The public voting period of the 2010 Downtown Riverhead Summer Photo Contest is now under way at www.iloveriverhead.com (look for the camera icon)!

A panel of judges met before the Labor Day weekend to select finalists from among almost 400 photographs. We selected 44 in the contest’s three categories. Now it’s up to YOU to decide the winning photographs by voting between now and September 30, 2010.

The winners will be announced at an awards ceremony at the Riverhead Country Fair in October. A winners exhibition will be displayed at Town Hall for three months starting December 10.

All of us sponsoring and coordinating this contest are very grateful to the photographers for their time and effort, whether they were finalists or not. All of the photographs help people see the beauty of Riverhead.

So thank you and good luck to all of the photographers!

Please SHARE the contest with your friends and family, too!

See Riverhead Local’s coverage on YouTube:

Click here to view the embedded video.

This summer’s downtown Riverhead photo contest will really put photographers to the test.

• Who can find and capture winning photographs of the neighbors and neighborhoods of downtown Riverhead?
• Where will they find the “fashion, food and fun” of downtown?
• And what images will best capture a river revival?

Those are the three categories for the 2010 Downtown Riverhead Summer Photo Contest.

Join Us For Photographers Meetup: Some of the winning photographers from the 2009 contest are bringing their cameras and getting together for coffee and conversation on Sunday, July 11 at 9AM at the Bagel Lovers Cafe in Riverhead. From there, the group will walk around together downtown for further conversation and to take some pictures. Anyone interested in participating in the contest are welcome to join the group.

How the Contest Works: Participants in the contest will upload their images online to the contest group on Flickr.com between July 1 and August 31, 2010. In early September, a panel of judges will select finalists in each category. The finalists will be placed on iloveriverhead.com for the public to vote to decide the winners during September. The winners will be awarded prizes at the Riverhead Country Fair in October, and a winners
exhibition will be hung at Riverhead Town Hall for three months starting December 10, 2010.

Why The Contest? The photography contest gives people one more thing to do downtown this summer and encourages people to see more than they might otherwise see if they weren’t really looking. All of the images will no doubt inspire the community to see downtown Riverhead in a new light. Winning photographs will be used to help promote downtown throughout the year by iloveriverhead, the Chamber of Commerce, and the Business Improvement District. Winning photographs from 2009 have been used on the iloveriverhead website and Facebook group page. The 2010 Passport to Riverhead publication of the Chamber of Commerce features all of the winning photographs from last year’s contest.

Who’s Organizing It? The 2010 photo contest is organized by a large group of organizations interested in the betterment of downtown, including iloveriverhead, the Riverhead Free Library, the East End Arts Council, the Business Improvement District, the Chamber of Commerce, the Riverhead Rotary Club, Peconic Green Growth, Green Riverhead, the Vail-Leavitt Music Hall, and many others. It’s being coordinated and administered again by iloveriverhead, the Riverhead Free Library, and the East End Arts Council.

For more details, links and information please visit www.iloveriverhead.com/2010-photo-contest.

For a calendar of upcoming events downtown, visit the iloveriverhead Calendar of Events.

What’s going on downtown? A lot!

Check iloveriverhead’s Downtown Calendar at www.iloveriverhead.com/calendar.htm.

Tonight is the first session of the Vail-Leavitt’s new Indie Teen Concert Series featuring two excellent local teen acts. Tickets only $6 at the door.

Tomorrow evening is the first of Townscape’s Summer concerts, opening with the Riverhead High School’s jazz band and show choir. Free.

Also this weekend are: a blues concert at the Vail Leavitt, art openings at the East End Arts Council and at art sites llc; Family Science Sunday at the Long Island Science Center; and a Bark for Life cancer fundraiser.

The water-themed Storefront Art Exhibit in downtown’s vacant windows will be on display all summer long and is visible in the evenings.

Downtown Riverhead has a great assortment of dining options, including American fare, Japanese, Chinese, Italian, Turkish, Greek, Indian, and Mexican, so while you’re out stop at a local eatery for a culinary adventure.

Visit iloveriverhead’s growing Downtown Directory for more ideas of what to see and do downtown at www.iloveriverhead.com/directory.htm.

Check back with iloveriverhead.com whenever you feel like going downtown, the page is updated regularly. If you have a downtown event that you’d like to add, please send details to info@iloveriverhead.com for consideration.

Enjoy!

Should they be the same as the boundaries of the Downtown Riverhead Business Improvement District, which is where our downtown commercial district mostly lies?

Should they be the same as the boundaries of the new downtown Historic District, which is the part of town people most want to see preserved?

Should “downtown” be more inclusive of the residences, neighborhoods, small businesses, schools and churches in and around downtown, that are within walking or biking distance of downtown, and feed into downtown proper?

How does the Peconic River figure into things?

Since Flanders and Riverside folks think of downtown Riverhead as their downtown too, even though they reside in the Town of Southampton, should those areas be included?

iloveriverhead members are leaning toward embracing all of it. Not only do we have an insatiable and appalling appetite for territory, but we wouldn’t want to leave anyone out who wants to belong but who has been left out, rejected and dejected all these years.

More importantly, we wanted to make the overlay map look like a old shoe. It gives us a giddy feeling to know that we are not confined by any real boundaries.

Please tell us what you think of our iloveriverhead map defining downtown Riverhead by sending us an email to info@iloveriverhead.com.


View iloveriverhead in a larger map

Video installation in vacant storefront window entitled "I Love Riverhead and Riverhead Loves Me," by Cliff Baldwin. Part of a summer-long exhibit of the East End Arts Council with the support of downtown real estate owners.

Visit the iloveriverhead downtown Calendar of Events. There’s a lot going on downtown this summer!

If you have a downtown event that you’d like featured on iloveriverhead, please send information (details and images) for consideration to info@iloveriverhead.com.

Have you read our page on how iloveriverhead came to be?…

Click here for a short story and some images.

And besides, there’s no such thing as bad PR! It’s not easy to get attention these days. We had newspapers, websites, radio, Facebook, and gossip girls on it. Couldn’t have gotten more coverage if we tried.

Special thanks to the so many who took an interest in this issue concerning downtown. Enjoy!

Click here to view the embedded video.

• start a downtown community garden;
• start a downtown civic association and address downtown neighborhood and housing issues;
• expand the downtown farmers market; and
• reach out to the town’s youth to involve them in rejuvenation efforts.

Members of those task groups will gather for a meeting on Wednesday, April 7 at 7PM at the Riverhead Library.

Also at this meeting, we will be welcoming:

• Raymond Pickersgill, Owner, Raymond James Salon & Spa Services, and new President of the Riverhead Business Improvement District, Member of the Suffolk County Downtown Revitalization Committee; National Historic Trust Mainstreet Revitalization Association; Parking Advisory Committee; and BOCES Advisory

• Andrew Collver, Chairman of New Directions Community-Based Research Institute & Federation of Long Island Community Land Trusts; Professor Emeritus of Sociology, Stony Brook University

Members of the iloveriverhead task groups are invited to attend, as are other members of the community interested in these efforts. Please RSVP to info@iloveriverhead.com.

Attendees will get an update on iloveriverhead projects and task groups, we will welcome special guests, and attendees will have the opportunity to network and offer suggestions, ideas or concerns about downtown.

Please stay tuned for the agenda, which is under development…