Politics & Government

County Helps Downtown Businesses Offset Losses Through Marketing

Bill Lambert, the county's assistant director of economic development, is helping Castro Valley merchants create a marketing campaign to offset losses from boulevard construction.

Castro Valley’s ad hoc marketing committee made progress during a Thursday meeting on a campaign plan to promote the town’s commercial district. The group of 14 residents, business owners and county officials endorsed a name for the proposed campaign’s website and chose a graphic designer for brochures and signs.

Bill Lambert, the county’s assistant director of economic development, said he hopes to have a budget proposal for the July 26 Alameda County board of supervisors meeting. Any plan would have to be approved by the board before it can go into effect.

The campaign, which Lambert said will be funded by about $75,000 from the county, is intended to counter the on Castro Valley Boulevard, which local shop owners say has caused a 30 percent drop in business.

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The group spent about 30 minutes discussing possible website names for the campaign, leaning toward a URL that resembles the campaign slogan “buy it on the boulevard.”

Other proposed Web addresses included the words “downtown” or “boulevard.” There was concern that residents identify Castro Valley’s main commercial area as the boulevard, so that eliminated “downtown” from consideration. Others were worried that “boulevard” would exclude the businesses on Redwood Road, so that word was avoided as well.

Find out what's happening in Castro Valleywith free, real-time updates from Patch.

Lambert said another meeting will be held in a few weeks, prior to sending a finalized proposal to the supervisors. No date has been set.


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