Downtown leaders face a parking conundrum. On the one hand, urbanists have long preached that cities underprice parking at the expense of pedestrianism. Yet visitors and merchants often hate any hint of rising parking prices and more expensive parking tickets. Add to the mix, hourly downtown workers, grappling with inflation, and it’s more difficult than…Continue reading
Like many downtowns, Cleveland has struggled to adapt to post-pandemic patterns of commuting and visitation. As of September 2022, the city was getting 80 percent of the overall visits it experienced in 2019. And visits to office buildings had plummeted to just 61 percent of prepandemic levels. Given that harsh reality, the Downtown Cleveland Alliance…Continue reading
The Comprehensive Arts Strategy in St. Petersburg, FL, outlines a roadmap for increased collaboration and new marketing opportunities, and it points to both short-term and long-term priorities. Rather than continuing to go it alone, St. Petersburg’s arts institutions are developing shared resources for maps, ticketing, and brochures, along with strategies for boosting attendance during seasonal…Continue reading
Shawnee, KS, is working to bring more small scale manufacturing to the city center. As a first step, the planning commission approved a proposal to permit "artisanal" manufacturing in two areas downtown. The artisanal manufacturing land use allows on-site production of handmade products including food, alcohol, and art. For a business to qualify under the…Continue reading
Downtown Albuquerque, NM, lost much of its vibrancy as small restaurants and retailers failed during the depths of the Covid-19 recession. A carefully constructed grant program is turning things around. The city directed $500,000 in funding from the federal American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) to grants for downtown businesses. To be eligible, businesses had to…Continue reading
Greenville, MS and Columbus, MS are small cities in the same state, but they’re not obvious candidates for a marketing partnership. The towns are 160 miles apart, and Greenville’s autumn Delta Hot Tamale Festival and Columbus’ springtime Market Street Festival have almost no overlap in attendance. In other words, Columbus was just the kind of…Continue reading
To help reduce stormwater run-off on downtown streets, a popular Myrtle Beach, MD, parking lot is going green. Green parking lots incorporate permeable or semi-permeable paving, porous design techniques, and landscaping to reduce stormwater runoff. The city’s Infrastructure Project Manager Chris Miller says that the city will see multiple benefits. The new pavers will reduce…Continue reading
The proliferation of properties being marketed on Airbnb, VRBO, and other platforms has created concern in many municipalities. Critics say the short-term rentals disrupt neighborhood cohesiveness with constant turnover and occasional loud parties. Others point to rentals as contributing to rising real estate prices and a shortage of affordable housing. Traverse City, MI, recently banned…Continue reading
Spring saw the launch of the Newton Summer Farmers’ Market in northern New Jersey. The market aims to bring consumers and farmers together and includes only foods grown, produced, or raised within 25 miles of the market. The market also supports local shopping. Unlike many markets which operate in a downtown park, plaza, or lot,…Continue reading
Downtown Denison, TX, hosts nearly 700 events a year, a brisk pace that generates a steady stream of activity. The hectic schedule has also forced downtown leaders to be mindful about how to pace the events so that they help rather than hinder downtown merchants. With so much happening in a small downtown, the challenge…Continue reading
