New York rethinks Broadway

As the song says, if you can make it there, you’ll make it anywhere.  If the Big Apple can make a park-like setting out of one of the city’s busiest streets, what’s to stop your town from making a pro-people shift  in one of your important spaces? 

Of course we need cars and trucks, delivery access and shopper convenience, but as the New York experiment suggests, it may not have to require multiple lanes and acres of asphalted parking directly in front of stores.  (If that were the case we could just replicate  the clogged arteries that lead to a big box strip mall  near you.) 

For an alternative, check out this streetfilm from streetsblog, an initiative of the Liveable Streets Initiative:  Carmaggeddon avoided as Broadway comes to life.  

Streetsblog's Mark Gorton gives a video tour of the new Broadway.

As a temporary measure, Times Square put cheap lawn furniture in the newly pedestrianized area.  The pink and blue chairs had a lot of fans, and the space felt like a big neighborhood block party. 

What would a similar, albeit smaller scale experiment look like in your community?  You could try it (with the cooperation of transportation planners) on a temporary basis.  With signage and some orange cones, you might be on the way to building community support for expanded sidewalks, fewer lanes, and space for the al fresco dining space  that can bring your streets to life.

Growing a success narrative

Is Abingdon on the brink of a new renaissance? That was the title question of a front page Bristol Herald Courier story this week connecting new businesses in the Washington County town to a strategic investment in Southwest Virginia’s cultural heritage.

This little town might be the next Asheville, at least according to the buzz downtown,” opens staff writer Debra McCown.

“It’s been a sudden, subtle change, but seemingly overnight, the same sort of art galleries and crafty, eclectic shops that define that North Carolina tourist center are popping up in Abingdon, Va. – another artsy mountain town that some say is on the verge of discovering its creative economy.”

While people behind the scenes in any community revitalization effort know the development process is far from overnight, the article is a good sign for the systematic investments  in a job-creating, quality-of-life enhancing, tourism-attracting infrastructure made over the past decade. And it’s just the beginning.

Ground’s due to break on  Heartwood: Southwest Virginia’s Artisan Gateway early next month. While the cultural center is to be located in Abingdon, its mission is to send travelers, well-armed with tour itineraries and a piqued curiosities, out into the region to discover the authenic Southwest Virginia for themselves.

The Herald Courier article makes the connection.  And just by asking the question, “Is Abingdon on the brink of a new renaissance?” the paper establishes the narrative (and it’s more than that of an Asheville wannabe).  

Visible improvements downtown will now reinforce that storyline for local residents and answer the question with a resounding, heartfelt and fully engaged, “Yes.” It’s an opening, an invitation for further investment, and it’s a call to action.  There’s an opportunity at hand.

While Heartwood can help build a regional narrative for all of Southwestern Virginia, it’s up to individual communities to use it to construct their own success story, building on very local and unique assets.  And there are other opportunities out there in other regions.  The Blue Ridge Parkway celebrates its 75th anniversary next year. The civil war sesquicentennial represents a major marketing opportunity. And regional toursim trails add possibility throughout the Commonwealth.

But first your community has to know where its been and where its headed.  It’s part of every good tale of a hard-working community making good.  It’s the heart of our work.  What’s your revitalization story? And who’s telling it?

How to attract Gen “Y”

Those of you who made it to the “Livable Downtowns” training held in Harrisonburg a couple of weeks ago know that just building upper story housing or rehabbing an old warehouse into loft apartments is not quite enough to get people living downtown.  It is important to have the amenities people need (dry cleaning, corner market, etc.), as well as the attractions they want.

Yahoo has a listing of the 20 best places to live for young people (ages 20-29).  To sum it up, these communities either have a lot educational opportunities, entertainment options, a reputation for progressive thinking and tolerance, or a combination of all three.  While these communities are mostly larger than your downtown, the principles are the same – feed the mind, stomach and soul of your residents and your downtowns will be attractive to the creative, educated and entrepreneurial among us.

Many of you have heard me refer to Arlington and many of the things they have done to become one of Washington D.C.’s hippest placest to live.  By focusing on excellence in the school system (three of the four county high schools are ranked in the top 75 in the U.S.), having a high density of public transportation and being extremely pedestrian and bicycle friendly, as well as offering great public amenities such as parks and libraries and having a extensive array of dining and entertainment options, Arlington attracts new professionals and keeps them as they raise a family.  While this funny video pokes fun at Arlington’s “yuppieness” and has lots of inside jokes, it could only have been produced by a group of extremely energetic and creative people.