- [Announcer] Funding for this program is provided in part by the Minnesota Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund and the citizens of Minnesota.

(bright music) (upbeat music) - R-Town, the show about Rochester, catches up with the new executive director of the Rochester Downtown Alliance.

We also head over to the Rochester Public Library and learn all about their programming for all ages.

And we get the latest from the RCTC campus, all that and so much more, coming up next on R-Town, the show about Rochester.

(upbeat funk music) Coming to you from 125 Live in Rochester, Minnesota, R-Town.

(upbeat funk music) Last month the Rochester Downtown Alliance Board of Directors announced the appointment of Shawn Fagan as executive director, and today we're joined by Shawn here to tell us more about his new role and the future of RDA under his leadership.

Welcome to R-Town, Shawn.

- Thanks Nicole, appreciate it.

Glad to be here.

- So, before we get started, can you remind us what RDA is and what its role in the community is?

- Yeah, Rochester Downtown Alliance is a small business association of sorts that functions downtown in Rochester.

We cover about a 44 block area.

We go as far north as Civic Center, so kind of like where Redwood Room would be or Tilda's, Big Head Burrito, Central Park and then south almost all the way down to Soldiers Field, basically.

We go as far west as like Annenburg Plaza, the Plum building, that kind of area.

And then east from there, just over the river towards the Civic Center and Art Center.

- [Nicole] Excellent.

- So, that's kind of our district that we serve.

And then RDA is tasked with marketing, and promoting everything that's happening downtown.

It'd be from businesses to our iconic events like, Thursdays Downtown, Socialized, Here Comes Santa Claus to other community events.

We're very passionate about activating other organizations and other people to be doing stuff downtown as well, so.

- You have been such a champion for the downtown area and I know you've been a downtown property owner and a business owner.

Can you tell us a little bit more about your connection with downtown and your vision for it?

- Yeah.

My wife and I moved to Rochester 21 years ago to start our photography studio, Fagan Studios.

We started in my in-Laws basement for nine months and then we moved into our own house for three years.

And then about 17 years ago, we walked into this old gorgeous, bricked-walled, wood-floored building in downtown on Broadway.

And my wife started bawling instantly.

It's a bad way to start negotiations, but she walked in and we walked in and like this is that dream we had ever since we were in college.

We were both photographers, we both studied photography at South Dakota State University and we were looking to, as our business was growing in Rochester, we needed a new home.

And we came across our building down on 324 South Broadway and for 17 years that's been the home of Fagan Studios.

And then we've launched other small businesses out of it, like Studio 324 on the first floor, a small private event venue.

And we've always just wanted to keep that space kinda activated for the community as well through different things.

So yeah, we've been downtown for 17 years.

It's been very near and dear to my heart.

I love downtowns when we travel, and we look for hotels that are in downtowns and so we can leave our car and forget it and just walk and explore community's culture, that usually is in those downtown environments.

So yeah, my heart's been down there for a long time.

I've served on different committees with Rochester Downtown Alliance over the years.

During the pandemic, helping my neighbors restaurants out, creating online ordering for their sales during the pandemic.

And then most recently, served on the board, became chair of the board, and then I got tapped on the shoulder and with a question of, "Hey Shawn, would you be interested in?"

So... - [Nicole] And here you are.

- And here I am.

(both laugh) - You mentioned some of the work that you had done during the pandemic and back during the pandemic we know downtown businesses were especially impacted by all that was going on.

Almost five years later, what are we seeing in our downtown and how are our businesses doing?

- Yeah.

As always, throughout the history of any downtown, there's businesses that come and businesses that go.

On one of my websites, I have photographs of our building with horse-drawn carriages in front of it.

It has been dozens of things.

People always walk into my own building and say, "What was this building?"

And I have to go, "Well, what decade are you talking about?"

Kind of idea.

So, there's always a natural attrition.

Things come and go.

There's a chance that things will be changing in my building in this year.

So yes, we lost a handful of businesses during the pandemic, but now coming out though, we see a lot more coming into downtown.

Who knows why?

Different concepts, different restaurants, different retail, whatever it might be.

Why these different concepts don't necessarily always work out.

