Charlie Keller wears the same pair of sunglasses every day. The customized tortoiseshell frames and blue lenses are part of his routine at Kushi & Co., the outdoor Japanese street-style restaurant he opened in March at Bo Diddley Plaza.
Under the restaurant’s awning, lovebugs dot the colorful picnic tables. Keller asks if it is really that time of year again. For him, the return of the invasive mating insects also marks the start of football season. He welcomes the foot traffic after a slow summer but worries that parking difficulties and too few events keep other potential customers away.
“When there are a lot of people down here, it’s great,” Keller said.
Gainesville has put plans to revitalize downtown into action. For restaurant owners like Keller, downtown revitalization is measured in customers and orders. Business owners can now call on downtown ambassadors, and pedestrians can walk along the new Streatery.
Whether those changes bring more people into local businesses is a harder question.
The city commission adopted a downtown strategic plan in October 2022. The 130-page document proposes more support for local businesses, a better balance between parking and walkability, and more downtown housing as some of its main focuses.
In 2024, the city created a downtown advisory board to make recommendations to the commission for implementing the plan, according to the city’s website. When WUFT reported on the plan in July 2024, the city had approved a switch to paid, time-limited parking and was preparing to hire a company to provide ambassador services.
The Downtown Ambassador Program began in December 2024 under a three-year, $3.1 million contract with Block by Block, according to a city news announcement. Ambassadors clean public spaces, offer safety escorts and help connect people in need with outreach services.
Lauren Poe, the former mayor and a member of the advisory board, said he considers the program a success. Poe said, though, the city should also examine whether it makes sense to continue contracting out the work privately when the agreement comes up for renewal in 2027.
Across the plaza, multicolored umbrellas shade the tables outside KavaGator. Its owner, Julia Brensel, said she appreciates being able to call an ambassador when trash collects outside or when someone is sleeping on the cafe’s outdoor furniture.
“There’s some garbage down there – I call downtown ambassadors,” she said. “They will come in with a blower. It’s very, very helpful.”
Brensel moved from Russia to the United States in 1995 and opened KavaGator nearly five years ago. She has few complaints about running a cafe downtown, but she would like to see more activity just beyond her doors. Events at the plaza bring customers into the cafe.
“There is no reason why there shouldn’t be events here all the time,” Brensel said.
Keller agrees: More events at the plaza mean more customers for his restaurant, too.
“It’s a beautiful space; it’s got a stage,” he said. “There’s so much good for it in Bo Diddley that I think they definitely need to continue to capitalize on that and have as many events here as they can.”
Poe said he also wants more music, markets and other activities downtown. But, he said, events alone cannot provide businesses with a steady stream of customers.
“To me, everything is downstream from housing,” the former mayor said.
According to Poe, changes to the city’s comprehensive plan and zoning rules allow denser, more varied housing downtown. The next development wave could include market-rate and workforce housing, but high interest rates make new projects harder to finance, he said.
“If more people live there, they’re all of a sudden going to be within walking distance or a short scooter ride to all of the amenities that would help support the business community,” Poe said.
Parking is another point of contention. Under changes the city began enforcing in September 2024, on-street spaces in the downtown core cost 50 cents an hour and have a two-hour limit, according to the city’s announcement.
Keller said customers tell him it is a reason they avoid downtown, and he also objects to time limits that can force someone to move a car during a long dinner.
Poe said the paid-parking system is working as intended: Charging for desirable spaces encourages drivers to move their cars, making room for other customers.
Hiro Leung, who opened the popular Dragonfly restaurant more than two decades ago, said he has watched downtown change as customers who once ate there as students return with their children. Leung said the parking problem is partly one of perception.
“Whenever we have big events downtown, we get thousands of people gathered, and they found parking somehow,” he said.
Still, Leung wants less aggressive ticket enforcement and better parking options for staff.
The city’s newest public space adds another piece to that debate. It recently soft-launched as the Streatery, a renovated, blocked-off street for pedestrians along two blocks of Southwest First Avenue. It was designed to create space for outdoor dining and events.
According to the city, the commission approved the $4.5 million construction project in March. Some features, including lighting, were still unfinished when the fencing came down.
Teresa Callen, a commercial real estate agent and vice chair of the advisory board, said she has noticed a different kind of trip downtown: Students walking in the mornings toward Afternoon Coffee, a specialty coffee shop located in South Main Station.
Callen said she did not use to see them making that walk. But she wants more than occasional visitors. The real estate agent said affordable and workforce housing is a priority because permanent residents could help sustain businesses and fill vacant storefronts. When she shows commercial spaces to prospective tenants, she said, the Streatery is a selling point.
For Keller, he is less certain the city’s efforts address what keeps customers away.
“I think they’re trying to make the effort,” he said. “I just don’t know if it’s focused in the right places.”