We work in collaboration with thousands of local partners and grassroots leaders across the nation who share our commitment to advancing shared prosperity, creating resilient economies, and improving quality of life.
Made up of small towns, mid-sized communities, and urban commercial districts, the thousands of organizations, individuals, volunteers, and local leaders that make up Main Street America™ represent the broad diversity that makes this country so unique.
Looking for strategies and tools to support you in your work? Delve into the Main Street Resource Center and explore a wide range of resources including our extensive Knowledge Hub, professional development opportunities, field service offerings, advocacy support, and more!
Join us in our work to advance shared prosperity, create strong economies, and improve quality of life in downtowns and neighborhood commercial districts.
Parks are an important feature of many Main Street communities, and projects or collaborations featuring parks can help further your mission.
Parks and recreation projects can be more than summer concert series and events.
Creative partnerships with local parks and other organizations can help with vacancies, fundraising, public engagement, and more.
Increasing access to unique green spaces can turn your Main Street into a destination.
July is National Parks and Recreation Month. Parks and other green spaces play an important role in Main Street districts. They provide gathering and resting spaces, improve recreational opportunities, increase sustainability, and add to a sense of place. To celebrate #ParksMonthOnMain, we have been featuring videos of innovative and interesting parks-based projects and collaborations in Main Street communities on our social media channels. Check out the videos here and learn more about each project.
Foundation Plaza: Ashland Main Street
In 2021, Ashland Main Street in Ashland, Ohio, opened Foundation Plaza, a park and performance venue in the heart of the downtown district. Since then, they have used the Plaza as the home of their ‘Music on Main’ summer concert series. The Plaza was created in collaboration with the Ashland County Community Foundation, which gave the Plaza its name. This project transformed an underutilized downtown lot into a vibrant community space. The project has also activated collaborations with other local organizations, bringing continued momentum for community change.
Gaston Edwards Park: Ivanhoe Village
Gaston Edwards Park, located in Ivanhoe Village in Orlando, Florida, hosts the annual Jingle Eve event, the annual kick-off to the Orlando holiday season. Ivanhoe Village has run the event for more than 20 years, and it has grown to include music, arts and crafts, food vendors, a holiday village, and promotions from local businesses. To help pay for Jingle Eve, Ivanhoe Village partners with the local parks department and Keep Orlando Beautiful to host annual district-wide clean-up events. “Our Parks Department allows us to log volunteer hours from our clean-up to go towards the cost of renting the park for Jingle Eve,” said Allex Englett, Executive Director at Ivanhoe Village. “In recent years, these clean ups have helped us cut the cost to rent Gaston Edwards in half.”
Skowhegan River Park: Main Street Skowhegan
Main Street Skowhegan in Skowhegan, Maine, is lucky to be home to a section of the Kennebec River, and their new river park will help them take full advantage of this unique asset. The project has three parts. First, they are increasing river access by adding a set of stairs and an ADA ramp down to the water. Second, they are enhancing the whitewater in the river to turn it into a destination for kayaking, surfing, river boarding, stand-up paddleboarding, and tubing. Finally, they are adding a two-mile pedestrian and bike path. These improvements will strengthen the downtown’s connection to the river and turn Skowhegan into a regional recreation destination.
Tips for Planning Your Next Great Parks Project
Looking to get started on a parks and recreation project or collaboration in your district? Check out these quick tips to get inspired.
Familiarize yourself with the assets in your community. Do you already have a solid park with strong programming? Do you have unique natural features that may draw people in? Is there a vacant lot nearby in need of creative redevelopment? Keep an eye on the green spaces (or potential green spaces) in your district and stay open to opportunities.
Start small. If you don’t already have a strong parks and recreation component in your district, now is a great time to start planting those seeds. Try setting up a temporary parklet and see how people interact with it. Add planters or a community garden. Foster connections with nearby green spaces that are outside your district.
Identify key partners. Is your local parks and recreation department familiar with your Main Street organization? Are there local environmental organizations, greenways, or volunteer groups that manage green spaces in your community? Many successful parks projects rely on strong partnerships. Start building those relationships now, even if you don’t have a project in mind yet.
Be creative. Parks and recreation projects can be more than summer concert series and events. Think outside the box and imagine larger ways that your mission connects with the green spaces around you. Can you use a park to improve walkability? Add a sense of place? Mitigate climate effects? Provide opportunities for entrepreneurship and small business support? Turn your downtown into a regional destination? The possibilities are endless!
Hestia Creations, a Main Street America Allied Member, is this quarter's Main Spotlight advertiser. For more information about the products and services they provide to Main Street organizations, click here >
Music has a unifying power to bring people of all generations, backgrounds, and cultures together for creative expression. Let’s explore how accessible, family-friendly music experiences can strengthen Main Streets across America to build stronger communities, one concert at a time!
Main Street America is pleased to announce the launch of a $1.8 million sub-grant program as part of our partnership with the U.S. Department of Transportation's (USDOT) Thriving Communities Program.
Construction projects can put a lot of stress on your downtown. From preparation to completion, Brooke Prouty at Iowa Economic Development Authority shares best practices to help your Main Street thrive during construction.
At the heart of thriving Main Streets are vibrant public spaces that unite people of all ages and backgrounds and enrich community life. And what better way to activate public spaces than through the power of free, live music?
Learn how Main Streets can tap into federal resources to improve transportation infrastructure, take down barriers, and improve access to key services.
Main Street America is proud to announce the release of a new resource to help Main Streets and commercial district organizations better prepare for and respond to more frequent and severe disasters.
MSA President and CEO Erin Barnes explores how a holiday market in a public park brought a new focus on growing humanitarian needs in downtown city centers.