They all have different reasons, from medical sicknesses, medical issues, to maybe it's not quite the right time in the marketplace for a business.

But any rate, what we're excited about right now is just the momentum of what we have going downtown.

Just this past Friday night, I went to a concert at Chateau with my oldest son who's 21, and we're done with the show late at night and we're like, "Hey, should go grab a bite somewhere?"

So hop on Google, look up a couple of quick restaurants.

Our Paladar - open until 11:00 PM.

So we're seeing this night market come back into this night economy, evening economy, coming back into Rochester.

There's this excitement, this life.

There's things to do downtown.

So, he and I went off, had the most incredible jerk chicken wings I've ever had in my life down at the Palmetto Room, a brand new cocktail lounge, a little rum bar on the bottom level of where Our Paladar is in the old train depot.

Had a great night.

So, it's exciting to be able to leave the car and walk around downtown, explore the different things- - And that's exactly what a downtown should be.

Walkability and being able to experience different things.

We also know that our downtown is embedded at the doorstep of Mayo Clinic of course.

And how is RDA connected with Destination Medical Center and the Mayo Clinic Bold.

Forward.

Unbound.

- Yeah, we work closely with DMC.

They are very much do a lot with the Peace Plaza as well.

RDA, that's one of our initiatives is to make sure that's activated.

Full of life, it's kind of our city square, if you would, right?

I mean a lot happens there and around there.

So, that's how I kind of see it as the meeting ground for our community and then hopefully life spans out from there throughout the blocks of downtown.

But yeah, we work close with DMC.

They come along as a financial supporters and especially the Mayo Clinic as well, our big financial supporters of the Rochester Downtown Alliance.

And then we take that funding and invest it into activating the Peace Plaza, activating other areas of downtown.

One of the biggest things we're proud of, I just received the baton from Kathleen Harrington, our interim director for the past two years.

Phenomenal leader, did tremendous things for the organization for our downtown.

And one of the initiatives she helped get going is more live music downtown, more free live music I should say as well.

So, throughout this summer and fall, we had over 250 free live musical performances in downtown, majority of 'em around that Peace Plaza area.

That's an incredible number and I haven't heard anybody else contest it yet.

So, I think Rochester might be the music capital of Minnesota.

- Okay.

- That's what I'm shooting for.

- Well, you're saying it now.

- Yeah, that's what I'm saying now.

But that much free live music, every single day we have something going on downtown.

And that then rolled into, okay, what else do people want?

How about dancing?

Let's have dancing on the Peace plaza.

So, we test around that in late, the summer, early this fall.

And to see people leave the Mayo Clinic.

Employees with their badges on to come over and hop into the middle of salsa dancing downtown.

To see people coming out of Kahler and like hearing swing music on one night and like, oh, this 87-year-old woman heard the music, came outside, hopped into swing dancing downtown, the Peace Plaza.

- I hope you got photos.

- Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

And yeah, so fun to see other visitors, they get there and like, look at this.

And they're recording on the iPad, or they're just send 'em back to their grandkids maybe.

And in my mind, I'm like thinking like, they must think this is really cool and it is and I'm excited about that.

So, to kind of keep those activations going, to keep activity going, to keep, people want something to do, people want somewhere to connect and we hope to be, that's another piece what we're doing is that activation of our downtown.

- Excellent.

And it keeps it alive, obviously.

You mentioned Kathleen Harrington and her leadership.

- Yeah.

- And I know you trained with her, sort of walking along with her (chuckling) as you were transitioning into this role.

One of the things that I believe she was working on was the SSD.

And you'll have to clarify that, what that abbreviation stands for.

Can you tell us a little bit more about that process?

- Yeah.

- And what it meant for RDA?

- Yeah, And SSD is a Special Service District, that's what we call it in Rochester, maybe Minnesota as well.

Known throughout other communities as a BID, a Business Improvement District.

So, it's the idea of you create this district, that 44 block area, I kind of opened up with where it is.

And we, as property owners, we all pay just a little bit extra in our property tax.

About a third of our funding for RDA comes from this SSD.

So, all the commercial properties, not residential, not non-profit, but the commercial properties at downtown pay just a touch more in the property taxes.

So, about a third of our funding comes from that.

A piece of it comes from Mayo Clinic, a great partner, the City Of Rochester, and then through our own promotion, our own partnerships and sponsorships that we go after.

Yes, and then she just recently got us through that.

Every 10 years is what our mandate is, is that we need to renew that.

So, because we, property owners downtown, choose to pay us a little extra, it's up to them, should it continue or not.

So in a way, it's a vote of confidence, I guess.

And part of that process is we need to go around and get pen to paper, 60% plus signatures of property owners in the district to say yes, we believed in RDA's mission, they're doing the job that we've tasked 'em to do.

We are for them moving forward with that 60%, we then go in front of city council for the official vote for it to become codified, I guess.

And yeah, October 7th is when we did that in front of City Council and it was approved seven-zero unanimously.

So, we're excited to have that behind us.

It was a lot of chore, a lot of funky math, but we got through it and now it's just full steam ahead.

We're busy in the office.

We have a lean machine down there to take the funding that we do have and investing that into our marketing and promoting.

It's as much as getting the 55906's and the 55901's out of their houses to come downtown, experience life downtown, as much as it is promoting and marketing to communities outside of Rochester to draw tourists in, if you would, you know, to share that downtown Rochester as a destination for people for fantastic dining, of course.

Incredibly unique retail shopping.

The art scene downtown, the amount of free public art there is, to the free music, to the free dancing, to downtown Rochester's home to two different theater companies.

So again, it's just, there's so much to do.

It's hard for me even just to talk about it.

- No, I see all of your excitement.

And guys, we're wrapping up here.

what are some events and programs that we can kind of connect people to?

And I know the holiday season is coming up.

Are there some things that you're sort of thinking about in terms of RDA and activation in downtown area?

- Yeah, just recently we're getting ready for our big marketing campaign for the holiday season.

The idea of coming downtown and exploring downtown in the wintertime.

So, my colleague, Elena, was going through our calendar, our events page to other community calendars and stuff.

And just downtown alone, in a six week period, from mid-November to end of December, there are over a hundred different activities, events, from big events to little events, to happenings, a hundred different things going on in downtown Rochester alone.

So yeah, there's a lot coming up.

A lot of it's happening in the Chateau.

A lot of it's happening throughout the other businesses throughout Rochester.

But I'd encourage people to check out downtown Rochester and then the RDS homepage.

We have a very robust events calendar that you can filter if you're looking for live music or you're looking for dining events, you can filter that down.

Family-friendly events to that.

So, some of our big iconic events that are coming up, day after Thanksgiving, word is Santa Claus is going out for a test run leaving the North Pole, and he usually flies over Rochester and it seems like he hits some turbulence and lands on top of the City Hall.

- Oh, every time, - Every year.

(both laugh) And it might happen again this year.

So, that's a really fun event.

We're adding some magic back into that again this year that we're excited about.

Some fun changes, we were meeting with just yesterday, about it actually.

A week later, a brand new event to Rochester, The Downtown Dazzle, a Christmas parade with full of Christmas lights and floats on cars and trucks and floats.

And our downtown ambassadors, who keep downtown clean and safe, will be out there as well in the parade, but we're hearing that there's gonna be nearly 50 different floats in the first year alone for this Downtown Dazzle on December 7th.

- Well, thank you.

Thank you so much, Shawn, and excited to connect folks with what you all are doing at RDA.

And thanks for coming and we'll certainly have you back on again.

- Thanks so much, Nicole.

Appreciate it.

(upbeat funk music) (upbeat music) - Hi, I am Danielle Teal with R-Town Spotlight.

We're here with Jon Allen at the Rochester Public Library, gonna chat about kids and activities.

Thanks so much, Jon.

What do you do at the Rochester Public Library?

- So, I'm a youth services librarian.

And so, you know, we work with kids from zero to, you know, 18 basically.

So, all ages and, you know, I do programming and some collection development.

And then we have special programs, we have special performers, things like musicians or magicians or, you know, even animal, you know, people bring in animals from different, like RAD Zoo or the Eagle Center.

- Okay.

