Downtown Idea Exchange, August 2023
August 1, 2023
- Embattled city aims to reshape narrative with ad campaign, events
- Amid sweltering summer, urban heat islands attract new attention
- As wayfinding signs go high-tech, costs increase
- How to encourage downtown housing development
- Downtowns embrace EV charging boom
- Advocates of back-in parking make their case, but not everyone is convinced
- Food-based events create buzz, drive business downtown
- Downtown forms mobility coalition to address traffic woes
- Idea Exchange: Quick Tips and News from Around the Country
Workers in downtown Grand Rapids, MI (est. pop. 197,423), will plant thousands of flowers and shrubs this year along with hundreds of trees. The total budget is north of $300,000 — and downtown leaders say the investment is worth every penny. “It’s incredibly important for a lot of reasons,” says Melvin Eledge, director of operations…
Most of downtown Dayton, OH (est. pop. 137,581), has become an outdoor drinking district, a move downtown leaders say creates cultural vibrancy and economic vitality. The Dayton City Commission approved legislation in May that replaced the original Designated Outdoor Refreshment Area (DORA) in the city’s entertainment hub, known as the Oregon District, with a new…
Critics of free public parking once seemed to be kooky proponents of a fringe theory. Now, though, downtowns everywhere are reshaping their parking regulations. The new book Paved Paradise: How Parking Explains the World by Henry Grabar outlines the evolution of parking in America’s cities. He reports that the mass rethinking of parking originated with…
Cities make big investments in streetscapes, parks, and other downtown amenities. But Roger Brooks, head of the Destination Development Association, says you can bring energy and life to your downtown with just a small budget. Instead of focusing on large scale public projects, he advocates for low-cost gathering spaces, or plazas, which can be programmed…
Empty store windows can sabotage a downtown’s best efforts to create a bustling, vibrant scene that encourages visitors to stay and spend. While vacant storefronts have long been the bane of small cities, the problem spread during the pandemic. Downtown San Francisco, for instance, has experienced an exodus of retailers as workers proved slow to…
San Diego will become the latest city to allow IKE (Interactive Kiosk Experience) Smart City to install advertising screens downtown. In June, the San Diego City Council approved a plan to install at least 50 interactive kiosks on public sidewalks. The screens, vertical rectangles that are about eight feet tall, display content to help visitors…
A century after two small towns in Oregon lost their trolley service, the transit option is back, in a modified form. Thanks to $3 million in funding from the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA), Monmouth, OR (est. pop. 10,735), and neighboring Independence, OR (est. pop. 9,850), are now connected by a trolley. The trolley doesn’t…
Scaling up downtown walking tours Downtown walking tours are a popular way to connect locals and non-locals with all that downtown has to offer. The Downtown Alliance, which manages Lower Manhattan’s business improvement district, created a Walking Tour Incubator Grant Program to spur the development of creative new tours and support budding tour operators. The…