EDUCATION IN YOUR DOWNTOWN

Another, lesser known, way to lure people to your downtown is to educate them.  So long as that education is fun, there is no reason to believe people won't come and at least check it out.  Various communities have incorporated education into their parks and their downtowns.   While your city may not have the resources to do everything shown below... the concept can be modified to be incorporated into any community.  Free standing signs, blank commercial walls can be easily used to accomplish this goal:

VEGETATION IN YOUR DOWNTOWN

While many downtowns make use of landscaping, very few have incorporated vegetation in unusual ways such as vertical gardens or even signage.  There are numerous opportunities to incorporate plants into the life of your downtown:

IDEAS FOR CREATING PERMANENT OR TEMPORARY INTEREST BENEATH YOUR FEET:

SEATING IN YOUR DOWNTOWN DISTRICT; IT DOESN'T ALWAYS HAVE TO BE A HUNTER GREEN BENCH:

While you want downtown guests to be comfortable and given opportunity to sit, there is no law requiring that the seating be hunter green park benches.   Various communities have come up with alternative seating which is interesting and (probably) less expensive: