Downtown Idea Exchange

• Downtown proponent breathes life into one small town, hopes to repeat feat
• Once-struggling downtown rebrands
• Solution to “stale” zoning? City considers form-based code
• Downtown enacts three-pronged response to pandemic downturn
• Old cinema is revived as downtown cultural hub
• After long battle, downtown moves forward with brewery plan
• Research shows deregulation leads to less parking 
• Decade-old art tour continues to draw crowds
• Idea Exchange: Quick Tips and News from Around the Country

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Greensboro, NC (est. pop. 296,725), will launch a downtown social district in March. Within its boundaries, visitors will be able to stroll while carrying alcoholic beverages in specially labeled plastic cups. Greensboro is one of a number of North Carolina cities that have enacted, or are considering, downtown social districts after Gov. Roy Cooper in…To read more — login/subscribe

 

For communities struggling to bring people downtown, events and other activities are a natural solution. But planning, organizing, and hosting those events requires staff time and resources. For downtown leaders who want the benefits of a full event schedule but don’t want to run events themselves, a downtown grant program is a useful tool. Whether…To read more — login/subscribe

 

Downtown merchants will embrace automation and self-service technology. Office space will be replaced by downtown residential uses. And electric vehicles will provide new opportunities to attract visitors. Those are among the predictions made by Matthew Wagner, chief program officer for the National Main Street Center. His forecast for 2022 is wide-ranging and covers both long…To read more — login/subscribe

 

Baltimore’s Central Business District has been losing businesses to surrounding neighborhoods. But the pandemic hastened downtown’s troubles.  To fight the flight, the Downtown Partnership of Baltimore launched a promotional campaign aimed at retaining current employers and attracting new ones. The effort aims to “protect the core,” says Downtown Partnership President Shelonda Stokes. The Double Down…To read more — login/subscribe

 

With several portable toilets on the verge of being removed from service, the City of Columbus, OH, came through with $51,000 in funding to maintain the toilets and keep them open.  That temporary reprieve will be followed by a more permanent solution, as Columbus has earmarked funds to install several free-standing bathrooms downtown. Early in…To read more — login/subscribe

 

Hartford, CT (est. pop. 122,591), faces a familiar problem: There just isn’t enough downtown housing to meet demand. While many downtowns are seeing conversions of under-used offices into housing, Hartford’s latest projects are a bit different. In one example, a struggling hotel will convert guest rooms to apartments. In another project, former student housing is…To read more — login/subscribe

 

The city of Trenton, NJ (est. pop. 83,211), and New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy are launching what they call the first large-scale urban transit system in America to be based entirely on self-driving shuttles. The Trenton MOVES project calls for deploying 100 autonomous vehicles throughout the city. Each driverless car will carry four to eight…To read more — login/subscribe

 

Remodeled bridge reconnects downtown neighborhoods For decades, the Main Street Bridge separated the core of downtown New Britain, CT, from the Little Poland neighborhood. The overpass was poorly lit, with narrow sidewalks, and the roar of traffic from below.  All that changed in 2019, when the bridge was renovated and re-named the Beehive Bridge. The…To read more — login/subscribe