Vision 2020’s Destination Downtown committee will take on a new role in 2015. The group has decided to convene a task force to prepare downtown Austin for the planned Spam Museum opening in 2016.

As you probably know, Hormel Foods is building a new Spam Museum on the 200 block of North Main Street.

The new building will replace the former Spam Museum which opened in 2001. You might remember that it was built in the old Kmart building on North Main.

The Destination Downtown committee has been thinking about what to expect as we move through the next three years. In the summer of 2015, when the new museum is under construction, the usual museum traffic will be disrupted. Then in 2016, the opening year of the new museum will attract large numbers of visitors. Downtown Austin will not get to a ‘new normal’ in terms of traffic until 2017 or a few years after that.

How can neighborhood merchants and residents prepare for the coming years? How can Austin meet the demands of the initial wave of museum visitors? How can we make downtown Austin easy to visit with appropriate parking and way-finding signage? How will Austin residents who live and work in downtown Austin be affected?

All these questions will be addressed by representatives from the Austin Convention and Visitors Bureau, City of Austin, Austin Area Chamber of Commerce, downtown merchants and residents.

Destination Downtown will convene the group in early 2015. (Please contact me at laura@vision2020austin.com if you would like to help.)

The first order of business will be to talk to those who were on the front lines in 2001 and 2002 when the first Spam Museum opened. I’m sure there were many lessons learned at that time.

In the meantime, I hope you all will remember downtown Austin — and all Austin’s retailers — when you shop for the holidays.

Take some time to look in Austin. You might be surprised at the retail options that you find. The community has some options for retail shopping that it didn’t a year ago: Runnings, Hibbets Sporting Goods, Sun Tan City, Total Fitness Gym of Austin, Highly Defined Beauty Emporium, Home Country Connections, Austin ArtWorks Center, Everything Hobby. New restaurants in the last year include The Corners, 1910 Kitchen and Sassy Strawberry. Willow Cove and the Habitat for Humanity ReStore are at new locations.

Austin is a community with a big heart. I’ve seen it time and time again. Let’s show that heart by keeping our holiday dollars in Austin — downtown, on the east side, Sterling area, or 18th Ave NW. Shop local.