Old Buildings, New Attitudes

Archive for April, 2008

We are pleased to inform everyone that Downtown Lee’s Summit Main Street, Inc. is one of only four Missouri communities to receive National Accreditation from the National Trust Main Street Center for 2008.  Our friends in Gape Girardeau, Clinton, and Louisiana have also received National Accreditation this year.

Accreditation is based on 10 criteria:

• “Broad-based public support for the commercial district revitalization process, with strong support from both pubic and private sectors.”
• “Vision and mission statements relevant to community conditions and to the local Main Street program’s organizational stage.”
• “Comprehensive, detailed Main Street work/action plan for all 4 points.”
• “Historic Preservation ethic.”
• “Active Board of Directors and committees.”
• “Adequate operating budget.”
• “Paid, professional program manager.”
• “Program on ongoing training for staff and volunteers.”
• “Reporting of key statistics.”
• “Current membership with the Missouri Main Street Connection and National Main Street program.”

To learn more about the National Trust Main Street Center’s National Accreditation, click here. 

Thanks to our strong Board of Directors and all-volunteer committees for their hard work again this year!

“Putting Main Street on the Map and in Three Dimensions”

This one was kind of technical, so bear with me.  I highlighted some great advice at the end, so make sure to check that out. 

This seminar included two presentations, one by Tom Pederson, Ph.D. who discussed the use of Geographic Information Systems (GIS) in Main Street programs and the other by Aidan Chopra from Google, Inc. on using their free tools in Main Street programs.  The GIS information was pretty technical, so I’ll just quickly summarize the 3-D mapping portion of the presentation.

Aidan Chopra of Google, Inc. discussed how he helped the Main Street McMinnville, Tennessee program use its free tools to create an accurate 3-D map of their downtown.  Click here to see it.  The manager from McMinnville stood up and described the work that went into creating the map: volunteer photographers (40), volunteer computer modelers, computers, free software, and time (3 months!).  Mr. Chopra showed us the 3-D video of McMinnville, and their historic buildings were accurately portrayed in 3-D using the digital pictures the volunteers took.  The McMinnville manager described how they just had three buildings burn down, a very unfortunate event. However, having the 3-D map should help them as those sites are redeveloped. 

Mr. Chopra described how other Main Street programs could learn to use the free software and create their own images.  He went through an example – creating a 3-D barn on a map using pictures he had taken.  Pretty interesting!  Even though he described the process as being very simple, I still think some people would have a difficult time with the software.  There are tutorials available, and I may check them out sometime. 

But probably the best piece of advice he gave I can quickly pass on to you.  I think we’ve all looked up the satellite image of our house or business on Google Maps .  It’s pretty cool, isn’t it!?!  But have you ever noticed that some pointers aren’t in the right place?  What a shame if someone looked up directions to your business and they were directed a block away!  You can actually move that pointer!  Just click “edit” in the address box and “move the pointer”.

Next summary…”Volunteer Trends and Recruitment Techniques.” 

Sarah

 

The Opening Plenary was jam-packed with speakers, so I’ll briefly summarize the major points addressed in the nearly 3 hour opening event.

First, all Main Street communities sat with their state programs.  So all of the Show-Me-Staters sat together wearing our bright red fleece vests.  We all cheered when they showed Missouri’s four Nationally accredited Main Street communities on screen – and Downtown Lee’s Summit is one of those four! 

Doug Loescher, Director of the National Trust Main Streets Center (NMSC), gave his annual “State of Main Street” speech.  NMSC had sent out a survey several months ago, the National Trends Survey, and he reported on the results (DLSMS filled out the survey).  

He said approximately 750 people responded and that on average, the communities had populations between 5,000 – 50,000, were Main Street and/or LISC neighborhoods, and had been Main Street communities for 6 months to 10+ years.  He also said that while overall there was “no change” in business and sales, both public and private investment has increased. 

Since one focus of this year’s conference was diversity, he mentioned that while the United States is approximately 30% minority, survey respondents reported communities were less diverse than the national average and their Boards of Directors are less diverse than their communities.  He said diversity relates not only to ethnicity or cultural background, but age, gender, sexual orientation, etc.  

