The 2024 Main Street Trends Survey from Main Street America offers insights into the budgets, salaries, and issues that Main Street programs are facing.
When asked to identify their biggest challenges, executive directors came up with a three-way tie: Not enough variety of businesses, poorly maintained buildings, and inconsistent store hours were each cited by 31 percent of directors as their top challenges.
Other top issues varied by downtown — while 23 percent named a shortage of downtown commercial spaces, 19 percent said they had too many vacancies.
One caveat: Survey respondents were from smaller downtown organizations. Fifty-nine percent described their municipalities as rural, while 20 percent said they worked in suburban areas, and 16 percent were in urban areas. Fully 73 percent of respondents work in cities with populations below 25,000.
The full 2024 Main Street Trends Survey is available online.
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