It's this simple: Main Street program!
The Madison City Commission meets Monday, July 16th, at 5:30 p.m. By sheer serendipity, the first three agenda items, under "Appearances, Acknowledgements, Correspondence," are the following:
- Ashley Allen, Eve Fisher, Gayle Maberry, Dean Kooiker, Shirley Harrington-Moore, and Cory Heidelberger - Downtown development discussion.
- Julie Gross - 2013 Chamber of Commerce budget request.
- Julie Gross - 2013 LAIC & Forward Madison budget request.
Now if you just look at the agenda, you won't find any specifics, since none of us have submitted documents for the packet yet. Julie will tell you how much of your tax money she wants to spend Monday night. I'll tell you what Item #1 is about right now.
I called a public meeting of all parties interested in downtown development yesterday. A dozen of us got together at the public library and had a public discussion about Madison's Main Street: what it needs, what the city could do to meet those needs, and what we want to say to the city commission about those ideas Monday night. We also included observations and suggestions from numerous e-mail correspondents and blog commenters.
We covered a lot of ground... though not nearly enough to solve all of Madison's problems. Revitalizing downtown will involve more time and more people. But here are the basic big ideas:
- Madison's downtown is in bad shape.
- Downtown is worth fixing, because Main Street is the heart of your town.
- Main Street was once filled with grocers, retailers, and entertainment; we believe we can bring such vibrant economic and cultural activity back.
- The city should integrate downtown development into its economic development efforts.
- Doing downtown development right requires doing it together, as a community, in an open, participatory, democratic process.
So what are we going to suggest? We're still working on that. It's important to understand that "we" aren't acting as a committee. We didn't take a vote, sign a declaration, or hatch a plot to promote one specific building or business plan. The six of us on Monday's agenda are speaking as individuals, fellow citizens who happen to mostly agree on the five points above. We'll each do some hard thinking over the weekend to decide what we each want to say in the 15-20 minutes we'll have available.
We really don't have to get too fancy: if Madison is serious about downtown development, we need look no farther than the national Main Street movement, a program that, according to its literature, has helped rehab 229,000 buildings, boost 105,000 new businesses, and reinvest $53 billion in 2000 communities over 30 years. Let's see, divide, carry the 2... that's an average in each Main Street community of around 50 new businesses, 110 building rehabs, and $26 million in revitalization activity. Achieving just a tenth of that in Madison would be a huge boost for downtown.
The Main Street program's Four Points and Eight Principles offer one framework for gathering, discussing, building and acting on good ideas for downtown. I want to hear your ideas. We won't get to have a public forum at the commission meeting (unless Commissioner Abraham surprises us, makes a motion, and gets a second), but if you have a downtown idea you'd like to propose to our city commissioners, let me know (right here in the comment section!), and we'll work all we can into our Monday night presentation.
Madison's Main Street matters. It's been great; it can be great again. Come to City Hall Monday, 5:30 p.m., and we can all talk about downtown.
Main Street is a wonderful program. Have lived in several cities who have used that program to revitalize their down towns! Go for it. It can only be better than what you have.
Maria, that's encouraging! Has anyone in South Dakota done it?
Google "small town main street development program." Although Madison is unique in certain ways, there is no reason to reinvent the wheel. As the guy who led Brookings said it's not brain surgery. What would make Madison a destination? We know what would keep us here and we have some insight what would bring Oldham, Ramona, Howard, Colman, Wentworth to come here in greater numbers.
I think Mitchell is a Main Street community. There also is the Horizons Program through UW Extension.
If you work to establish a reasonable, progressive, creative local environment people will respond in kind or they will seek out something else.
good luck Cory. Even though its been many years since I've lived in Madison I consider it my hometown and I want nothing but the best for it.
Cory, Main Street has been alive and well in South Dakota for decades. Was a major GOED emphasis when Troy and I were there. Sioux Falls' program is a model for the nation. Get your SECOG reps (No, they're not New World Order zombies per Sibby), GOED district reps and others on board. I'm frankly shocked Madison didn't do this years ago, it may very well have and the effort waned. Time to charge it up.
Tear down 90% of the death traps located on main street. They are fire traps with their 6 wall interiors and a liability with all the falling ceilings. It's a bit too late to think about restoration for most.
Daniel, I believe that those buildings are privately owned and unless Madison wants to use eminent domain to forcibly take the property, they will remain as they are now.
I'm puzzled as to why owners would want to hang onto such buildings for so long and not make improvements, especially the vacant storefronts. What business advantage is there to holding such properties empty until they collapse?
