The Morning Call had a cover story in Sunday's paper titled, "New Downtowns are in the 'burbs" (read it here), which addressed the trend of developers creating new shopping center in the suburbs modeled after a traditional Main Street as opposed to a mall or strip mall.
It struck me as interesting because many borough based communities are struggling to find ways to attract stores and shoppers, yet this trend shows the Main Street atmosphere is sought after.
Jeff Pooley, a Muhlenberg College professor assistant professor of media and communications, considered these new centers a slap in the face to traditional Main Streets and stated, "I think the downtowns could easily host these stores.''
The article does present both the pros and cons of this new trend, its occurrence at the cost of the downtowns, and a variety of opinions on it all.
I mention it here because in Nazareth there have been several groups working to build up the Main Street area, the culmination of these efforts is the Main Street Initiative that will create an independent 501(c)(3) not-for profit corporation to help coordinate, assist, and promote existing businesses while encourage growth in the area.
And at the same time, there is a reasonable lack of retail opportunities within the NASD municipalities and it would be a significant boost to our tax revenue base if a major retail outlet would be developed here. To date it seems our biggest attraction is homes, followed by some recent new distribution centers, and finally some commercial properties, mostly in the route 33 and 248 area.
4 comments:
Quaint, small town mainstreets are a retro novelty and, sadly, will soon be a thing of the past.
"Nazareth Hardware or Sears Hardware? Uh, Sears has a better selection. Plus, I wanted to get a DVD at Wal-Mart while I was over there. Nazareth Army/Navy or Kohl's? Well, we're going to Sears Hardware anyway and its right next to it..."
Unless you're looking to buy power tools, Nazareth Hardware is much better than Sears. Obviously Home Depot and Lowes carry more of everything. Remember, if you are a DIYer, nothing beats the service at Nazareth Hardware.
I truly believe the expression "what's old is new again". In 30 years when all the poorly-built, closely-spaced Tuskes homes are falling apart, people will move back to town for charm, character, and quality. There are a lot of nice homes in Nazareth that need some TLC, when this trend occurs, the borough will be the most desirable location to live and shop.
I lived in a town that had a main street that was the hub of activity. Yes, it had to compete with all the box stores that were a mile or so away, but compete it did.
The town, working with an alliance of the store owners, successfully made it the gathering place for the community. They did this by hosting community events almost on a monthly basis centered around the main street. They would bring in hundreds of craft vendors from around the country, live music, shows, activities for the kids, etc.
This brought the community together, and more important, built loyalty and a sense of community the revolved around that section of main street.
Main Street in Nazareth has a lot of the right seeds there now. It just needs that last push to turn it into what it could be.
I don't think that "main streets" will ever become a thing of the past unless we allow them to.
I hope that the Main St Program is functioning before we loose all of our store fronts to offices and businesses that do not attract the tourist and "foot crowd".
I also wish that the landlords would take into consideration that the program to revitilize the downtown will in the long run benefit them too if they are patient and cooperative. If they try to rent to a business that fits the program and not to the first business that comes along, they will help to realize the goals of the program.
When a land lord who is interested in the future of Nazareth's downtown has an empty building it would be great if he would seek the help and/or advise of the Main St committee in renting or leasing his space to someone whose business fits the program.
Nazareth can eventually have a revitilized and buzzing downtown again. There are alot of excited people trying to get this program off the ground, and they can use all the help and cooperation they can get.
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