Brazilian Businesses Advocate For Downtown Framingham
Nubia and Roberto Gaseta, members of a mostly Brazilian group of merchants that has formed to advocate for downtown Framingham.
A group of mostly Brazilian businesses in downtown Framingham have enlisted the help of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology to help them advocate for downtown.
"We want to see a wider group of businesses here," said Nubia Gaseta, owner of Party Flowers, a flower and cake shop at 83 Concord St. Her husband, Roberto Gaseta, a photographer, shares the space with her.
The Gasetas and about 50 other business owners have formed a new business group, the Framingham Business Association, which will focus on downtown issues, including improved parking as well as attracting other businesses to downtown.
Academic Merit
MIT urban researchers have helped the group organize and settle on a plan of action.
"At first they didn't really know how to work together. They saw each other more as competitors rather than allies," said Ilma Paixao, a research fellow at MIT's Community Innovators Lab who began working with the business owners last fall. "But they have changed so much. They're true allies now, so they can work together and they work with the town. They need the town and the town needs them. "
Alison Steinfeld, the city's director of community and economic development, said the city is encouraging the business owners and wants to support them.
The group members have invited town officials and other business people to come to their shops and see what they have to offer, and they have taken constructive criticism well by broadening what they offer, Paixao said. They've also become more involved in town events, like the yearly Christmas tree lighting and they put together a promotion for Valentine's Day.
"I think the town has realized that revitalization cannot happen without these business people," Paixao said.
Some Brazilian business owners have gone out of business as the overall American economy has declined. The region's Brazilian population has also declined as more Brazilians have returned to their home country as the economic tides have turned.
With so many Brazilians going back home, merchants are finding they need to broaden their customer base.
The Framingham Business Association isn't just limited to Brazilians, however. The group also has members who are from Jamaica, the Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico and El Salvador.
Working with the town and with the Framingham Downtown Renaissance, a coalition of a number of groups working to revitalize downtown, the word is beginning to get out that the Brazilian businesses carry products that a broad base of customers want, Paixao said.
"It's amazing talking to them. You see how excited they are (about working together) and how much they love downtown Framingham. Many of them have been here for years and came in when downtown Framingham was dead. Right now it is only fair to help them get through the worst of it," Paixao said.
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