Vibrant Downtowns - with Catherine Sak

What makes a great downtown? What do we sometimes miss that can influence the way new visitors feel about our downtown? AJ interviews Catherine Sak, Executive Director of Texas Downtown to get the answers to these questions.

If you care about your downtown, or are just a lover of downtowns generally this episode is for you. Catherine and AJ get into when you need to drop Truth Grenades on the members of your community who aren't helping your downtown to be as successful as it can be, and how important a downtown is to your sales tax revenue. There's also some interesting discussion about small commercial districts in neighborhoods and how those places are deserving of our time and attention.

Links:

Texas Downtown website: https://www.texasdowntown.org/

The Value of U.S. Downtowns and Center Cities: 2020 Summary: 
https://downtown.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/IDAVODT20_Compendium_2020_ExecSum_021921.pdf.pdf?utm_source=ida&utm_medium=publication&utm_campaign=button

Key Elements of Successful Downtowns: https://ced.sog.unc.edu/2019/01/key-elements-of-successful-downtowns/

Here's What *Not* to Do to Your Small-Town Main Street: https://www.strongtowns.org/journal/2020/12/2/heres-what-not-to-do-to-your-small-town-main-street

Main Street America - Resources: https://www.mainstreet.org/howwecanhelp/resourcecenter/webinarseries

Recast Your City: How to Save Your Downtown with Small-Scale Manufacturing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IdnIvp9Udv0

The Heart of the City: Creating Vibrant Downtowns for a New Century by Alexander Garvin

Resilient Downtowns: A New Approach to Revitalizing Small- and Medium-City Downtowns by Michael A. Burayidi