The RAISE program funds surface transportation projects with local and regional impact by enhancing safety, mobility, sustainability, and economic growth.
Learn how Main Street America's work with the DOT's Thriving Communities Program is supporting transformative efforts with community partners like the Shoalwater Bay Indian Tribe.
Art is a powerful tool for community change. Learn how the arts can improve community engagement, boost economic development, and connect with the Main Street Approach.
Streets play an important role in our downtown districts. Learn more about Main Street America's recent work with the Department of Transportation to promote vibrant and sustainable downtown roadways.
REV Birmingham and Woodlawn United share how they work to reenergize spaces and places in Birmingham, Alabama, through civic infrastructure projects in the city’s historic commercial corridors.
Learn how the Little Five Points neighborhood of Atlanta uses this unique mural program to celebrate Valentine's Day and raise important funding for their work.
Parking is a challenging problem for many Main Streets. We explored the arguments for and against free parking, and a method for conducting an inventory of parking in your downtown.
In big cities and small towns, people face increasing danger when navigating communities on foot. As advocates for connected and walkable downtowns, Main Streets have a crucial role to play in increasing pedestrian safety.
Main Street America was awarded $5.9 million to support 20 communities in the Main Streets Community of Practice through the Department of Transportation's Thriving Communities Program over the next two years.
The City of Leeds, AL welcomed a new downtown mural over the holidays that has brought a sense of excitement and anticipation for the continuing efforts to focus on the Leeds downtown district.
What is more Iowan than turning grain bins into public art? Learn how Main Street Coon Rapids created these beautiful murals to celebrate their downtown.
The AARP Community Challenge program gives out quick-action grants to activate public spaces. Meet some of the Main Streets awarded grants through the program this year.
To support Georgia Main Streets throughout the recovery process and position them for long-term sustainability, Main Street America launched the Georgia Main Street Innovation Grant Program, made possible through generous support from The Williams Family Foundation of Georgia.
We heard from organizations across the nation about the incredible impact their markets have had on community engagement, entrepreneur and small business support, and keeping their district vibrant.
Mount Airy Downtown, Inc., celebrated the return of their Market Street Arts and Entertainment District (MSA & ED) last weekend, as part of their pandemic recovery efforts.
In remembrance and in honor of Dr. Marin Luther King Jr., over 900 streets in the United States were named after him. Many are located predominantly in African American communities.
Dubbed the Blues Alley, the Ripley Main Street program plans to install murals of local pioneering Black blues artists, cutout guitars painted by local art students, and blues lyrics painted on the walls.
Since 2013, Try This West Virginia has sought to improve health environments in local communities as a collaboration of organizations working together to combat the health challenges facing West Virginians.
Over 300 attendees enjoyed a family-friendly block party that celebrated the community and showcased Prosser's upcoming streetscape improvement project.
The Downtown Newton Development Association (North Carolina) partnered with the City of Newton on a temporary tactical urbanism project to demonstrate how their permanent streetscape improvements will benefit downtown.
Over 500 people braved the misty rain this past weekend to come and celebrate Painesville and its Made on Main Street community transformation project.
In October 2017, Main Street Ottumwa collaborated with local partners, Main Street Iowa, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the Better Block Foundation to stop planning, talking, and wishing, and start doing.
The Metuchen Downtown Alliance created a cool, family-friendly public gathering space in “the worst looking spot in town” with the help of just $2,500 in Edward Jones Placemaking on Main Challenge matching grant funds,
A collaborative effort launched between Laramie Main Street Alliance (LMSA) and vertical farming company, Plenty, looked to blank downtown walls as a canvas for growing food, creating conversation, and activating overlooked spaces.
From walkability and transportation connectivity, to access to nature and availability of fresh food, place is inextricably linked to achieving positive health outcomes in rural America.
Kasey Drummond, Glenrock Main Street Director, explains how they brought the acclaimed graffiti artist ARCY to their Main Street and explores the work he produced in three additional Wyoming communities on his summer tour.
Karen Dye, Newkirk Main Street's program manager, was inspired to “make downtown more fun and festive” with painted water meter covers after learning about the practice at a recent Main Street Now conference.
In contrast, the Main Street Program in Laramie, Wyoming, is thriving, having successfully cultivated millions of dollars to help fill these vacant, blighted spaces with permanent structures.
In 2016, the North Carolina Main Street & Rural Planning Center partnered with the University of North Carolina at Greensboro’s Department of Interior Architecture (UNCG) to provide design assistance to Main Street communities.
Placemaking is a strategy that Six Corners Association has enthusiastically applied to our community development efforts because of its seamless integration with the Main Street Approach.
In 2015, the Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation (WEDC) partnered with the University of Wisconsin–Madison to engage Wisconsin Main Street organizations and farmers markets in the Metrics and Indicators for Impact – Farmers Markets (MIFI-FM) toolkit.
The local Main Street organization, Downtown Milford Inc., is trying to address these shifting demographics by creating a more inclusive sense of community.
This is the story of how a National Endowment for the Arts gathering in DC inspired the leaders of a small town in Appalachia to connect with those in Milwaukee to transform a neglected park.
Main Street communities across the country are no stranger to seeking creative strategies to solve their most nagging issues – vacant buildings, marketing downtown, bolstering retail to name a few.
This article is the second in a series on corridors and the important role they play in Main Street revitalization. The previous article focused on the historic origins of corridors, corridor types, and functions that they serve in our communities.
While the Main Street program may not take the lead in corridor enhancements, it can be a vital partner and advocate for improvements in overall community appearance.
A lot of signs are necessary to make a downtown work well, but not every community knows what a good sign system looks like, or how instrumental it can be to the creation of a successful downtown.