Ron,
Here is an idea for you. Rent a school bus from Laidlaw or First Student. Those buses can usually haul 40 - 50 folks. School bus rentals are a lot cheaper and much more efficient than a limo.
Now, carry this a step further and do two things. Use the buses BOTH ways - to haul WS folks to downtown, and then use the same buses to entice downtown folks to come to the West Seattle Art Walk venues. Non stop bus service from WS to downtown and downtown to WS.
Cover the cost of the bus service from a small "fare", sponsorship from local businesses, and advertising in the form of "flyers" or program guides that would be presented to riders as they board the bus. Actually a double whammy if interest could be generated from downtown studios knowing that bus loads of WS folks would be dropped off right at their door stops.
No worries about parking or consuming too much wine and cheese :) The buses could follow a set route so if for example you wanted to hit a number of downtown galleries you could hop on and hop off at various stops along the route.
Grayline has a rather successful double decker bus they run during the summer months where you buy one ticket and then are allowed to hop on and hop off as long as you want while the bus runs a circular route around the downtown area.
Just think, when was the last time you rode a school bus? They use school buses in Leavenworth each year to shuttle the Snow Train passengers from the railroad siding just out of town into the downtown area. The tour guides describe the short ride as "kind of nostalgic."
Speaking of tour guides, you could have a tour guide on each bus to call out each stop and also describe the venues to be found at each stop. Also pitching WS and different restaurants, shopping, Farmers Market, etc to encourage future visits. Some folks never come to WS until they move over here. Such was the case with me a decade ago.
Perhaps I should not be putting these ideas out in a public forum... This really is a great opportunity to put WS on the map as being the FIRST in the city to run an "art bus" on Art Walk nights.
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West Seattle Blog
West Seattle Blog
