A recent Daily Yonder article was forwarded to the VMS Blog from the City of Martinsville, which is pulling together community investment in their central business district through the Uptown Partners project. “The Town that Builds Entrepreneurs” uses data from Oklahoma communities to demonstrate the power of the Main Street economic restructuring approach: an incremental effort to … More Towns that build entrepreneurs
In the United States, there are 10,466 streets that go by the name of Main, and no doubt, each has a story to tell. To capture them, a new social media project, Mapping Main Street, is putting to work the internet’s capacity for sharing video, photos, and words. There’s a small team traveling the roads … More Is your Main Street on the map?
Fast Company reports that Facebook is increasing its staff by 50 percent. The nearly 500-employee increase is substantial in a good economy, and in current recessionary times, it’s a flat out boon. But why, at a time when ad revenues are down, would an expansion like this make sense? For one, costs of doing business … More Turning the economy on its head
We have been promoting the idea that recessions and layoffs, while very difficult to navigate, provide the impetus for an entrepreneurial boom. Now, the Kauffman Foundation has issued its report supporting our claims. In economic gardening terms, this is the equivilant of burning last years crops to make way for the new “green shoots.” … More Entrepreneurial stories
Revitalization experts, downtown professionals and volunteers came together for two days of focused exploration of Main Street strategies at the 2009 Virginia Main Street toolkit, “Getting Strategic About Main Street.” Participants represented more than 25 Virginia localities. Communities with the highest representation included included the host community of Winchester, Harrisonburg (four attendees), Radford (three), and Franklin … More Seventy get strategic at Winchester Toolkit
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 … More New York rethinks Broadway
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 … More Growing a success narrative
When a financial crisis arrives, it is too late to try to make the case for all the services your downtown organization provides to the community. You need to be spending that time engaging your support base and selling the future. To do that, there has to be a broad based system of support throughout the … More Tell us what you think.
While reviewing some of the great action movie stunts of all times, I was steered (get it: steered?) to this short film by French New Wave auteur Claude Lelouch. While you probably don’t want to recreate this famous and wildly reckless driving scene, take eight minutes to focus on the beauty and layout of Parisian streets. … More How to lay out a city…in eight and one half minutes
Virginia Main Street 