximity to Main Street, participants really can’t miss
becoming aware of all the major new business enterprises located on the
newly revitalized thoroughfare. Since its first season in 1999, Summer
Jubilee has become a highly successful event with an ever growing number
of participants. Its impact on downtown business has been very positive,
thereby meeting the goal for which it was originally intended.
Although Downtown Main Street has historically been a thriving center
for local commerce, a number of economic factors during the
1970’s-1980’s began to affect the Downtown. As the
development of large enclosed shopping malls and strip centers became
favorable with commercial land developers, Downtown Main Street could
not compete and vacant storefronts began to emerge and the dilapidation
of Downtown began. America’s concept of historic Main Street
as the core retail-shopping destination for town residents was no longer
in vogue. Downtown Alhambra slowly succumbed to increased
vacancies, a decline in commercial rental rates, inadequate parking, and
substandard buildings compared to modern standards. The physical blight
was visually obvious but it was the economic blight that played the key
role in the deterioration of Downtown Alhambra. These factors combined,
the Agency realized that this serious physical, social and economic
downturn had to be confronted.
The Alhambra Redevelopment Agency (ARA) has strived to restore historic
Main Street as the heart of the community. It has worked tirelessly to
develop partnerships with residents, business persons, public agencies
and community organizations to work towards revitalization. Identified
early on, the goals of the Agency were to effectively develop,
rehabilitate, and revitalize the Downtown while fulfilling the needs of
the community. In formalizing its goals, the City created several
key objectives: (1) revitalize blighted conditions; (2) redevelop and
redesign economically stagnate or improperly utilized properties; (3)
expand the commercial base through new/continuing public and private
sector investment; (4) encourage existing/new businesses to join
improvement efforts; and (5) promote appropriate architectural,
landscape, and other urban design principals.
In the Downtown, the Agency recognized that improving the physical
environment would only temporarily solve the problem. In order to make
substantial improvements it was necessary to incorporate quality uses
within the Downtown business district to ensure that the local economy
was further diversified. The strategy became one of reinventing
Downtown Main Street into an attractive, pedestrian-friendly retail,
dining and entertainment district. To accomplish this goal and to
address the problem of inadequate parking, the city began to construct
strategically located parking structures in close walking proximity to
downtown businesses. Over time, their number grew to include 23
city-maintained surface parking lots and 3 downtown public parking
structures for a total of 2,100 spaces––all free of
charge.
To avoid over-saturation of any one type of business, the city
concentrated on diversifying the overall downtown "tenant mix" by
encouraging a broad range of complementary establishments. Outdoor
dining and complimentary retail and entertainment uses have been
encouraged to create an inviting pedestrian, friendly street
environment. The result has been the emergence of a restaurant row
(specializing in international and regional cuisine), various regional
and national shops and boutiques, several entertainment oriented venues
(including two movie theater complexes with a total of 24 screens), a
fitness complex, and major retailers. In total, the City has
attracted 39 new businesses to the Downtown.
With its vision as the “premiere family-oriented and
economically-prosperous community in the San Gabriel Valley,” the
city and its redevelopment agency envisioned a public space in the
downtown where the community can enjoy leisure activities, interact with
different ethnic groups and enjoy the natural environment. Additionally,
this open space would attract families to the new downtown dining,
retail and commercial district, as well as serving to enhance the
community’s image of downtown Alhambra. The answer:
“Summer Jubilee.”
The Summer Jubilee is held on South Second Street, which is located two
blocks west of Garfield & Main, the hub of the downtown business
district, and adjacent to City Hall. With its contiguous location to
Main Street and the Industrial Redevelopment Added Area A Redevelopment
Project Area, it was thought to have participants walk through the
downtown in order to come to the event or to venture over to the theater
for subsequent dining, shopping and/or entertainment located in the
downtown. Sandwiched in between the two “book-ends”
are a plethora of other business establishments—mostly
restaurants, boutiques and other entertainment venues.
In a city with a population of 85,000, Summer Jubilee’s turnout
has been estimated to reach as high as 10,000-15,000 persons in a single
evening. The Summer Jubilee has met its original intent by helping bring
a new crowd to Alhambra’s revitalized downtown business district,
with dining facilities noticeably packed on Saturday evenings. More than
likely, the Jubilee has had an additional impact on other evenings once
a particular establishment has been “discovered.”
In 2006, the Community Services Department conducted a marketing survey
of Summer Jubilee participants to determine how they rated the event on
scale of 1-10. Of 571 respondents, 96% scored it between “5 and
10” with the numbers steadily climbing towards the most favorable
indicator, a “10.” When asked whether or not they
“shop, dine or recreate downtown” during the Summer Jubilee
event, the vast majority, 81% stated that they seized the opportunity to
patron downtown businesses. Music was the overwhelming draw of the
event, followed by food, artisans and kids’ events. Participants
were distributed in every age category—the highest being 36-50
(27%), 13-17 (13%); 50+ (26%); 6-12 (11%); 26-35 (8%); 18-25 (12%); 0-5
(5%). When asked about how they found out about the event—the
answer was overwhelmingly (41%) that they heard about the Summer Jubilee
from “friends or family.” The next source was from newspaper
ads. While the majority of participants came from Alhambra, some
participants stated that they had come from as far away as San Antonio,
Las Vegas, San Francisco, Lake Forest, Joshua Tree and a number of other
outlying cities.
