Downtown Digest News • Web Extras
January 24, 2019 — Downtown Lexington, VA, is home to an ambitious business incubator and makerspace that’s drawing interest from entrepreneurs in surrounding areas. Lexington Collaboratory & Makerspace is a 1,300-square-foot lab that lets startups tinker with their products. The Collaboratory also provides a team of mentors to dispense advice about legal matters, marketing, real…To read more — login/sign up
January 10, 2019 — A few years ago, the Downtown Association of Santa Cruz decided to eliminate big events that attracted large numbers of visitors but also blocked traffic and disrupted business. Downtown leaders in the California city still wanted to bring visitors to the business district, however, so they shifted their focus to smaller…To read more — login/sign up
December 27, 2019 — Every other week we post the summary of an article from Downtown Idea Exchange. Over the course of the year we’ve covered everything from business recruitment to streetscape improvements to placemaking. To wrap up the year, we’re highlighting five of our favorite posts. Creative, informative, and adaptable, they showcase some of the…To read more — login/sign up
Engaging the public smooths planning process — In Delaware, planners have used video games and board games to engage residents in the planning process. The Delaware Valley Regional Planning Commission’s Dots & Dashes game let residents participate in complex transportation planning. ...
Stimulating residential development — The city of Elgin, IL, has awarded its first grant to install a sprinkler system in a downtown building. See the complete grant program information packet....
December 13, 2018 — A Michigan city is combining three hot trends — recycled shipping containers, pop-up shops, and business incubators — to create an unusual destination designed to entice visitors to its downtown. Battle Creek created BC Cargo, a mini-mall made up of seven shipping containers on a city-owned parking lot downtown. The blue-and-yellow…To read more — login/sign up
November 29, 2018 — South Orange, NJ, had a business-recruitment problem. There was no shortage of tenants interested in setting up shop downtown — but the village’s rules didn’t allow for many of the types of experience-based tenants that are taking space in downtowns nationwide. The municipality’s rules were "very, very restrictive," says Bob Zuckerman,…To read more — login/sign up
November 15, 2018 — A building boom has brought thousands of new residents to apartments in downtown Raleigh, NC. That trend toward greater density is colliding with another reality of urban life — downtown residents love their dogs, even if they don’t have backyards that give their pooches plenty of space to play. The obvious…To read more — login/sign up
Opportunity Zones promise to spur development in low-income areas — Opportunity Zones were one of the little-noticed pieces of the tax reform of 2017. The new designation promises to spur billions of dollars of new investment in low-income areas nationally. See a brief overview of Opportunity Zones. ...
Vintage signs have broad appeal — Ghost signs are faded remains of hand-painted advertising signs on the exterior walls of buildings. The National Park Service has an online brief, The Preservation of Historic Signs. ...
Invisible art — “Invisible art” projects provide a rainy-day enticement to visit downtown. Jefferson, IA, is one of many cities to embrace a unique super-hydrophobic coating that is invisible on dry concrete, but reveals itself when it rains. Read an archive article, "A rainy day enticement for city centers."...
November 1, 2018 — Recruiting retailers is a delicate balancing act. Chain stores are reliable profit makers, and they’re coveted by landlords. Yet too many cookie-cutter establishments can make a downtown feel less than unique. A handful of cities are passing rules to limit the number of national retailers that can set up shop downtown.…To read more — login/sign up
October 18, 2018 — The first Main Street Food Truck Festival, hosted on a Saturday in 2011, started off modestly. About 2,500 people came out to sample fare from 15 food trucks. Despite the small numbers for the inaugural event, organizers knew they had a winner. "By mid-afternoon, all the trucks had sold out of…To read more — login/sign up
Downtown uses temporary dog parks to satisfy demand, test sites — Raleigh, NC, operates pop-up dog parks downtown that give dogs a place to play for a day or two. The city ultimately hopes to build a permanent dog park downtown, and the pop-up events let parks officials gauge the pros and cons of various locations. Read Raleigh’s report on dog parks. ...
Change to Make a Change program launches — Donations to the Change to Make a Change program in Bloomington, IN, will be distributed among local service providers such as emergency shelters, free meal sites, and other resources. View the Change to Make a Change brochure and map. ...
Wayfinding encourages multi-destination trips — A recently approved wayfinding signage plan in Burien, WA, encourages residents and visitors to “park once — shop twice.” ...
October 4, 2018 — Chapel Hill, NC, deals with the usual parking hassles that plague a bustling downtown. But the college town has taken an unusual approach to addressing parking. With a $400,000 investment in new parking meters, a parking program for restaurant staff, a slick new website and app, and a social media campaign…To read more — login/sign up
