Staff Spotlight: Exploring Arkansas with Lisa Mullins Thompson
Lisa shares reflections about eight Arkansas communities that recently received assessment visits
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Main Street America’s UrbanMain Program is in a multi-year contract with the City of Chicago to provide training and technical assistance to commercial corridor managers participating in the city’s INVEST South/West program, which recently hit a two-year milestone.
Initiated in the fall of 2019 and supported by more than $750 million in public funding, INVEST South/West is targeting the commercial corridors of 10 Chicago neighborhoods with focused improvements that include new, mixed-use construction projects, the adaptive reuse of historic buildings, new plazas, small business grants, related public realm improvements, and Main Street America training and technical assistance. Main Street America has worked with the local community partners to develop tools and resources that will help restore neighborhood vitality and provide a healthy business ecosystem for aspiring and existing entrepreneurs.
To date, Main Street America has provided training and technical assistance through the UrbanMain program for eight commercial corridor manager organizations working in six corridors in the south and west sides on the city. One of the commercial corridor manager organizations is the Austin African American Business Networking Association (AAABNA), responsible for the Chicago Avenue commercial corridor in the Austin neighborhood.
Malcolm Crawford, the executive director shared with us: “I really enjoy being a part of the Main Street America’s UrbanMain Family. It has helped us to understand that we are not alone. That there are many around the country that have undertaken the same task to make their Main Street the show piece or window to their community.”
Andrea Reed, Executive Director of Greater Roseland Chamber of Commerce, an INVEST South/West community, is looking forward to working with UrbanMain to continue to grow their district. “We have only just begun to implement the proven strategic plan within our corridor manager programming. UrbanMain is a great fit for our commercial corridors because it is our goal to improve economic growth, transform, revitalize, and preserve the historic presence throughout our corridors which specifically matches the proven goals UrbanMain has historically accomplished throughout the country.”
This past November marked the two-year anniversary of the launch of the INVEST South/West initiative and was celebrated with an event gathering different stakeholders involved.
In 2022, at least five additional commercial corridors will be onboarded to receive Main Street America technical assistance through the UrbanMain program. A request for proposals is being initiated so that organizations working in economic development in their communities can apply to become part of the UrbanMain network. This round of applications will be open to organizations working in commercial corridors across the city of Chicago.
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