There is a renewed emphasis on downtown Main Street because they are what gives their communities character. You don’t get that from a concrete, tilt-up big-box development out by the interstate.
The National Trust for Historic Preservation is behind the excellent Main Street program because America’s foundation for greatness has come from honoring and preserving the best of the past.
Originally, Main Street had the saloon, the hotel, the livery, the general store, the church — all of the services — because they all needed each other. The key to any Main Street program or Downtown Business Association is to remove the idea of “independent business” and understand it is “interdependent” businesses.
That interdependency is what spelled doom for so many downtowns in the 1970s and 1980s when they didn’t care what the other guy was doing. Now the best Main Street businesses understand, “if I close early, I could be hurting the very neighbors I depend on to make a living.”
The worst still close on Sundays and limit hours to when it is convenient for the owner. I call that “hobby retailing.” That’s not smart in a hyper-competitive environment for everything from furniture to food, from plasmas to plants and from coffee houses to craft stores.
Smart retailers will find they can do with smaller footprints in this economy which perfectly fits many historic areas so expect to see more variety and selection as America rebuilds its core.
With gas costs rising, we’ll see more interest in the downtowns that were so quickly abandoned for the concrete reality of the malls. It won’t happen easily or quickly, but clearly with over a thousand Main Street programs across the country, it is gaining steam.
