It was another fun weekend on the Park-2-Park Shuttle. We had birthday parties, birthday GIFTS (thank you Chocolat Hillcrest–Rayna, we still have your gift, please email us!) and lots of new faces. We like to think that everybody wins when you get around without using your car, avoid DUIs, and enjoy a low-hassle night out with us, and several local establishments did some great business from our riders (see below). We’d love to hear your stories from the weekend on the shuttle. Whether it was a night of fun at Booty Basement or finally getting in to Bar Pink for the show, we want to know what you enjoyed. Also, feel free to let us know what we can improve.
As we’ve mentioned, this weekend we are extending into Hillcrest. This means a couple of things:
- If you want to see the Pride Parade, you can avoid the headache, park at the North Park Parking Garage–or walk if it’s convenient–and use a Pride Pass to make your way.
- NO MORE HOOFING IT UP THAT HILL ON 6TH! That’s right, we’ll have a stop just steps from the Festival entrance on Saturday night and Sunday that will carry you up the hill into Hillcrest and drop you at Urban Mo’s, Baja Betty’s and even over in University Heights at Bourbon Street. For details click here.
- For those who want to visit North Park or South Park from Hillcrest without losing your parking spot, buy a Park-2-Park Pride Line Pass and head over to Sight and Sound, South Park Walkabout, or any of the fun on our regular route. Your pass will connect you to either Bourbon Street or the Lafayette Hotel (near Red Fox Room and Live Wire), where you can hop on the main line and enjoy our ‘hoods for a bit.
Small Business Round-up: As I mentioned, several local restaurants & bars in the area are receiving a boost in customer visits with the advent of our easy, convenient service. Promoting through us might be a good way to help drive your summer revenue. But don’t take my word for it, here is the data just from this weekend (tracked by the shuttle’s onboard hosts).
Some highlights:
- Small bar: 49 customers from the shuttle
- Station Tavern: 35 customers from the shuttle (P2P Route Partner)
- Bourbon Street: 31 customers from the shuttle
- Hamiltons: 28 customers from the shuttle
- Alchemy: 27 customers from the shuttle (P2P Route Partner)
- Whistle Stop: 27 customers from the shuttle
- Ritual Tavern: 24 customers from the shuttle (P2P Route Partner)
- Blind Lady Ale House: 22 customers from the shuttle (in fairness, I paid for a few of these because of a minor snafu, but you get the idea)
- Bluefoot: 18 customers from the shuttle (P2P Route Partner)
- El Zarape (the new one): 15 customers from the shuttle — and this one is at least four blocks from the nearest P2P stop
- Soho: sent 33 customers last week (including 20 for a photo shoot when we weren’t running) (P2P Route Partner)
If you are considering the Park-2-Park to help drive your business, you should know that it is about more than driving new customers to your door. In this NBC News story last week, you’ll see that we also create exposure to our local businesses who partner with us. Special thanks to the Emmy-award-winning videographer Ericka Simpson and her colleagues at Channel 4 for doing the story. Erin and I do a lot of “research” on all the great places to enjoy in our service area and we love to exchange thoughts and ideas with our riders. Our new hosts are also locals, so knowing what our neighborhoods are about is a huge part of who we are and what we do. We love our neighborhood, it’s why we live here and we love sharing what’s great about it.
Have a great week, and tune back in this week for details about our Pride Line and service to and from Hillcrest!