LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Jeanne Hilt appeared to smile through her mask as she scanned her town square, freshly lit with white Christmas lights and wrapped in green garland.
"It has transformed right before our very eyes," she said.
Paristown is a small Louisville neighborhood just east of downtown — once known for its flour, leather, and stonework industries. Stoneware & Co., founded in 1815, still operates.
Paristown's website claims seven acres in all, but the recently developed 2,000-person concert hall, outdoor ice rink, and café fit in no more than two of those acres.
At the center of it all this winter, sit 14 sheds - or "chalets," as Hilt calls them. Hilt's official title is director of business development for Paristown, and the business going on in the sheds was the primary focus of my visit.
13 of the chalets had been reserved by area vendors selling everything from dog treats to T-shirts to driftwood art.
Maker's Mark operated tastings out of the remaining chalet, and can technically be described as a local business with its distillery residing deep in the picture-esque woods of Loretto. Though its Japanese parent company likely won't consider Paristown a boon for sales.
Mandy Mullins greeted customers who entered 5-0-Lou's chalet. The screenprinting and apparel business operates a brick-and-mortar shop in town, but Mullins said she and the other employees have had to rely heavily on curbside pickup and online orders placed by weary shoppers avoiding spending time in enclosed spaces with other people.
In her breezy chalet, surrounded by other vendors, Mullins can serve perusing customers who might otherwise not have spent their money on 5-0-Lou.
"This is a way that they can shop and it’s a little safer," Mullins said. "That’s great for us any time we can connect with customers and give them another opportunity to shop. We’re hoping it’s going to be really good for us."
The CDC offers that, while remaining inside one's own home away from people who don't live there is the safest place to be right now, the next safest is outside in fresh air and distanced from others.
Kentucky restaurant workers have lived in limbo for nearly a year. With COVID-19 cases rising and plateauing, and no national mandates released by the White House, Gov. Andy Beshear (D) ordered closures in the spring, loosened restrictions on indoor dining over the summer, and recently closed dining rooms again this fall.
To remain open as colder weather arrives, restaurant owners across the commonwealth have invested in outdoor heaters for their patios, or erected tents to create outdoor seating where there previously was none.
Should other industries follow suit? Should more private businesses and city governments invest in a model like Paristown?
"I guess what we would say is, 'Don’t give up. It can be done if you have the right situation,'" Hilt said. "Not everybody has the right situation, but if you have the ability to control your environment, you can do it."
Not every city nor business can operate an ice rink in temperate-weathered Kentucky. But cities throughout the US regularly close off streets and business districts to vehicle traffic each year, whether for festivals or concerts.
As the world waits for a vaccine — projected not to reach every American until springtime — a winter spent outside could possibly bandage deep wounds felt by small businesses this year. That is, to say, the ones that haven't already succumbed.