Why is the City of Kingman HIGHJACKING the Kingman Downtown Merchants’ potential revenue again this year and threatening to hold the Route 66 Fest several miles from downtown in an obscure park on Andy Devine? Is there a rhyme or a reason or an excuse for not holding the 2022 Route 66 Fest in downtown Kingman? There is none, as I have documented to the city in numerous emails to the city officials. Yet what we get back from the City Officials is nothing but crickets. 

Is this the city we know and love, that we want nothing but the best for tourism-wise, that refuses to even respond to its Citizens/residents/business owners communications and requests for clarification as to why an event of this size, so important financially to the downtown merchants, who create the funds to hold events like this via their sales tax revenue, should not BE HELD IN DOWNTOWN KINGMAN? There is really and truly no excuse. Why won’t the city respond?. Why won’t they reach out to us? 

Why should we have to file FOIA requests for documentation from the City when they could simply contact the Downtown Merchants, speak with them, communicate with them and explain why this foolhardy, heinous HIGHJACKING of the Downtown Merchants is even being considered.

Why won’t Josh Noble, alleged head of our tourism department, office of tourism respond? Why isn’t every vendor, every merchant, every bar owner, every restaurant owner in downtown Kingman informed of what the city is about to do? Is this the city we know and love that refuses to even respond to communications from its citizens and business owners?

There is NOTHING, ABSOLUTELY NOTHING that they say can be done at dog park, that cannot be accomplished in our beautiful DOWNTOWN KINGMAN. We have the wide boulevard Beale Street, all of the side streets, Locomotive Park and even Metcalf park if need be. Plenty of space for bands, entertainment, zip lines, parking. We have the restaurants, the bars and pubs, the merchants in DOWNTOWN KINGMAN. If, as in an email I have seen from Josh Noble, the plan is to promote DOWNTOWN KINGMAN, I ask, how is that possible if the event is NOT HELD IN DOWNTOWN KINGMAN instead of proposing that it be held in a park 3 miles from Downtown, where there is nothing but the park? 

The DOWNTOWN MERCHANTS will lose huge revenue again, The City will lose huge revenue from its share of sales tax receipts, as we saw the dismal failure last year when the streets of Downtown Kingman were deserted by 7-7:30 Saturday night. I was told they were all up at that park – drove up there and it was virtually empty – nothing was happening. Even most of the vendors were gone and there was one food vendor left…..took pictures and video clips and sent to the city officials showing our Saturday ghost town. One would think that would be enough to never make that mistake again but it appears they may be thinking of doing just that.

Who gains or benefits by holding an event like this away from downtown Kingman? No one. Not the City, not the Downtown Merchants, not the guests, not the visitors, not the tourists (they won’t see our downtown). The vendors will pack up and leave town (most will not be from Kingman), take their cash and be gone, leaving the city with a pittance of what it would receive from holding the Route 66 Fest Downtown.

I, we (every single one with whom I have spoken) is simply asking the City to respond, to tell us what the plan Is, to include ALL OF THE DOWNTOWN MERCHANTS who PRODUCE THE REVENUE and to hold the 2022 Route 66 Fest in DOWNTOWN KINGMAN.

Respectfully,

Jack Alexander

Thunder-Rode