Main Street 101
The Main Street Approach
Main Street is about real people doing real things in real places. The program is designed to advocate and support a return to local empowerment, rebuilding central business districts based on the traditional assets of each community’s unique architecture, character, and local ownership.
Colorado Main Street assists local governments, downtown organizations, providing technical resources and training in the four areas featured in the Main Street Approach:
- Organization gets everyone working toward the same goal, assembling the appropriate human and financial resources to implement a Main Street revitalization program. A governing board and volunteers provide the fundamental organizational structure of a local program.
- Promotion sells a positive image of the commercial district and encourages people to live, work, shop, play, and invest in the Main Street district. By marketing unique characteristics to residents, investors, business owners, and visitors, an effective promotional strategy forges a positive image through advertising, media, retail promotions, special events, and marketing campaigns.
- Design puts Main Street into top physical shape. Capitalizing on its best assets — such as historic buildings and pedestrian-oriented streets — is just part of the story. An inviting atmosphere, well-managed parking areas, building improvements, street furniture, signs, sidewalks, lights, and landscaping, convey a positive visual message about the commercial district.
- Economic Vitality strengthens a community’s existing economic assets while expanding and diversifying its economic base. The program helps sharpen the competitiveness of existing business owners, helps to foster entrepreneurial start-ups and expansions, and recruits compatible new businesses and economic uses.
Who is Main Street?
The Main Street Approach is a product of collaborative efforts that work toward a common goal: Empowering local communities to revitalize their Main Street.
Main Street America™ is a program of the National Main Street Center. It is the umbrella for a powerful, grassroots network consisting of 45 coordinating programs and more than 1,600 neighborhoods and communities across the country committed to creating high-quality places and to building stronger communities through preservation-based economic development.
Colorado Main Street, a program within the Department of Local Affairs (DOLA), provides technical assistance in the Main Street Approach to competitively selected communities. Colorado Main Street has a proven strategy for revitalization, strong network of linked communities, and committed staff who manage the program. The mission of the Colorado Main Street Program is to coordinate resources and technical assistance for communities seeking to revitalize their historic downtown commercial districts.
Colorado communities apply to join the program for assistance downtown revitalization. Each local program has a board of directors who is responsible for managing the day-to-day operations of local efforts. Many local programs also create task forces or committees to address specific initiatives of implementing the Main Street Approach in their community.