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What is Main Street?

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The Main Street Approach® is a unique, historic preservation based economic development strategy that focuses on leveraging existing social, economic, physical and cultural assets to energize community revitalization efforts and help manage success for the long term. The approach leads to tangible outcomes that benefit the entire community through encouraging communities to enact long-term change while also implementing short-term, inexpensive and place-based activities that attract people to the commercial core and create a sense of enthusiasm about the community.

The Main Street Approach is a methodology consisting of three integrated components:

  1. The vision provides a foundation for outlining the community’s identity, expectations and ideals for future development while being grounded in an understanding of the economic market realities of the district.

  2. Transformation strategies identify long-term and short-term actions that provide a clear sense of priorities and direction to help move a community closer to implementing their vision. Work on these strategies should align with the Main Street Four Points of organization, promotion, design and economic vitality.

  3. The Main Street organization must show visible results that can only come from implementing action items and completing projects in the short-term and long-term. Main Street must focus on measuring progress and results in order to justify and demonstrate the wise use of scarce resources.

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What are the Main Street Four-Points®?

The Four-Points® of the Michigan Main Street Program refer to proven techniques for community revitalization developed by the National Main Street Center. These techniques include Design, Economic Vitality, Promotion and Organization, all working together with community collaborations and partnerships.

  • DESIGN means capitalizing on the assets of the downtown's physical environment, such as historic buildings, and creating an inviting atmosphere through renovation and perhaps new construction, all the while developing sensitive design management systems and long-term planning for sustainability.

  • ECONOMIC VITALITY means strengthening a community's existing economic base by helping existing businesses and recruiting new ones, thereby converting unused space into productive property.

  • PROMOTION is the effort to market the downtown's unique characteristics to residents, visitors, investors and business owners through advertising, retail activities, events, and marketing campaigns.

  • ORGANIZATION refers to the effort to involve all the downtown's stakeholders to work toward a common goal, and driving a volunteer-based Main Street Program under the direction of a governing board, standing committees, and the guidance of a paid program director.

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