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 worked with churches to…Continue reading
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 estate, finance, and professional…Continue reading
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 gatherings centered around wine…Continue reading
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 best work in downtown…Continue reading
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 containers are just 160…Continue reading
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, executive director of the…Continue reading
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 answer is to build…Continue reading
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. San Francisco is the…Continue reading
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 food," says Gabe Holmstrom,…Continue reading
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 that includes people posting…Continue reading
