NoMAD - A New Healdsburg District Created To Lure Shoppers North

HEALDSBURG, CA — Attention to Healdsburg's wine country charm sticks stubbornly close to the plaza where restaurants and wine bars collect celebrity status.

To shift draw attention north, a collection of merchants and restauranteurs are staking out a stretch of Healdsburg they have branded the North Maker Art District, or NoMAD.

Banners now mark the NoMAD boundaries: Healdsburg Avenue between Piper and North streets.

They are supposed to inspire people to wander. (Several alternative names lost, including NONO).

Healdsburg is a main street town, said Buzz Korth, of Maison Smith, which sits at the far end of the boundary. "People go north or they go south," he said.

The NoMAD nomenclature reflects the concentration of home stores, design shops, arts galleries, and clothing-lifestyle boutiques north of the plaza.

But there are nearly as many restaurants as retailers in the group including Spicey Vines, Drewish Deli, Costeaux, La Ruche, Willi's Seafood.

They are all trying to attract more people in their direction.

The money comes from collective contributions to pay for things like the banners, new storefront paint, landscaping, and something artful to cover up the empty, aging service station and its equally empty machine shop neighbor.

Color, design, mural, buskers, art nights, live music, lights, a few benches — whatever it takes to get people moving around the city and thinking, "Hey, I'm a in a cool district," said Rena Charles, the owner of a gallery of the same name.

Fitch Mountain is a distant backdrop to her gallery on Healdsburg Avenue. Across the street, she has a view of a city-owned parking lot and dusty bushes.

The campaign, and the members' priorities, reflect the fact that they are business people who value visual aesthetics, but who are doing business on a stretch with too few visual cues.

Retail and art are new to this end of downtown, Charles said.

The NoMAD campaign and district may also reflect the realities of a changing economy in Healdsburg.

For example, the Rena Charles Gallery fills what was an architect's office. Next door stood real estate offices.

"It's not plaza traffic, but also not plaza rent," Charles said.

But to pay the rent, the people must come.

The NoMAD merchants are banking on it.

So might Healdsburg, which can lean only so much on wine and hospitality in case demand changes.

While events like Design Healdsburg marry design with wine, food, and celebrity, the banners draw attention to businesses that don't (yet) have the same infrastructure of Michelin stars and best-of restaurant lists.

As Charles turned back into her gallery, a man walked in. "I've never walked this far," he said.

Our website is nomadhealdsburg.comAnd our email address is wander@nomadhealdsburg.com.