Ben Shardlow, director of urban design at the Mpls Downtown Improvement District, acknowledges that he’s a bit jealous of other downtowns, at least when it comes to their lush tree canopies. “You go to some cities, and it seems like the trees just leap out of the ground,” Shardlow says. That’s not the case in…To read more — login/subscribe
Olympia, WA (est. pop. 51,534), has launched a downtown loyalty program inspired by traditional retail marketing techniques and updated with Pokemon Go technology. The program launched this summer as part of the Olympia Downtown Alliance’s Why I Go Downtown initiative to encourage patronage of local shopping, dining, and entertainment. The program brings classic punch card…To read more — login/subscribe
The Rosslyn Business Improvement District in Arlington, VA, launched the first parklet in the Washington, DC, metro area back in 2018. Before the COVID-19 pandemic made parklets an international craze, the Rosslyn BID simply wanted to do something creative, and spur a reevaluation of how people use public space. The parklet is modest. It takes…Continue reading
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…To read more — login/subscribe
The M14 bus usually crawls across one of Manhattan’s busiest crosstown thoroughfares at 5 mph. After New York City officials barred car traffic along 14th Street, however, the buses suddenly zipped so quickly that bus drivers had to slow down to stick to their schedules. New York City’s promising results could offer an alternative to…To read more — login/subscribe
Opportunity Zones, those tax-advantaged areas created as part of President Donald Trump’s 2017 tax package, aren’t living up to expectations. The U.S. Treasury Department expected the program to spur investment in blighted neighborhoods and transitioning urban areas totaling $100 billion. The actual amount is likely to be just a fraction of that, perhaps $10 billion…To read more — login/subscribe
North America’s population is growing both younger and older, and more culturally diverse. Those demographic trends create both tailwinds and new challenges for downtown development, according to the 2020 Global Trends Report by Progressive Urban Management Associates and the International Downtown Association. Millennials and members of Generation Z have embraced urban living. Employers and employees…To read more — login/subscribe
To help ensure the safety of children attending the Snowdown Light Parade in downtown Durango, CO, the Durango Business Improvement District teamed up with the Durango Police Department and Visit Durango, the city’s tourism office, to organize a Child Location/Identification Program. The program is aimed primarily at helping locate the very smallest event goers who…To read more — login/subscribe
September was National Library Card Sign-up Month. To celebrate the event, businesses in downtown Pittsfield, MA, offered special discounts and giveaways exclusively to library card holders. The Berkshire Athenaeum, Pittsfield’s public library, joined forces with Downtown Pittsfield Inc. to coordinate the deals at 25 downtown businesses for the entire month. To take advantage of the…To read more — login/subscribe
South Orange, NJ, had a business-recruitment problem. There was no shortage of tenants interested in setting up shop downtown — but the village’s rules didn’t allow for many of the types of experience-based tenants that are taking space in downtowns nationwide. The municipality’s rules were "very, very restrictive," says Bob Zuckerman, executive director of the…Continue reading
