Following the lead of similar successful projects, Kuna, ID, will launch its own retail market village in June. The village will consist of 12 small shops in re-purposed garden sheds. The sheds will surround a central green space with room for food trucks and small gatherings. Lisa Holland the city’s economic development director tells the…To read more — login/subscribe
“Live music, kayak clubs, kid-friendly events, close the street happenings, and experiences.” That’s just one of the many resident suggestions for activities in the new town square in downtown Riverside, NY. The city has acquired several underused parcels and is working to create a new town square with direct access to the nearby Piconic River.…To read more — login/subscribe
Following the lead of similar successful projects, Kuna, ID, will launch its own retail market village in June. The village will consist of 12 small shops in re-purposed garden sheds. The sheds will surround a central green space with room for food trucks and small gatherings. Lisa Holland, the city’s economic development director, says that…Continue reading
In Ann Arbor, MI (est. pop. 119,976), the Healthy Streets program returned for a second year this spring. The program, which launched in 2020 in response to the pandemic, aims to provide additional space for socially-distanced walking and bike riding. The 2021 activities saw changes to many streets such as reducing a stretch of Main…To read more — login/subscribe
In Madison, WI, a new program will provide a financial safety net for food cart operators doing business downtown. The program is among the winners in the latest round of pandemic-recovery grants from the National Association of City Transportation Officials (NACTO). The awards provide short-term funding and technical assistance to cities seeking to adapt streets…Continue reading
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…Continue reading
The Fifth Street bridge in Augusta, GA, was built in 1932. By 2020, it was showing its age. A treacherous bump in the roadway forced motorists to slow down and the railing on the sidewalk was too low to be considered safe by modern standards. So in 2020, the city and the Georgia Department of…To read more — login/subscribe
The coronavirus pandemic has upended downtown real estate markets. Many city centers suddenly have too much office space and not enough housing, a shift that has caught the attention of housing economists and developers. The National Association of Realtors (NAR) recently published an overview of downtown office buildings that have been converted to housing 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 pandemic dealt a number of blows to the once-thriving downtown in Sacramento, CA (est. pop. 513,620). Violent crime spiked and pedestrian traffic fell by more than 50 percent, according to the Downtown Sacramento Partnership. And a quarter of downtown businesses closed permanently during the first 18 months of the pandemic. In an effort to…To read more — login/subscribe
