West Street is one of the primary ways visitors get to downtown Annapolis, but throughout the year, a section of the road closes for a number of festivals and one-off events that some business owners in the area say are disruptive.

As the spring and summer months approach, when many of these gatherings take place, some business owners are voicing concerns that blocking traffic on the city’s main thoroughfare is hurting them by unintentionally restricting access.

Larger events include Dinner Under the Stars, which runs every Wednesday and Saturday from May to September, and First Sunday Arts Festivals, which take place from May to November. The two events close West Street for roughly 50 days per year, not including events like the Chocolate Binge Festival later in the year.

Jinny Amundson, co-owner of Old Fox Books & Coffeehouse and a member of the Maryland Avenue & State Circle Business Association, said that on slow days, like Wednesdays, the closures could attract more people downtown than normal. However, when they happen on more critical business days, issues arise. Things like First Sunday bring in outside vendors, which Amundson said creates competition for the brick-and-mortar businesses.

“There’s got to be some way that we can work together on that instead of against each other,” Amundson said.

“Ideally, I think we’d like to be able to find a way to help Midnight Madness be successful for all our business districts without closing down a main artery to downtown Annapolis during the busiest shopping days of the season,” Amundson said.

Audrey Lee, event manager for the Inner West Street Association, which puts on these events, said that navigation apps can be used to circumvent the closures, which are a block long. She said Inner West’s goal with these events is to add more fun to downtown Annapolis, to help make it more of a destination. Like Amundson, she said she is open to collaborating with the rest of the city in the future, possibly through cross-promotion.Inner West closed the street and hosted vendors to participate in the city’s Midnight Madness event for the second time last year, when businesses stayed open late on several Thursdays in December. According to Amundson, some downtown businesses make up to a third of their yearly revenue on these days, and this year’s sales from it were down. Amundson said the street closure may be only one factor, with others including a shortened holiday season due to a late Thanksgiving.

“Our Midnight Madness events generate literally the same revenue as our entire month of January. It is critical for my operating expenses,” said Jenn Baker, owner of Welcome Home on State Circle. “Events are awesome ways to bring people in on a quiet day, but when it pulls people to a destination during a core shopping event, it hurts.”

Baker said that the Maryland Avenue & State Circle Business Association attempted to speak with Inner West, the city, and the Downtown Annapolis Partnership, but received no response. She said they had a meeting with then-state-Sen. Sarah Elfreth’s office to make wayfinding signage and marketing happen for the rest of the city during these events, but nothing came to fruition in time. Elfreth, a Democrat now serving in Congress, said that she is still working on making the signage happen. She noted there are rules for displays around the State House that need to be worked through.

The Maryland Avenue association has studied using receipts from elsewhere in downtown Annapolis to grant a discount at restaurants along West Street during one of its events or changing the day they are held so they do not coincide with other city events.

Ward 1 Alderman Harry Huntley, who represents downtown Annapolis, fell somewhere in the middle: Blocking the road, or as he puts it, opening up the road to pedestrians, is not an issue because there are other ways to get into downtown. He also said visitors can use the Calvert Street parking garage, which is free on evenings and weekends.

However, Huntley did express some skepticism about the need to bring in outside vendors during events like Midnight Madness, which is meant to bolster area merchants.

“In terms of how we balance the needs and desires and focus on different parts of the city and different parts of downtown,” he said, “under me, there absolutely will not be any picking of favorites. We want to lift up all of them, and that’s going to require bringing everybody into the same room and working out tough compromises, but ones that are win-win.”

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