CLARKSVILLE, TN (CLARKSVILLE NOW) – When Tiffany Perkins went to apply to hold the next Juneteenth Block Party at Downtown Commons, she was surprised to see a lot of new rules: No vendors, no selling of goods, food trucks were to be selected by the Commons, and there were now multiple barriers preventing key pieces of the Block Party from happening.
Perkins said she feels her event is being pushed out. “You guys are saying you want to support, but this isn’t support. You’re changing the whole lifeblood of the event, which has had no problems, no issues for the past three years.”
She isn’t the only one. Local businesses and others who have relied on the space have been surprised by the recent changes, all of which stem from a shift in management. The Downtown Commons is making the transition from being run by a quasi-governmental nonprofit agency to becoming a Montgomery County park.
How the Commons started
Downtown Commons, the “living room of downtown,” was once a parking lot and an abandoned bank building. In the summer of 2012, architecture students with the University of Tennessee made what was then called “Civic Plaza” the central theme of their design work during the college’s Nashville Urban Design Program.
The students and professor Thomas K. Davis had been asked to do the study by a Clarksville revitalization nonprofit agency, Two Rivers Company, which became the manager of the space once it was completed.
Two Rivers Company was established after the 1999 tornado that devastated downtown Clarksville to promote redevelopment in the Central Business Improvement District.
At the Downtown Commons groundbreaking in 2016, Montgomery County Mayor Jim Durrett said the name was significant and intentional to the purpose of the facility. The word “commons” means a gathering place or a piece of land used by the people in the community. “Our vision all along is that this space will be a place in the community where there is something for everyone,” he said.
Today, the Commons is a large open lawn with a stage on one side and water features on the other, open for visitors all week for informal relaxation or play, and hosting formal events such as concerts and movie nights.
Commons limits Juneteenth Block Party
For the past three years, Perkins has hosted the Juneteenth Block Party in Downtown Commons. Originally, Perkins footed the bill and expenses that it took to get the celebration up and running. Later, she was joined by Zoyie Jackson, who at the time was the Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Training Officer with Montgomery County.
“My job was to help bridge that gap between the county and the community,” Jackson said. “We were trying to help show the county to the community in a different light and partner with the community.” Her role as a diversity officer was to improve cultural awareness and promote cultural events.
“How could we, as the county, partner with you?” Jackson said in reference. “Whatever it is you need, we will do it as a sponsor, and as a partner. … So, some of the big-ticket things she was paying out of pocket, we as the county took that on.”
In late December 2022, Jackson left her position with the county. The next month, Perkins was told the Commons would not allow vendors or any payments for costs of the festival, as they had done in recent years.
“I got an email saying, hey, Zoyie is not here anymore. You had an agreement with her and we will honor that for this year. But next year, you all won’t be able to have the event at that space anymore,” Perkins told Clarksville Now. “The Commons event manager has always been very kind; I want to be very clear about that. … She just had to be the bearer of bad news.”
When Perkins went to the new form to apply for Juneteenth next year, she was surprised to see the new stipulations, some of which stand in the way of the fundraising efforts that make the festival possible.
“I reached out and said, ‘Hey, I know you guys are saying you want to support and participate in this event and be a partner in that, however, the regulations you guys are putting on it are completely not allowing me to host the event as we have,” she said.
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Perkins said a big purpose of the Block Party is to help support Black-owned small businesses, giving them access to a bigger audience. Extra fees and accrued costs go toward programming in the community, such as the Tennessee Black Caucus of State Legislators.
“We presented all of this to the Commons, and they said, OK, cool, let us rediscuss and give us until the end of the month,” Perkins said. “A couple weeks go by, and I got an email saying We had a meeting with the mayor and the director of Parks and Rec, and we decided to keep the new policy as is.”
Perkins said she feels they’re not welcome at the Commons.
“It very much feels like we are being pushed out of a public space so the event could be written off as small, not as communal, or as relevant as other events that they are able to accommodate and/or provide resources for.”
Blackhorse Brewery & Pub denied
In March 2021, a fire broke out at Blackhorse Pub and Brewery, shutting the business down for months as the owners, Jeff and Sherri Robinson, struggled to make the necessary repairs to have the business up and running again.
In the meantime, the Robinsons hosted event, “Pour the Love,” in the Downtown Commons to raise money for the Nightstalker Association, and the remaining proceeds went to a relief fund for the employees of Blackhorse who were out of work.
