June 2019
Retail shifts dovetail with downtown assets — The business of retailing has been roiled by rapid changes in technology and society. The evolution is changing the way stores and restaurants operate. Click here to read the archive article, Food halls draw diners and restaurateurs.
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Gift-bag giveaways help promote business district merchants — The Flatiron/23rd Street Partnership in Manhattan came up with a unique promotion: The district recycles its eye-catching street banners into “banner bags” given away at the organization’s events. See a fact sheet on the Flatiron Partnership’s gift bag program. ...
Downtown adjusts parking rules for food truck operators — Orlando ranks as one of the nation’s most welcoming cities for food trucks. A U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation report rated it as the third-friendliest locale for operators. Read the Food Truck Nation report....
May 16, 2019 — Like many business districts, the village of Ridgewood, NJ, faces traffic snarls caused by trucks making deliveries. Ridgewood is considering a dramatic crackdown: The village council has entertained — but not enacted — a ban on deliveries between 10 a.m. and 10 p.m. The village also considered imposing a weight limit…
May 2, 2019 — For years, downtown leaders in El Paso, TX, steered clear of hosting events. Joe Gudenrath, executive director of El Paso’s Downtown Management District, figured there was no need, considering other organizations put on a full slate of festivals, fitness events and gallery tours. "Plenty of events already are happening," Gudenrath says.…
April 18, 2019 — Portland, ME, doesn’t have a problem with serious crime. Like many cities, Portland has seen rates of violent crime fall in recent decades. But the downtown does struggle with public-safety nuisances such as panhandling, vagrancy, loitering, public drinking, and drug abuse. Those issues might make a downtown less welcoming, but they…
April 4, 2019 — To combat high vacancy rates, Monticello, IL, launched an entrepreneurial boot camp to coach would-be business owners about setting up shop downtown. Instructors are volunteers, and each week focuses on a crucial part of operating a business. There’s an accounting course one week, a finance class the next. Courses also focus…
March 21, 2019 — Like many small towns, Oneonta, AL, long struggled to bring life and tax revenues to its declining downtown. Unlike most, Oneonta had a downtown property and a plan. The city owned a vacant car dealership, and City Manager Ed Lowe believed that recruiting a college to offer classes on the site…
February 21, 2019 — Like many cities, Durham, NC, wants commuters to take the bus, ride their bikes, and generally find ways to get downtown other than the standard solo drive. Unlike most cities, Durham is tapping into the discipline of behavioral economics to change drivers’ behavior. The first strategy, a planning tool algorithm, creates…
February 7, 2019 — In Quincy, MA, a redevelopment boom is bearing fruit at precisely the wrong time, at least from a parking perspective. To ease the squeeze, Quincy has implemented a variety of strategies. At one city lot, Quincy more than doubled parking rates before 5 p.m. and offered free parking after 5 p.m. The city…