Michael, I am no fan of eminent domain. However, it is worth noting that blight can serve as a justification for eminent domain. Anyone care to go that far?
Lived in a small town once that had many vacant store fronts. When owners were asked why, the answers included:
1. Using the building for storage,
2. Original owners deceased and building now owned by siblings who can't agree on what to do with it,
3. So-and-so wants to buy the building, but I can't stand his guts so that building will just stand vacant before I sell/rent to that s.o.b.
Wonder what answers would be given by vacant storefront owners in your community.
It seems the request for $150,000 has been kinda forgotten in the above posts. Is the committee still pursuing this? I would think the first thing should be to get this stopped and then go on to other ideas for downtown development. If the idea was to raise money for the poor with the thrift store, none of the above ideas addresses this or the fact that the idea is not viable for any number of reasons as presently presented. Is this going to be addressed at the commission meeting?
No, Linda, the concerns you raised are not "forgotten." This blog post was not about those issues. It's a post about the Main Street Program, thus the comments. I chose to limit my comments to MSP b/c I have personal experience with that wonderful program.
Linda, the thrift store steering committee and the city commission seem to have put the thrift store subsidy in limbo. Clark and Jerry did not specifically address the status of their request for that $150,000, and the commissioners did not take their motion from the table. Perhaps they hope to let the air out of the opposition balloon, then bring it up again when things have quieted down. Perhaps they are going to seek a more subtle way of funding it that the public won't notice, like simply folding the money into the LAIC/Forward Madison subsidy Julie will pitch tomorrow night. Or perhaps (and here's the optimistic read) public discussion has helped the boosters realize that their plan wasn't all that great, or at least not the public subsidy portion of it. They didn't acknowledge that, they didn't admit they were wrong, and Dick still patted his clique on the back for great work on a silly plan, but they seem to be backtracking. Maybe they will focus on making it work entirely through private donations, which would still be a misdirection of community capital but would not be as bad as wasting precious tax dollars.
We don't know where they stand now on the thrift store, and for the moment, I'm not interested in pressing them. I won't speak for the other folks coming to speak to the commission tomorrow night, but my main motivation for addressing the public tomorrow night is to respond to Jerry and Clark's call for a downtown development task force. I will talk about the importance of doing more than a task force, of creating a permanent office dedicated to developing and pursuing a vision and ongoing plan for downtown development, and of making that process a completely documented and participatory process that is open to every stakeholder.
Cory, you and Daniel talk like the entire downtown is ready to collapse. There are buildings that need serious attention, but repairs might cost way more than the building is worth. Most structures downtown are just fine for now and have businesses or offices in them. We do need to realize that they are all getting old and their maintenance costs will become prohibitive as the years pass. You can't just doze buildings without thinking about the costs involved or the consequences to retail traffic because of bare lots on Egan Avenue.
The question is: how do you remove "blighted" buildings and replace them with something better? The Thrift Store discussion would have a different name if you tried to put something else in the same location.
Michael, I'm not taking a final architectural position. You know I believe that Mason's, for instance, is salvageable, while many others think there's no hope. I would welcome a serious architectural assessment of all four blocks to determine the costs of renovation versus replacement of each building that would allow us to make some choices about how best to spend money to fix up downtown.
In this vein, one of the shortcomings of the thrift store proposal was that it bulldozes potentially four operational storefronts and replaces them with one questionable enterprise and an unnecessary parking lot.
A downtown development office could focus on performing an architectural assessment along the entire street, making a list of the cost of fixing up every property, and then leading a community discussion about priorities for repairing or removing/replacing.
As an example of what a small town can do when they run out of industry, and are willing to go to considerable lengths to get their downtown hopping, check this out on Helen, Georgia, one of the most popular tourist spots in the north Georgia mountains:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helen,_Georgia
I've said it before, and many others on here have. An initial focus on the arts will spur the development Madison needs. Look into Jackson, Wyoming as a good final product of that vision and look at Buffalo, Wyoming as a community in the begining stages. Those towns have been exploding.
Everyone gets hung up on retail development in Madison. I'd hate to say it, but with Sioux Falls a short drive away and amazon.com a click away, retail is a doomed effort.
I have to laugh because I clicked on Eve's link for Helen, GA and the first thing my eyes were drawn to in the beautiful photo of the city is the bright yellow sign "Public Restrooms"! I don't know if any of you have ever had to find one when you are shopping downtown Madison, but many stores do not have a public restroom. In speaking with a business owner a few years ago, I can understand why they don't open their bathrooms to the public (disgusting). But it's awfully handy to have one if you need one, especially with small kids.