Recently, Jeff Robinson inquired about hosting another event in the Commons, and despite the success that the business experienced before, he was told that no for-profit businesses would be allowed to use the Commons.
“I think it’s kind of bizarre,” Robinson told Clarksville Now. “The vision for Downtown Commons has changed.”
“My understanding of it from the start, and I was paying very close attention, is that it was marketed as being the ‘living room of the community,'” he said. “A lot of use was going to be encouraged. They were talking about having lots of events and encouraging lots of events. And what I see now is a much more restrictive policy.”
Robinson said the reason they built the Commons was to put people in it and bring people downtown. One of the events Blackhorse hosted brought over 1,700 people to the Commons, and Robinson said this sort of gathering benefits local businesses.
“I’m sure some of them did more than just go to that event and leave, they probably went to other restaurants and ate,” Robinson said. “That is part of the idea for the existence of the Downtown Commons. It brings people downtown.”
Robinson said other Commons events benefit Blackhorse. Concerts, movie nights and even the Juneteenth celebration have helped bring a lot of customers to his restaurant.
Change in ownership
The reason for the change has to do with the management of the Downtown Commons shifting from Two Rivers Company to Montgomery County Government.
“In the very beginning, it was operated by the Two Rivers Company,” said Sally Burchett, director of Parks and Recreation for Montgomery County. Two Rivers could allow whatever events were requested, or that the nonprofit wanted to hold.
But Two Rivers Company ran into problems with both politics and funding, said former TRC President Charles Foust.
“Our funding was not guaranteed, either city or county. And we did receive money from both the city and county, but it depended on the political climate,” Foust said
In August 2019, the TRC folded. Its oversight of the Central Business Improvement District went to the local Economic Development Council, and management of the Downtown Commons went to Montgomery County Government, according to Foust and former TRC President Deanna McLaughlin.
“Somebody had to manage the park,” Foust said.
Becoming a county park
Initially, the Commons continued to operate as it always had, but in January 2022, the transition began for the Commons to become a park under the Montgomery County Parks and Recreation Department, Burchett said. In 2023, the transition was finalized.
She said it wasn’t that someone decided the Commons would no longer allow vending and for-profit events.
“The Downtown Commons just became part of the existing rules and regulations that we already operated under for all of our parks facilities,” Burchett said. “So, those were already existing rules and regulations we had for all parks, and when the Downtown Commons became a park, it then fell under those restrictions.”
That said, there could be room for change.
“We are always looking for ways we can improve our policies and procedures, and when we find things that we can do better, we’re always there to consider those and to be growing as a department and as a government,” Burchett said.
According to the Downtown Commons website, as long as events are free and open to the public, they are open to consideration by county Parks and Recreation. Downtown @ Sundown, Movie Night, Worship Night, and even comedy shows are being hosted at the Commons.
Tater Headz asked to leave Commons
From the start, the Commons was created with a concession space for visitors to enjoy. The first tenant was a satellite location for the ice cream shop Golly G’s. They left in February 2021, citing loss of business during the COVID pandemic.
In August 2021, Tater Headz was selected as the next concession space vendor. Owners Natalie Davis and her husband moved out of their food truck and into the Commons as their first storefront business.
But in February this year, they were given 45 days notice to vacate the property.
“We had amazing health scores, no complaints; we didn’t understand why we were being told to leave. … I felt like I had been fired,” Davis told Clarksville Now. “We tried to ask what we could do to maybe help fit the image of what they wanted, but they just told us we needed to leave in 45 days.”
Tater Headz returned to their food truck. Without that truck as backup, they said, they would have been out of business.
According to Burchett, there was an issue of compatibility with Tater Headz.
“The tenants had mentioned a problem with the heat in the building, so we hired a professional engineer to go and check out the issue.” Upon closer inspection, the engineer determined that the concession building wasn’t compatible with the energy required by Tater Headz, and continued use that way would cause irreparable and expensive damage.
The county put the concession/vending site back out to bids, but with new restraints. The new vendor cannot use fryers and is limited in heat-producing cooking.
“Due to the expensive retrofits needed for code compliance, the space can no longer be used as a full-service kitchen. It will return to its original design as an ice cream and sandwich place,” Burchett previously said.
The new vendor is Wolf Down, a partnership between the food trucks Burgasm Urban Eats and Johnny and June’s Italian Ice. They won the bid to provide on-the-go meals and frozen treats to visitors at Downtown Commons.
Chris Smith contributed to this report.
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