Bennington, VT, has won a grant to support the design and fabrication of a downtown kiosk that will display information about historic sites, cultural attractions, and other amenities in the Bennington area. The kiosk will feature QR codes that link to online maps and walking tours. Printed walking tour brochures will also be available. The…To read more — login/subscribe
As more people embrace the urban lifestyle, pets are moving to city centers with their owners. That trend has increased the demand for downtown dog parks, which in turn, attract more pet-loving residents and visitors, creating a cycle of revitalization that benefits people, pooches, and businesses. Increasingly, communities are realizing that being people- friendly means…Continue reading
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
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
When it comes to business signage, many commercial areas are a free-for-all of ads of all shapes, sizes, and colors. If your downtown could be described as an "ugly, cluttered, sign-overloaded district," it’s time to clean up, says Ed McMahon, chairman emeritus of Main Street America and a senior fellow at the Urban Land Institute.…Continue reading
Kiosks in Santa Cruz, CA (top), and Denver, CO (bottom). Downtowns big and small grapple with the challenge of building a roster of successful merchants. Many have taken a proactive approach by offering pop-up spaces and kiosks for start-ups seeking a place to do business without a prohibitive upfront investment. Executed properly, pop-ups and kiosks…To read more — login/subscribe
A new business recruitment campaign in Providence, RI, is reaching out not only to business owners and top executives, but to their employees. The Bring Your Company to Life campaign encourages employees to “start a movement” or “bribe your boss” in order to move a job they love to a place they can love equally.…Continue reading
Deserved or not, many downtowns get bad raps. Crime, panhandling, a lack of parking, graffiti many city centers battle challenges to their reputations. How to respond? Savvy downtown marketers say the best approach is to swallow your pride, resist the temptation to shoot down the naysayers, and fully acknowledge your issues preferably with a bit…To read more — login/subscribe
For years, downtown leaders in Tybee Island, GA (est. pop. 3,124), mostly guessed at visitor information. The bridge coming into town from Savannah was outfitted with vehicle-counting sensors, so Tybee’s leaders had a general idea of how many people were coming to the beachfront town. But the era of big data has allowed Tybee Island…To read more — login/subscribe
Iowa City, IA, the Iowa City Downtown District is testing novel ways to serve existing merchants and recruit new ones. In one successful strategy, the Downtown District runs its own delivery service. It leases a vehicle and pays a driver, and deliveries are free to customers within a 15-mile radius of downtown. In another program…Continue reading
