Downtown event planners took a number of steps to ensure that summer and fall events were appropriately sized and not overly crowded. Among the strategies: Events were scaled back and spread out across city streets and over multiple days. • The annual A Taste of Colorado food festival marks the end of summer in downtown…Continue reading
Like many downtowns, Cleveland has struggled to adapt to post-pandemic patterns of commuting and visitation. As of September 2022, the city was getting 80 percent of the overall visits it experienced in 2019. And visits to office buildings had plummeted to just 61 percent of prepandemic levels. Given that harsh reality, the Downtown Cleveland Alliance…Continue reading
Turn-key inflatables When it comes to radically changing the downtown streetscape, it doesn’t get much lighter, quicker, or cheaper than temporary installations of inflatables. Turn-key event producers offer giant waterslides, obstacle courses, and even public art installations. In February, Osuna Park in Peoria, AZ, welcomed the illuminated and inflatable “Light at Play: An Interactive Art…To read more — login/subscribe
…Carol Lucas was formerly president of Fieldstone Alliance and Director of National Services for Amherst H. Wilder Foundation. She led the organization’s community forums program for six years. Carol has more than twenty-five years of consulting and training experience with nonprofit, government, community, and private sector organizations. Linda Hoskins… Continue reading
White Box programs are proving effective at driving redevelopment in city centers and getting hard to fill spaces rented. The programs typically help fund improvements to heating/cooling systems, lighting, electrical systems, bathrooms, and finished (but not yet painted) ceilings and floors. Improvements that are meant to make older buildings habitable for new users. While many…Continue reading
Albany, GA (est. pop. 67,922), hopes to boost downtown visitation by embracing its connection to the civil rights movement. One project is a publicly funded reconfiguration of the Albany Civil Rights Institute, open since 2008 and adjacent to the restored 1906 Old Mt. Zion Church, known for its connection to Martin Luther King Jr. Also…To read more — login/subscribe
TIF remains popular, but beware the pitfalls — Tax-increment financing (TIF) is a common tool for cities to fund economic development. City leaders assume that TIF will spur new development, increase property values, and create new tax revenue that would not have existed otherwise. Read more from David Merriman on Tax Increment Financing.
...Five strategies downtowns are using to come back from the pandemic — the wave of downtown initiatives reinforces the resilience of downtowns, not to mention the crucial importance of city centers in communities everywhere. • The Rosslyn Business Improvement District in Arlington, VA, set up an outdoor office area. Watch the video below: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A-CpxXnefU8&t=9s • Many downtown organizations are developing programs that focus specifically on providing support for black-owned and other minority-owned small businesses. See Building on Recovery for Urban Place Management from the International Downtown Association and Stantec. ...
When workers return downtown in a number of cities, they will be greeted by a range of new parking technologies. These include touchless transactions, license plate enforcement, and new approaches to managing ride-hailing services. The City of West Palm Beach, FL (est. pop. 109,767), is among a growing number of cities implementing parking management technology…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
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
