Another Sign of Downtown Success

This weekend was another wonderful time for people to visit Downtown Waterbury. A few of the things for people to see included...

Performances of "A Christmas Carol" by Shakesperience Productions. Of the 6 shows, which were held in the Shakesperience studio on Bank St, 5 were either sold out, or had less then 10 empty seats. The crowds were wonderful, and those of us who were in the show had a fantastic time.

The Connecticut Dance Theater also had shows in their new space on Bank St. They recently took over the third floor of the old Howland-Hughes building, and converted it to a performance space.

Even if theater is not your thing, you could have spent the weekend looking at all the fantastic displays that the Downtown Merchants had set up as part of Main Street Waterbury's 5th Annual Holiday Decoration Competition. Main Street Waterbury announced today that the CT Dance Theater took the overall grand prize, while Cafe Europa won the people's choice award.

While you were enjoying the sights of our downtown businesses on Saturday, you could have also taken a tour of Waterbury's newly renovated City Hall. Two years of work are nearing completion, and the building is once again poised to be a public jewel for the Brass City. As someone who spent several months in 2007 fighting to have the building restored, the re-dedication on January 1 is going to be especially sweet.

Finally, after spending all that time walking around our revitalized downtown, you could have stopped in at any one of our fabulous restaurants for a bite to eat.

In fact, on Saturday afternoon I stopped over at Bank Street Bistro for a quick dinner between the two "Christmas Carol" performances. As I was leaving a gentleman, who had also decided to stay downtown after the show, stopped me to tell me what a fine job my fellow actors and I had done.

As I crossed Bank Street back to the studio, I remembered where downtown was when I joined Main Street Waterbury back in 2005, and how far we've come. I'm proud to have been a part of the process, and see that things are on the right path.