Downtown Idea Exchange — Web Extras
April 1, 2022
Recruitment program offers to pay down student loans — The rise of remote work has inspired localities to pay remote workers to move in from out of state. Now Van Wert, OH, is joining that group. See details of the Van Wert County Foundation’s Learn and Return program.
...Nonprofit buys dozens of buildings in crumbling downtown — Following half a century of decline, the downtown in Van Wert, OH, is getting a major makeover. Watch a local television station’s overview of Van Wert’s project. ...
Light art enlivens downtown during winter — Cary, NC, just wrapped up another year of temporary outdoor light and technology installations downtown. Read about the Glow. ...
Getting back to the office — To better understand downtown workers’ attitudes toward work and the city center, the Greater Des Moines Partnership commissioned a survey of 5,200 people from 18 businesses in the area. Read the initial summary report. ...
Toccoa, GA, boasts a thriving downtown and a bustling historic theater. It has even carved out a niche as a setting for filmmakers looking for an iconic courtroom and Main Street. Toccoa positions itself as "camera ready" and "film friendly," says Christian Hamilton, Toccoa’s main street manager. To make good on those promises, Toccoa doesn’t…
In response to a spate of property crimes aimed at merchants, San Francisco city officials have launched a new grant program that aims to help small businesses recover from damage done to their storefronts by thieves and vandals. The Storefront Vandalism Relief Grant provides $1,000 to $2,000 to businesses that face the costs of break-ins…
In Albany, NY (est. pop. 96,860), an Interstate 787 off-ramp has been turned into a pedestrian park known as the Albany Skyway. The Skyway is also planned as a venue for entertainment, public art, food trucks, and pop-up shops. The Skyway, which connects the city’s downtown with a burgeoning Warehouse District, is the latest example…
In Chicago, city leaders have banned unaccompanied minors from a major downtown park after 6 p.m. In St. Louis, police shut down electric scooters downtown. In Grand Rapids, MI, city officials are wrestling with whether to station more police officers downtown. And in Pittsburgh, PA, the mayor felt compelled to announce a multi-pronged “plan for…
Montreal is widely known as the most bike-friendly city in North America. The city boasts more than 550 miles of bike lanes, many of them physically divided from vehicular traffic. Some of them are even plowed during Montreal’s snowy winters. What’s more, Montreal runs a city-owned bikeshare program. The Bixi fleet includes 7,270 regular bikes…
In 2020, a catastrophic windstorm ripped through Cedar Rapids, IA (est. pop. 133,125). In addition to several deaths and billions of dollars in property damage, the storm destroyed more than half of Cedar Rapids’ tree canopy. Landscape architect Patrick Alvord says the storm destroyed 670,000 trees, a toll he calls “likely the greatest single urban…
Shawnee, KS, is working to bring more small scale manufacturing to the city center. As a first step, the planning commission approved a proposal to permit "artisanal" manufacturing in two areas downtown. The artisanal manufacturing land use allows on-site production of handmade products including food, alcohol, and art. For a business to qualify under the…
Downtown leaders face a parking conundrum. On the one hand, urbanists have long preached that cities underprice parking at the expense of pedestrianism. Yet visitors and merchants often hate any hint of rising parking prices and more expensive parking tickets. Add to the mix, hourly downtown workers, grappling with inflation, and it’s more difficult than…