Revitalized Downtowns

Thriving downtowns are “this era’s marker of whether your community will make it,” Fallows suggests. A vibrant downtown helps to attract businesses and millennials to your community.

Cities large and small have recognized the importance of revitalizing downtowns that have struggled under growing big-box competition and suburbanization.  Redevelopment agencies have helped to turn around dilapidated downtowns, but creative communities are finding other ways to reenergize their cores.

Popular farmers’ markets (such as San Luis Obispo’s Thursday night downtown market), movies, concert in the park events, and food truck events are all non-permanent, lower-cost strategies.

Parklets are another strategy that California cities such as San Francisco, Davis and Sacramento are pursuing to provide fun community places in their downtown and business districts.

Elsewhere, demonstration projects – crosswalks, roundabouts, sidewalk chairs, bicycle lanes and pop-up cafes – can also help a community imagine how to transform their downtown at a low cost.

Downtown merchants associations, Main Street programs and business improvement districts are key tools that local governments should consider to help revitalize their downtowns.

“These tools do a lot more revitalization than your Redevelopment Agency ever did!” Craig Scharton, owner of Peeve’s Public House and Local Market in downtown Fresno and a former city councilmember and Fresno Downtown and Community Revitalization Director, said at the Ahwahnee conference.

Time is money for a small business, Scharton emphasized. Processing permits in 30 to 60 days (often the latter) means $20,000 in monthly beer revenue for Peeve’s Public House – and they still haven’t received their wine license or permit for outside dining.  It took four months to get their approval to stay open past 11 p.m. and open their doors on Sundays. Keep in mind that Peeve’s is the only place for food and drink after 6 p.m. on a half-mile downtown pedestrian mall in Fresno.  In many cities, these common challenges work against efforts to revitalize downtowns.

The City of Lancaster was able to transform its downtown by encouraging mixed uses and a pedestrian-friendly streetscape by adopting a form-based code.  The Lancaster Boulevard corridor now draws more people and new businesses, which has dramatically revitalized the area.