- So yeah, you know, there's a bookmobile that kind of looks like our bookmobile that they can, you know, use imaginative play and interact with other children.

And there's a post office that they can deliver these letters to, that, you know, they have to have these like literacy skills to use their imaginations with.

What I like to see is just the kids that don't even know each other's, kind of working together and building together, yeah, yeah.

- They really love it.

And my kid really loved the post office.

I mean, she took it seriously.

She was like the post person and you know.

(upbeat playful music) (upbeat playful music continues) And then story time occurs here too.

- Yeah, so we have our story times, you know, on Wednesday mornings there's kind of like a baby story time and then a toddler story time, where, you know, one's more gentle story time, where you're kind of...

It's more of a lap-sit for the younger children.

But you know, all ages are welcome, like with siblings and families.

And then the toddler one is a little bit more active.

- And expressive.

I've been to those with my daughter and we had so much fun.

In fact, "Llama Llama Red Pajama."

I read it the way that I saw it at story time because I was like, oh my goodness.

Totally engaging and interactive and, okay, the final question is, what is your favorite kid book?

- Oh, I just read it today three times actually.

- Did you?

- Yeah, so there's a book called "Bark George."

- Okay.

- Which is a picture book that basically, it's this dog makes all these incorrect animal sounds.

So, it's like an animal sounds book and it just cracks the kids up, because it's the wrong sounds.

And then there's kind of like a twist ending.

So, you have to read it.

- Meow.

(playful music) - No, George.

- I'm here with Kim Edson.

And what is your role at the Rochester Library?

- I am the Deputy Director of public services.

So, the library is a place to connect and learn and grow.

And we do that in a lot of different ways.

We have a lot of interactive activities for adults and intergenerational activities.

Some really good examples are, we run a number of book clubs, you know, the very traditional library thing where people read books and talk about it.

What I love about that, is we have people from all socio-economic backgrounds coming together around a common theme and sharing conversation and discussion.

- I love that that is the continuous focus as we talk between you and Jon, is that community and connection.

Can you share a little bit more about, you know, what else is offered here in the atmosphere and environment for adults?

- Well, we also have your traditional things, right?

I don't know that you can function much in this culture without access to a computer.

- Okay.

- So, if you don't have one, we sure do.

Computers, printers, fax machines.

Oh, and if you have some of that old media laying around, like your VHS tapes that you'd like to digitize, we can help you with that too.

- [Danielle] Oh my goodness, I didn't even know that you all did that.

- You know, the library has things that people don't expect.

- Okay.

- We help our community with food insecurity.

Do you know how we do that?

- I did not know that.

Well, through seeds, right?

- Through seeds.

- Okay, I love That.

- We have a seed library and we check out thousands of seeds free to the public.

We ask people, plant them, and we also provide related programming to help them give back their seeds when they're done with their harvest, so that the next generation can enjoy them as well.

- Anything else you'd like to share?

- Well, you know, we're not just a building, right?

If you are interested in reading or listening to audio books, our collections are available 24/7, anywhere you have internet connection with a library card through our Libby app, which provides full content to thousands of books and audio books and magazines.

- [Danielle] I have Libby and it really is wonderful.

- She's my best friend.

- I mean, mine too.

- [Kim] Totally my best friend.

- [Danielle] Where can people get more information?

- Oh, rplmn.org, our website, rplmn.org.

Something for everyone is here at the library.

- Something for everyone.

That is a good way to sign off.

That is wonderful, thank you so much.

This is Danielle Teal with R-Town Spotlight.

- [Announcer] For more information about this story and other R-Town features, connect with us on Facebook, Twitter @KSMQ#RTown or ksmq.org/rtown.

(upbeat music) (upbeat music continues) (upbeat music continues) (bright music) - Today we are in RCTC'S Health Sciences building and we're asking students their Thanksgiving traditions.

What are your Thanksgiving traditions?

- Well, we used to have our whole family come over to our house every year.

Would be like my mom's entire side of the family, but now it tends to just be my immediate family and we all have our big Thanksgiving dinner together, except my family makes prime rib instead of turkey because we all like prime rib more than turkey.

