As a business owner in downtown Niles, at Resurrections, 27 E. Main St., I would like to comment on the recent article about the Forever Young car show on Wednesday nights.

As of June 24, we have been at that location for one year. In my observation, the top three events for my business were: Small Business Saturday, The Hunter Ice Festival and The Forever Young car show.

Without exception, events that are held in the park do not increase traffic downtown. People simply don’t seem to want to walk two or three blocks from the park to downtown. Moving the car show to the park would do much more harm than good.

This isn’t just about the traffic and sales in my store. Events like this teach people in Niles and surrounding communities that there are things to do in Niles.

Downtowns across the country are struggling to stay relevant in the face of competition from the big box stores and the Internet. To have a chance at competing with these huge stores, small business owners like myself and every other great store in Niles need events like the car show on Wednesday nights.

The event organizer Rex Carpenter works very, very hard to put on this show. I don’t think he gets the appreciation he deserves.

So I don’t want to see them move the car show. In fact, I would be for more events coming to the downtown instead of the park.

I hope the city council members and the mayor will look at what these events do for the vibrancy of the community as a whole and make it easier for people to have events downtown. I believe it is for the good of all of us in the community.

John Crothers

Owner of Resurrections