The other focus of this year’s conference, entrepreneurship, was also discussed by Loescher.  He mentioned that they didn’t notice anything new per se, but just slightly “different”.  Four major categories of entrepreneurship on Main Streets emerged in the survey: green, experience economy, wellness, and micro enterprises.  He gave national examples of each category, and the coolest part was that he featured Downtown Lee’s Summit’s A Thyme for Everything!  Since we had filled out the survey, and mentioned many of our businesses, National contacted us for more information.  Experience economy based businesses not only offer products, but offer customers an experience – just like Jet does with her cooking classes.  All of our Missouri friends cheered when Lee’s Summit was mentioned.  It was great! 

Richard Moe, President of the National Trust for Historic Preservation, also spoke.  He stated that the Main Streets program continues to be one of the best ideas the National Trust ever had!

Our keynote speaker was Della Clark of Philadelphia’s The Enterprise Center.  She talked about entrepreneurship in general, and what the Enterprise Center does to help small businesses.  She talked about her entrepreneurial “toolbox”, and her “cultivation list” – her list of people she wants to meet to expand her network.  That was a great take-away from her speech – her cultivation list helped her focus when going to meetings or other events so she could seek specific people out and talk to them about whatever it was she needed to talk with them about.

Finally, we heard from both the Governor of New Jersey, John Corzine, and the Governor (and former Philadelphia mayor) of Pennsylvania, Edward Rendell.  Governor Corzine talked about how revitalization efforts have helped Hoboken, and generally welcomed us all and encouraged us to take advantage of public transit to New Jersey (it’s just across the Delaware River).  Governor Rendell also welcomed us, talked about the revitalizations efforts he oversaw as Mayor of Philadelphia and the improvements being made in towns all over PA, and encouraged us all to eat a Philly Cheese steak while in town!  That part was pretty darn funny – he said that people try to imitate them and they just can’t get it right for three big reasons: you can’t use good meat (it has to be fatty and stringy), you can’t use real cheese (it has to be whiz), and you can’t drain the grease off the onions (must include the grease to get the taste right).  He also got somewhat political, which I guess isn’t too surprising in an election year. 

Overall, the Opening Plenary was fun, informative, and started the conference out on a high note.  We also learned that the National Main Streets Center will start giving out Great American Main Street Awards again in 2009 – we’re ready to nominate Downtown Lee’s Summit! J    

Sarah

First in a series of summaries from the National Main Streets Conference in Philadelphia…

This session focused on new retail sales and events that are working in Main Street communities, and learning how to plan and fund retail events.  I would also like to take this chance to mention that our Shop Downtown Lee’s Summit postcard was mentioned in this presentation! Kathy pointed out that she chose this because of its fresh design and bright colors.  Hooray for us!  Below is a list of important tidbits I took from this session.

•  This past holiday season, cities that promoted a buy local campaign saw an increase of 2% in sales in their downtown.
• When creating a co-op ad make it look more like a feature story instead of just small equal boxes for everyone participating
• Cute idea for Christmas, run a series of ads that say “There is Someone to Shop for in Downtown Lee’s Summit”.  Then include a photo and a story.
• Around Valentine’s Day you can send out a “I love my Downtown letter” and ask for a $25 donation from people in the community if they Love Downtown.
• Encourage restaurants with long waits to have pagers and encourage guest to shop around while they wait for their tables.
• Don’t forget the effectiveness of buttons.  Ask your retailers to wear them to promote upcoming events.  These would be great for Third Thursday Art Walk.
• Remember to stay strong when trying out new hours.  It takes 3 years to reeducate the public about changes in store hours.
• Moonlight Madness Sales
• Kathy suggested that the next time you do a postcard offer a free gift with purchase instead of discount.
• Event idea: Let’s Wine about Winter.  This is a great event for after the holiday season.  Cute wine glasses would be made with Downtown Lee’s Summit on them and sold for $5 a piece.  Shoppers could then visit participating stores and sample free wine and of course do lots of shopping!  Wine = more money being spent J
• Bounce Back Weekend.  Pick a Friday and Saturday, and whenever a customer spends $30.00 at a store they receive a $5.00 coupon that must be used that day, and is valid at any other participating store.  The $5.00 is good on purchases of $25.00 or more.  This encourages cross promotion and introduces shoppers to new stores.  It also creates that hurry up shopping frenzy.
• Write a cute poem about the types of things that can be bought with Downtown Lee’s Summit Gift Certificates and stuff in the envelope.
• During Ladies Night Out create a scorecard.  This would involve teams of women signing up and tallying purchases of the day.  Which ever group spends the most wins a prize.  This is also a great way to track sales for the day.  Competitive Shopping… sounds like a great women’s sport!
• Show us your produce.  This idea was thought up to encourage visitors of the Farmer’s Market to visit the local shops.  If they go into the stores and show a tomato they can receive a small discount, free treat or whatever the shop owner decides to do.
• Kathy also mentioned that we should encourage any business with a website to make sure to link up with www.shopmainstreet.org