So, that's our tradition now.

And my father and my dad like to watch the football game, but my mom and I just hang out.

- [Jessica] What are your Thanksgiving traditions?

- My Thanksgiving traditions are usually, my parents will get a turkey from the grocery store, and we'll just put it in the oven and usually just go over what we are thankful for.

- When I was really little, I would always force us to play various card games or family feud card game.

I was really big on that.

I would always ask my grandparents to play with us.

And then when I hit about 12, 13, my whole family kind of just got sick of me at that point and so we stopped playing games.

- Me, my sister and my mom get Chinese food and then we watch the two Grumpy Old Men movies.

- So, I don't celebrate Thanksgiving, but we do have our, you know, traditional family dinners.

We do... My mom, not me, but my mom does make Burek, if you've ever heard of that.

And goulash.

And we'll have like, you know, the meat, the potatoes, the green beans on the side.

And then we'll have some savory, savory and sweet pies, that can be like a combination of like fruits and vegetables, so.

- So we, I usually go to see my family at my family's house and we'll watch a movie.

Sometimes I try to get it to be Spider-Man, but it doesn't really work all the time.

And then we'll have our meal with turkey, ham, potatoes and everything and then we'll watch the football game and hang out with family.

And the parade!

The parade.

(titters) - The RCTC Women's Basketball Team is coming off a 2022 national championship and was runner up in 2023.

Head coach, Jason Bonde, has set high expectations for the 2024 season.

- We have a good base from last year that's returning that has a lot of experience.

Four of them were starters at one point.

We added five freshmen to it.

(players yelling) It's important for me to try to get as many local players to come and play here.

I think it's good for RCTC, I think it's good for our attendance at the games when you have local players that are playing, you tend to get more people from around the area, than when you get out of state kids.

Recruiting is not easy.

It's, you know, you're talking to a lot of players just to get a few.

You know, my goal is to find some players who maybe are under the radar who are not being recruited by division one, division two, division three schools.

And then I try to to develop them and help them reach those goals of getting to that level.

(players yelling) (sneakers squeaking) - It's pretty tough.

We got some good competition, but I like that he schedules harder games in the beginning to get us ready for what we have to do towards the end.

- Bonde, the coach mainly, I knew him before 'cause I'm local.

I did some camps with him before and stuff.

Just good coaching, knows what he's talking about.

He's there for us.

(coach yelling) (ball thudding) (sneakers squeaking) I feel like defensively, we'll be able to move a little quicker.

Just like we have a lot of quick guards this year, so that'll be really nice.

- We had a lot of injuries and stuff and we ended up only being playing with three people, I think it was, in the national championship.

So, I feel like that pushes me more and just being hungry to win all the games we can and just get to that point again.

- Match up two, three zone.

Make it look like the zone, make it look like playing at the same time.

- I feel like we get along really well.

We have chemistry off the court as well, so I feel like that helps us on the court too.

(players yelling) (ball thudding) (sneakers squeaking) (players yelling) (sneakers squeaking) (ball thudding) (sneakers squeaking) (players yelling) (sneakers squeaking) - We all get along very good.

We do like team dinners and stuff just for fun.

We have like two houses that we live in, so five of us are in one.

The other five or six are in the other and we go back and forth, just do team dinners, a lot of team shooting in the gym late at night and stuff.

We all get along very good.

It's nice.

(player yelling) (ball thudding) (sneakers squeaking) Yeah, just to get back there would be awesome.

And we have all the like qualities of the team to get back there again this year.

A lot of us are returning again and we have a good freshman group coming in, so I think we definitely can get there.

- It makes us hungry, more eager to just get back to the same spot, but win it this time.

- Thank you for joining us today.

I hope you learned as much as I did about all that's going on in our city and all the wonderful people making it happen.

For more content produced right here in Rochester, please be sure to check us out on Facebook and Twitter at #rtown.

I'm Nicole Nfonoyim-Hara, host of R-Town, the show about Rochester.

We'll see you next time.

(upbeat music) (upbeat music continues) (bright music) - [Announcer] Funding for this program is provided in part by the Minnesota Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund and the citizens of Minnesota.

(birds chirping)