Are The Block Parties Helping Businesses or Just Bars?

The Thursday night block parties, put on by the Downtown Improvement District, may be bringing money to bars in the area, but other businesses arent seeing quite the same cash flow. The Thursday night block parties are all about food, fun and entertainment, but theyre also meant to help improve the downtown with profits from the parties. But are businesses that dont sell booze seeing any benefits? The shift manager, at Quiznos on 5th and State they say they are seeing more people but not necessarily more money and their cash register has been emptier since the parties have started. "Basically we see more people just coming in to use the restrooms more than anything. Business has been going down for the last maybe 2 weeks." The owner of Isaac Bakers, a men’s clothing store on 10th and State, says the downtown block parties bring an atmosphere they dont have on a normal day and says they do help out the whole downtown…but theyre not necessarily seeing more greenbacks either. "Theres been occassions where its brought folks in, the bigger reason is people are in front of your door, people are in front of your store, people see things they may have not of seen if they werent downtown." Several other businesses in the downtown area said its a mixed bag situation for them as well... more people but that doesnt always equal more money in the cash register.