Download the final Juneau Main Street Report HERE (PDF)
SCENES FROM THE PUBLIC MEETING ON NOVEMBER 1
WHAT IS MAIN STREET AMERICA? Main Street America is a national economic development program that is dedicated to downtown revitalization, improving the quality of life in communities and preserving the unique heritage of downtowns and commercial districts. Its motto is: Nationally Recognized, Locally Powered.
WHY DID WE CHOOSE MAIN STREET? DBA was tasked by CBJ to develop and implement a downtown improvement strategy, as per the Juneau Economic Plan. To help us with this, the Downtown Business Association board voted to become members of Main Street USA because this program is backed by 35 years of success and has worked for over 2,000 downtowns of all sizes throughout the United States. The Main Street organization provides an abundance of informational tools and resources and has a team of facilitators that are available to help members with their revitalization process. The Main Street program is comprehensive and works on the unique assets of each community.
HOW DOES IT WORK? First, DBA will bring a Main Street facilitator to come to Juneau to meet business owners, talk with community leaders about program successes, and facilitate a public meeting to reach a consensus about our long-term concept of downtown. These long-term concepts will help form transformative strategies for our downtown that we can easily implement. After the public meeting, the board and community leaders will take the feedback of downtown stakeholders and form work plans for the strategies. The idea is to start with basic, simple activities that demonstrate that “new things are happening” in our downtown.
We are open to those that are interested in giving time, energy and support to this project. Please contact Dana Herndon at downtownjuneau@gmail.com or call 523-2324.
To learn more about Main Street, please visit www.preservationnation.org