It’s one of the most common complaints from downtown leaders: “I don’t have enough volunteers.” Whether you need community members to staff events, to judge business plan entries, or tackle some other task, volunteers are both crucial and scarce. Liz Parham, director of North Carolina’s NC Main Street and Rural Planning Center, says you need…To read more — login/subscribe
Champaign, IL (est. pop. 89,116), has a problem: Downtown has become a bustling destination on warm-weather weekends. But the city police department is so short-staffed that it can’t handle the inevitable calls for service that flow from the nighttime entertainment district. So the city of Champaign will spend nearly $330,000 to hire a private security…To read more — login/subscribe
Amid a nationwide housing shortage, many downtowns are revisiting their zoning codes in hopes of expanding the range of available housing. If you want more housing units in your downtown, you should opt for policies designed to attract new development, says R. John Anderson, co-founder and principal of Tolar | Anderson | Kim Architecture +…To read more — login/subscribe
The city of Auburn, ME (est. pop. 23,790), wants to support small local grocery stores — and it’s using $150,000 in American Rescue Plan funding to make that goal a reality. In the 1950s and 1960s, Auburn banned new neighborhood markets, although existing shops were allowed to stay open. But shifting retail trends meant the…To read more — login/subscribe
Every downtown worth its salt has commissioned a public mural. Those with ambitious arts programming might have asphalt art, sculpture walks, or even hire buskers to perform downtown. But poetry rarely takes center stage. However, Storrs, CT (est. pop. 16,784), builds a month of activities around the overlooked discipline. The Mansfield Downtown Partnership just wrapped…To read more — login/subscribe
Albuquerque, NM (est. pop. 562,591), is trying a novel approach to quelling crime in a problematic area downtown: It’s bringing in food trucks. Albuquerque Mayor Tim Keller has labeled two parking lots on Central Avenue “drivers of crime.” To address the issues there, the city plans a “food truck corral” that will operate on Friday…To read more — login/subscribe
Urban farming comes downtown Farming will soon be happening year-round in downtown Westbrook, ME. The farm, developed and operated by Vertical Harvest, will occupy a four story building with a quarter acre footprint in the heart of the small city. Vertical Harvest plans to grow two million pounds of produce annually. The farm will anchor…To read more — login/subscribe
San Francisco is one of the world’s most iconic cities, but downtown leaders freely acknowledge that the urban core is not rebounding from the Covid pandemic as quickly as hoped. The city’s office vacancy rate was 25 percent at the end of 2022, not a great number for an international hub of tech, finance, and…To read more — login/subscribe
Amid a nationwide wave of marijuana legalization, downtown leaders face a conundrum: Should they welcome cannabis businesses downtown? And if so, under what conditions? There are no right or wrong answers, but municipalities that take the time for a considered planning process make better decisions, says Chuck Latini Jr., partner at InField Consulting in Brodenton…To read more — login/subscribe