If we were a destination city, then the arts could have a profound effect on Madison's economy.
If you think your are doomed in anything, your are probably right. I choose not to be doomed today.
Many hundreds of people in downtown Sioux Falls last night. Open air restaurants, motorcycles, people everywhere. That place was alive, which didn't happen without a plan.
And I'm sure many of us remember the dreary days for downtown Sioux Falls after the malls opened. That's where we are now.
Hey, mhs: SECOG? Which agency is that?
Paula: downtown, if the urge to purge arises, you can always head over to City Hall. Library and courthouse are nice if you can make it two blocks over... though that's a bit of a tow for little ones!
Entertainment downtown: good note about Sioux Falls, John! The mall did hurt retail downtown... but Sioux Falls's downtown has bounced back since then, hasn't it? Would you say entertainment like what you mention last night is key to that recovery?
Michael, we need to make ourselves a destination city. I don't see doom. I see opportunity... if we can start a process that brings everyone to the table.
Cory, good options :) Just thought it was slightly humorous because the first thing I thought of when I saw the photo of Helen, GA was the lack of public restrooms downtown here. I don't have any little ones anymore either, but I'm sure there are a lot of people out there (pregnant ladies, older people, kids) who might like a clean public restroom.
I wonder if the Chamber or LAIC or whoever tries to bring things to Madison ever considered events like guns shows, dog/cat shows, indoor flea markets (airconditioned), sports shows. I went to a cat show a few years ago in Brookings and it wouldn't take much to hold something like that here. It would at least bring new people to Madison for the day or weekend.
Ms. Paula, I went to a cat show a few years ago in Rapid City!! I thing your idea is great but we should stick with the gun shows and indoor flea markets where they don't compete with local thrift stores. Cat shows just bring out insaner people.
Hey now ;)
There is a nice little article in the Atlantic on tolerance (in addition to talent and technology) and why it's important for economic growth. South Dakota's map is largely blank but it does look like Madison has a medium shade of purple!
http://www.theatlanticcities.com/neighborhoods/2012/07/geography-tolerance/2241/
John, that's a thought-provoking map and article. Openness to diversity and inclusiveness allows more newcomers to feel at home when they move in. Invite more people to get involved in the community, and they feel greater belonging. They stay longer, put down deeper roots, and pour more of their creativity and innovation into the local economy.
Now looking at that map, I'm thinking that purple spot is the Sioux Falls MSA (Minnehaha, McCook, Turner, and Lincoln). Same out west, where Census defines the Rapid City MSA as Pennington and Meade counties but leaves out Lawrence... where I might argue Spearfish is more diverse and tolerant than Sturgis. Note also the tolerance map is based on three metrics: share of immigrants/foreign born, concentration of gay/lesbian, and ethnic/racial segregation. Rapid City may have a larger percentage of such folks... but does that always mean there's more tolerance afoot there?
A fun article on the continued pressure felt by traditional grocery stores.
http://money.msn.com/top-stocks/post.aspx?post=3ef8d1de-2c1c-45ef-b2c1-b0aa518af37b
Wow. Can't believe groceries account for 55% of US Walmart sales.
What surprised me was the tight margins of less than 5%.
Our small town received a grant to tear down old, unuseable buildings on private properties. It will clean up the city and will make the owner's property worth more. It's a win-win for both.
"Tolerance" is an interesting term. It implies putting up with something one doesn't particularly like and thus breeding resentment. There's also an air of self-righteousness and superiority about it. I wish we could use a better word. "Acceptance" maybe? "Fraternity?" "Fellowship?"
Taunia, why couldn't the city compel the owners of those buildings to take action on their old properties? Or were the owners out of the picture?
Bill, good word point. I've heard "tolerance" referred to as the gentleman's response to a bad smell.
remind me where the old rail bed goes thru Madison from Pipestone, CAH?
or is it north/south? can't find it on the google map.
Unless a municipality has an ordinance regarding 'nuisance' or 'rundown' buildings, it cannot compel anyone to do anything with a building. Lived in a community that lacked such as ordinance. From what I hear it's been a long uphill battle against derelict building owners to get such as ordinance in place. Angry folks can make lots of noise at city council meetings.
We have nuisance regs, Maria, and Madison has used them. I don't like that stick—I do have a firm belief in property rights, and I think we can use other carrots to make things happen.
Larry, the rail bed in Madison is still active; it ends at the Madison Farmers Elevator west of town. Google Maps has it: the rail runs through town just south of South 2nd Street. What has you wondering?