The City of Alhambra has seized this opportunity and has been diligently
working to bring together a richly diverse community, which is 48%
Asian, 27% Hispanic and 30% White (by 2000 census figures). By
creating a flexible venue that is wholesome and fun, the city has
boosted civic pride and participation, created a new sense of
self-identity and image of Alhambra well beyond the city limits as a
“fun place to dine, shop and be entertained.” Moreover, it
has brought together an ethnically diverse community that previously had
tended to stay within its own cultural bounds.
After experiencing a single Summer Jubilee event, participants are eager
to come and enjoy succeeding events realizing that the essence of the
new Downtown Alhambra is synonymous with superb entertainment, food,
drink, and fun. To what degree the Summer Jubilee has affected this
growth is unclear, although there is no doubt that the event has played
a vital role in establishing greater citizen awareness of the
city’s newly revitalized downtown (requiring additional staff at
the individual businesses in order to meet the extra demand), boosted
civic pride and created a strong desire to be a part of the community.
It is not uncommon at all to hear people say that they love living in
Alhambra.
Unlike other cities, which often charge a nominal fee or hold such
entertainment venues on an annual basis or selected dates, Summer
Jubilee is entirely free including parking (although participants do pay
for food and other vendor items). As a result of the construction
of parking lots and downtown public parking structures, participants are
able to walk through downtown to attend the Summer Jubilee or enjoy
other business establishments.
The coordination of the entire Summer Jubilee program was placed in the
very capable hands of the city’s Community Services Department,
whose involvement includes planning entertainment themes; negotiating
contracts and schedules with musical performers; soliciting food,
artisan & craft vendors; coordinating games and other activities;
handling publicity; and working with other department staff (such as
public works and police & fire) on such matters as logistics,
setup/teardown activities, equipment rentals, public safety, and much
more.
As Summer Jubilee has grown in scope and popularity, a larger budget has
been allocated to it. The Alhambra Redevelopment Agency pays 50% of the
costs for the Jubilee and the remaining costs are paid by the
City’s General Fund. The cost for the 2006 Summer Jubilee
was approximately $900,000. While the majority of money is spent on
hiring entertainment (40%), other cost components include technical
assistance (sound/lights/backline), hotel & hospitality for
out-of-town entertainers, PR, event activities, decorations, games,
crafts, security, physical arrangements and bleachers, as well as the
cost of putting on a parade and fireworks show.
As indicated by the survey conducted by staff, Summer Jubilee has easily
met its goal of being a family-oriented event that has greatly increased
awareness of the city’s newly revitalized downtown and drawn
people to come and patronize its businesses. While the majority are
Alhambra residents, there is a strong indication that Summer Jubilee has
created a new image of Alhambra well beyond the city limits as a
“fun place to dine, shop and be
entertained.”
Frankly, it has not been necessary to undertake any unique approaches to
reach residents or others in publicizing this event. Traditional media
sources have worked well in informing the community about Summer
Jubilee. These have included placing a cover page ad in the
spring/summer issue of the city’s Leisure Services Guide—the
City’s Parks & Recreation guide for community classes and
city-sponsored activities; submitting an ad and monthly articles
throughout the summer in Around Alhambra—the city’s local
monthly newspaper mailed to every address in Alhambra; placing ads in
the Pasadena Star News and L.A. County Almanac; submitting schedules to
local calendar sections of local newspapers; posting a page devoted to
the Jubilee on the city’s website; placing a slide on the
city’s cable channel; submitting public service announcements to
local radio stations; and mounting large street banner ads on Main
Street and South Second Street. Most recently an editorial appeared in
the Pasadena Weekly, a local entertainment newspaper.
The City of Alhambra, the “Gateway to the San Gabriel
Valley,” is on the eastern edge of Los Angeles at the entrance to
the San Gabriel Valley and is approximately 7.6 square miles in size.
The City was incorporated on July 11, 1903, and has grown to its current
population of 85,804.
The Alhambra Redevelopment Agency administers two project areas
including the Industrial and Central Business District (CBD) Project
Areas. The Industrial Project Area, adopted by the City Council in 1969,
encompasses 369 acres and later expanded by 211 acres in 1981. The
Industrial Project Area includes a mix of residential, commercial and
industrial buildings. A portion of the Industrial and CBD Project Areas
encompass the Downtown Renaissance District. Total combined tax
increment from the two project area is $8.5 million, 20% of which is
reserved for housing.
Contact:
Alhambra Redevelopment Agency
Address: 111 South 1st Street
Alhambra, CA 91801-3704
(626) 570-5010
www.cityofalhambra.org