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There are so many things that make your downtown great!
There are really 3 key areas where we want you to focus on: Assessment, Business Development and Real Estate Development, and Education.
A lot of what you will be doing, as an EV committee, is educating your committee, your community, business owners and your volunteers, about these 3 key areas.
Let’s first focus on Assessment. You will need to know your history, what businesses are there and where your customer base is coming from. When you know all these things, it really helps you understand the market position your community is currently sitting in. It also identifies areas you need to be working on to improve that market position.
When we talk about knowing your history, we’re looking at base data collection. Questions to ask yourselves:
- Have there been past surveys done in your community?
- Have there been parking surveys to identify what parking issues (if any) you have?
- Have you done business surveys where you’ve asked your businesses ‘What types of trainings do you need?’ ‘What areas do you need assistance with?’
- Have you had consumer surveys asking your local customers what THEY think about downtown----'What do they feel is good? What do they feel is missing? Is it safe?’
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We always look at your historical census data---'What has your community done as a population? Is your population growing? Is it shrinking?’
Past city comprehensive plans and other city research have perhaps addressed this in your community. When we bring all these things together, it helps us understand what work has already been done, what has worked, what can we build upon, therefore it’s important to know the history of your district.
We will address the other points in upcoming articles. If you wish, download this document: Characteristics of a Successful Downtown and keep working diligently in your community on your revitalization efforts.
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