Turning Around Downtown

In March of 2005, the Brookings Institution, a private, non-profit organization devoted to independent research and innovative policy solutions, released a report entitled “Turning Around Downtown: Twelve Steps to Revitalization.” The intent of this report was to lay out “the fundamentals of a downtown turnaround plan and the unique ‘public/private’ partnership required to succeed. Beginning with visioning and strategic planning to the reemergence of an office market at the end states, these 12 steps form a template for returning ‘walkable urbanity’ downtown.”
    The introduction of the report explains the importance of re-energizing downtown areas. It asserts that over the last 15 years, there has been an amazing renaissance in downtowns across America. From 1990 to 2000, the number of households living in a sample of 45 U.S. downtowns increased 13 percent. The fact that many downtowns have experienced such growth and development is testament to the emotional commitment to our urban heritage and the pent-up consumer demand for walkable, vibrant places in which to live and work. The appeal of traditional downtowns is largely based on what can be summarized as walkable urbanity.
The report continues by saying that since the rise of cities 8,000 years ago, humans have only wanted to walk about 1,500 feet until they begin looking for an alternative means of transport: a horse, a trolley, a bicycle, or a car. This distance translates into about 160 acres – about the size of a super, regional mall, including the parking lot. But the willingness to walk isn’t just about the distance. People will walk 1,500 feet or more only if they have an interesting and safe streetscape and people to watch along the way – a mix of sights and sounds that can make a pedestrian forget that he is unintentionally getting enjoyable exercise. Depending on the time of day, the day of the week, or the season of the year, the experience of walking downtown will be entirely different, even if you are traveling along a well-trod path. A new experience can be had, in fact, nearly every time you take to the streets.
Fostering such walkable urbanity is the key to the revival of any struggling downtown. But doing so can be a challenging process, requiring the development of a complex mix of retail boutiques, hotels, grocery stores, housing, offices, artists’ studios, restaurants, and entertainment venues. A “critical mass” of these pedestrian-scale uses must be established as quickly as possible, before the initial revitalization efforts stall for lack of support. This means making certain that visitors can find enough to do for four to six hours, that residents’ daily needs can be comfortably met, and that rents and sales prices continue to justify new construction or renovation.
The 12 steps defined in this report are the results of the lessons learned from many years of hands-on experience consulting in dozens of urban areas across the United States and Europe. The first six steps focus on how to build the necessary infrastructure for turning around a downtown, and define the public and non-profit sector roles and organizations required to kick off the revitalization process. The next six steps are the means by which a viable private real estate sector can be re-introduced to a downtown.
In future articles, these steps will be defined and explained. The Presque Isle Downtown Revitalization Committee has certainly addressed the first step, which is to capture the vision. We are currently working on the second step, that of developing a strategic plan. And step three is well under way – forging a healthy private/public partnership. We plan to continue the process as time goes on, and we welcome you to join us.
You can get more information or sign up to join us by calling Sandy Gauvin (764-0876), Cathy Beaulieu at Wilder’s Jewelry Store (764-0309), or Patty LeBlanc (769-7731). We meet at the Presque Isle Area Chamber of Commerce on the Houlton Road at 7:30 a.m. on the first and third Thursdays of each month.
Please write us with your thoughts and opinions. It’s your city and we need your input. You can write us at: The Presque Isle Downtown Revitalization Committee, 411 Main St., Presque Isle, Maine 04769, or you can e-mail us at pidrc@yahoo.com.
The Presque Isle Downtown Revitalization Committee
is an ad hoc committee of the Presque Isle City Council
(Editor’s Note: The Brookings Institution is a private, non-profit organization devoted to independent research and innovative policy solutions. For more than 90 years, Brookings has analyzed current and emerging issues and produced new ideas that matter – for the nation and the world).