With culture flowing in the river running through Downtown San Marcos, residents wake up a little brighter on what is now “Downtown San Marcos Day,” knowing they have taken home a title that showcases city pride.
The Downtown San Marcos team accepted the proclamation from Mayor Jane Hughson at city hall on Oct. 8 after becoming a semifinalist in the Great American Main Street Award (GAMSA). Main Street America, a national organization that builds economic power in downtown areas and neighborhood commercial districts, recognized the team’s efforts toward guiding San Marcos’ growth while staying loyal to its modest upbringings by supporting small businesses and keeping the arts and culture alive downtown.
“Small businesses are the lifeblood of a city,” Josie Falletta, manager of Downtown San Marcos, said. “We’re so fortunate because we have over 300 businesses downtown and almost all of them are small, locally owned businesses.”
The Downtown San Marcos team emphasized a portion of its success to the businesses that make up San Marcos. It estimates around 70% of downtown businesses are small and locally owned.
“[Smart business owners] are the ones who are donating to local nonprofits,” Falletta said. “When you spend your dollars locally, more of that money stays local because they’re buying supplies from local vendors when they can and are supporting each other.”
According to Falletta, San Marcos continues to blend history preservation and growth with over $150 million reinvested back into the city across 40 years through public and private reinvestment. Being named as a semifinalist ranks San Marcos as one of the top ten main streets nationwide, and it’s the only city from Texas.
The GAMSA recognizes communities that used the Main Street Approach, which offers community-based revitalization initiatives to transform downtown areas. Falletta said every main street program has four broad areas of transformation strategies it focuses on — design, promotion, economic vitality and organization — with the goal of improving the experience of downtown visitors.
At the state level, five of the highest performing main street managers from different areas of the state work together on a leadership council. These cities provide insight to groups like the Texas Main Street Program, which addresses the challenges facing historic downtown commercial districts, within the Texas Historical Commission to influence decisions that improve main streets across the state.
According to Main Street America, it recognized Downtown San Marcos’ 40 years transforming the area through multiple infrastructure improvements and placemaking initiatives, resulting in the reinvestment that brought new residents and historically low vacancy rates to the district.
“We’re using places like San Marcos,” Amy Hammons, the state coordinator for the Texas Main Street program, said. “These are the places that have seen an incredible and encouraging movement by applying the Main Street Approach, and [the Texas Main Street program] wants to use them as an example as we grow our network. With this award, they’re obviously a national example as well.”
Program projects like “Downtown Alley Reconstruction” are a part of the “10 Year Capital Improvements Plan” and show Downtown San Marcos’ further investment into creating a city that visitors are proud to show off. The current pilot project has plans of implementing green alleys with permeable pavers that filter water as it gets collected before going into stormwater. The project’s second phase, which covers the remaining Kissing Alley area between North LBJ Drive and North Guadalupe St. from East Hutchinson St. to East Hopkins St., will be constructed in 2027, closing vehicular traffic and becoming an alley of public art and landscaping.
Susan Hanson, a retired English senior lecturer, said while the downtown area has not changed much in the past 40 years, she has noticed the increase in bars, restaurants, murals and community activities.
“[Falletta]’s brought a lot of stuff, like concerts on The Square, that we had last summer about this past year and farmers markets,” Hanson said.
Downtown San Marcos continues to create new initiatives and ideas to improve the image of San Marcos and set precedents for further investment and funding projects on how main streets can be treated across the state.
With multiple events happening almost every day from live music to comedy shows to open mic-nights, Downtown San Marcos makes it its mission to become a center of knowledge of what’s happening downtown. Its next major event, Spirit Squared, will be hosted from 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. on Oct. 25. It will be filled with Halloween related activities like community markets, face painting and a showing of “Coco.”
“[San Marcos’ exponential growth over the past 40 years] is really important, especially in a college town when you have so many people who are not going to be here forever,” Hammons said. “[Downtown San Marcos works] with that environment to show people the importance of involving yourself locally, whether it’s coming downtown and joining in a community event or it’s spending your money on a local business so that money stays downtown.”