Gina

Well we’re back in the office and trying to catch up on e-mails and phone calls.  Gina and Jeanine got back around 4:00 pm yesterday – I got back about 7:00 pm.  We’re all a little tired but happy to be home!

In an attempt to pass on some of the information we learned while at the conference, I’ll be posting summaries daily of some of the sessions.  But this first post will just recap our “tour” day.  Sunday was the first day of the conference, and there were plenty of arranged tours we could have gone on.  In an attempt to save some money, we decided to tour Philly ourselves and had a great time.

We started the day at the Independence National Historical Park - first the Liberty Bell, and then a tour of Independence Hall.  History really did come alive as our tour guide recounted the events that lead to the creation of the Declaration of Independence, Articles of Confederation, and ultimately the Constitution.  You can’t help but feel patriotic and amazed at what our Founding Fathers did.  It also validated just how important historic preservation is! 

After seeing some of the other sites in the park (Quaker Meeting House, 1st and 2nd Banks of the US, etc.) we headed further into the Old City District for brunch.  Yum.  We then went down to Penn’s Landing along the Delaware River, then back into Old City to the Betsy Ross House.  Probably our favorite stop was Elfreth’s Alley, which is considered the oldest residential street in the US.  A plaque on one of the homes said “circa 1703.”  Built over 300 hundred years ago!  Amazing.

After a quick nap back at the hotel, we headed out to find cheesesteaks for dinner.  Now I’m a vegetarian, but I still wanted to find out what all the fuss was about. “Whiz Wit-Out” – what does that even mean?  So we hopped on a City bus and managed to find our way to 9th & Passyunk where probably the two most famous places are – Pat’s King of Steaks and Geno’s Steaks – right across the street from one another.  So Aaron (my fiance) tried a mushroom steak without onions topped with cheese whiz otherwise known as a “mushroom whiz wit-out.”  He also had french fries – or Freedom Fries there – smothered in cheese whiz.  Even I must admit they were delicious!  Then we crossed the street so Gina could have a cheesesteak from Geno’s.  She had one “wit” onions and American cheese. 

So that was an adventure – one everyone needs to experience if they go to Philly!  We walked over two miles back to our hotel – through the Italian Market and the hip South Street.  We capped the night off with some dessert in the VIP lounge at the hotel – somehow Gina managed to get a room on the 23rd floor with special access to the lounge!  We think we walked about 7 miles that day – so needless to say we slept well that night!

We were able to walk around a little more during conference lunch breaks and at the end of each day.  We saw the Walnut Street Theatre, the oldest theatre in the US.  We also frequented the Reading Terminal Market, which included lots of various vendors and eateries.  My personal favorite was the Dutch Eating Place – a diner with plenty of Pennsylvania Dutch delicacies that remind me of my family who live in PA.  Ever had corned beef gravy or srapple?  Me neither – but it was as plentiful there as it is at our family gatherings.

So that’s a quick recap of some of the places we visited.  Next I’ll post about the Opening Plenary…

Sarah

Well the conference is coming to a close and we will be on our way home this afternoon.  We had a great time walking around Philadelphia over the weekend, and have attended some great seminars the past few days.  I just finished one on how to produce a podcast – which would be a nice companion to the promotional DVD we have been working on.  We look forward to getting back and sharing what we have learned with you.  I plan to summarize our sessions daily for the next few weeks – and will also throw in some fun pictures.  See you all soon!

Sarah