Every other week we post a brief article from Downtown Idea Exchange. Over the course of the year we’ve covered everything from business recruitment to streetscape improvements to festivals and events. 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
Downtown Lynn, MA, is seeing a huge investment in revitalization via the arts. Recently, the 10-day Beyond Walls mural festival changed the face of downtown, and attracted more than 2,700 visitors to the festival’s grand finale. Beyond Walls founder Alfred Wilson says he is inspired by art-centric revitalization in cities like Miami, Philadelphia, and the…Continue reading
Earlier this year, the Issaquah, WA, council approved the city’s Downtown Streetscape Plan. The plan seeks to increase pedestrian friendliness, support local businesses, create a consistent downtown character, and make Olde Town a place where people enjoy spending time. The plan includes creation of a festival street — a street designated for recurring temporary closure…Continue reading
A new park on eight acres beneath an Interstate 93 underpass now links two downtown neighborhoods in Boston, MA, while also providing an active urban space, cultural attraction, and parking amenity. Landscaped pedestrian boardwalks and bicycle paths along the Fort Point Channel create new connections between communities previously separated by highway infrastructure. This new park…Continue reading
Millburn, NJ, adopted a Complete Streets program in 2014, outlining a series of goals and objectives to make the streets safer for pedestrians, improve traffic flow, address intersection congestion, and slow traffic where appropriate. A three-phase implementation plan was developed with a robust series of traffic calming and other improvements that include road-diets, curb bump-outs,…Continue reading
Demolition of a downtown shopping mall in Muskegon, MI, several years ago created a gap in the retail fabric of the city center. This year, the city and Downtown Muskegon Now filled the vacant block with small prefab retail spaces in an effort to create more connectivity for pedestrians. Six buildings were constructed over the…Continue reading
A pilot program providing free bus passes to select downtown employees has been successful enough to inspire a broader, four-year program offering free public transit to all city center workers in Columbus, OH. In 2015, the Capital Crossroads & Discovery Special Improvement Districts won a grant from the Mid-Ohio Regional Planning Commission to provide four…Continue reading
The streetscape project currently underway in Rosslyn, VA, aims to strengthen the city’s brand, decrease visual clutter, and improve the pedestrian experience. A formal inventory of everything on the streets revealed that the BID had "quite a mish-mash of elements, just hundreds of various pieces that didn’t match, and that adds to visual clutter," says…Continue reading
This summer, Maine’s Gardiner Main Street program partnered with Literacy Volunteers of Greater Augusta to bring a StoryWalk downtown. The goals for the event were two-fold: to promote family literacy and to introduce people to downtown businesses. StoryWalks have taken place in all 50 states and 11 countries. For the basic event, laminated pages from…Continue reading
The presence of street vendors downtown can add or detract from the area’s image, depending upon the quality of the product, service, and presentation. That’s the premise behind the Downtown Boston BID’s street vending program for the Downtown Crossing district in Boston, MA. Street vending has a long history in the area. "From a planning…Continue reading
