Turning Around Downtown

If you read the recent article entitled “Turning Around Downtown – Part I,” you will remember that in March of 2005, the Brookings Institute, 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 stages, these 12 steps form a template for returning ‘walkable urbanity’ to our downtown.”
The first six of these 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.
It is important to remember that every downtown is a little different in its physical condition, institutional assets, consumer demand, history, and civic intent, requiring that any approach be customized. Yet there are still common lessons, and more is learned each day. In spite of the many formidable obstacles, it is important to remember that every downtown has a unique set of strengths. It is these strengths that must be built upon in developing the revitalization strategy. With enough consumer demand and the intention to succeed, there is a way.
With conventional suburban development, the necessary pre-conditions for growth include the provision of roads, water, sewer, gas, electric, and communications line extensions, public safety services, and schools. Obviously, Presque Isle has all of these. Creating “walkable urbanity” requires all of this and much more. There is a need for a physical definition of the place, a comprehensive strategy for the place to be created, and management to implement the strategy. Such a strategy must include, among other things, the creation of walkable streets and sidewalks, culture and entertainment, increased safety and cleanliness, and programming and marketing. Successful downtown turnarounds have shown that for every $1 of public investment, there will be $10 to $15 of private money. The bulk of the public investment must be made in the early years, however, in order to set the stage for private development.
The first step in the plan is to capture the vision. Beginning any journey requires intention. Without the intention of actually revitalizing a downtown, there is little reason to begin the process in the first place. Determining whether the intention for a long-term effort is present in the community requires the mining of the most important asset a downtown revitalization has: memory and the emotion it unleashes. Many of those who grew up in the 1940s, 1950s, and 1960s, when our downtowns were still vibrant, have indelible memories of the place. Of course there are also significant fiscal and financial motivations to undertake a downtown revitalization process. By definition, a downtown recovery means more residents and more jobs and more out-of-town visitors bringing money into the area. Furthermore, experience shows that the most expensive real estate is increasingly found in revitalized downtowns. The public sector realizes significant fiscal benefits as a result, the most obvious coming from increased tax revenue.
What do you think of this step? How does it fit our downtown? Please let us know what you think by contacting us through the information below. We would love to hear your thoughts.
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
(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).