Downtown Idea Exchange – Web Extras
April 1, 2021
Asphalt art projects combine pedestrian safety, urban beautification — The Bloomberg Philanthropies Asphalt Art Initiative gives up to $25,000 per locale for visual art interventions on roadways, pedestrian spaces, and public infrastructure. See the City of Monticello Business District Building Improvement Grant Program application and guidelines.
Watch videos about public art in Kansas City, MO, and Saginaw, MI, below.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pa8xNx7Cjwk
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JBdRy0x7Gqg
...System of sensors and signs helps improve parking — When workers return downtown in a number of cities, they will be greeted by a range of new parking technologies. Watch a video about the parking garage management system below. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nfXlVldgjaU ...
Old style mall becomes modern food hall — The newest addition to downtown Milwaukee’s vibrant restaurant scene is the 3rd Street Market Hall, with a dozen restaurants and food businesses. Read the report, “Food Halls 3.0.” ...
Making the most of downtown’s murals A2AC Murals brings large, vibrant works of art to the public in Ann Arbor and the South East Michigan area. The program is run by the Ann Arbor Art Center and funded through Patronicity and a matching grant from the Michigan Economic Development Corporation. The center encourages people to…
In early March, Daniel McGinn was gearing up for public hearings on an area development plan for the city of Corpus Christi, TX. Then the coronavirus pandemic erupted, and in-person gatherings of large groups were off the table. “Our first instincts were just to cancel the meetings,” says McGinn, planning director at the city of…
Free parking is the downtown amenity that urban purists love to hate. On the other hand, paid parking is the toll that downtown merchants despise. Alex MacLachlan of the Escondido Downtown Business Association is in the latter group. When the city council in Escondido, CA (est. pop. 151,619), proposed charging for parking at the city’s…
Marketing a downtown effectively requires research, strategic thinking, community-wide soul-searching, and solid implementation. The payoff of all this work can be felt everywhere from more effective business recruitment to stronger tourism and more meaningful events. It’s a hard task, says Roger Brooks, head of Destination Development Association. He sees some common mistakes that downtown leaders…
Long before anyone had heard of COVID-19, Middlebury, VT (est. pop. 6,966), faced an existential threat of a different type. An infrastructure project was set to tear up roads and disrupt the downtown for six years. Back in 2015, the Vermont Agency of Transportation embarked on the Bridge & Rail Project, a public works investment…
In a low-income area of Portland, OR, is a 29,000-square-foot strip shopping center filled with a mix of independent merchants and service providers. The tenant list includes a Latina-owned hair salon, several tax preparers, and the Somali American Association of Oregon. In similar neighborhoods, such a property would be owned by a well-heeled landlord who…
With the summertime concert season returning to normal, a number of midsized cities are offering free concerts as a way to activate downtowns. For 2022, the Mortimer and Mimi Levitt Foundation is funding concert series in 18 downtowns from Woonsocket, RI (est. pop. 41,616), to Carson City, NV (est. pop. 55,244). The Los Angeles-based Levitt…
Many downtowns have experimented with gift card programs. But the initiative in Middletown, CT (est. pop. 47,164), is going strong after 18 years. The Middletown Downtown Business District launched its gift card program in 2005. After some fits and starts, downtown leaders overhauled it in 2010 with a new technology provider, says Sandra Russo-Driska, the…