Turning Communities Around

What is a mayor of a depressed city to do? In addition to efforts by mayors to form regional partnerships and change state policies toward municipal government, two initiatives provide part of the answer: promote commercial revitalization in the downtown and the neighborhoods, and involve neighbors in creative efforts to rebuild neighborhoods. In her keynote address, Kennedy Lawson Smith, director of the Washington, D.C.–based National Trust for Historic Preservation’s Main Street Program, suggested four broad areas that need to be considered if urban retail is going to be revitalized, as it has been in many communities where the Main Street Program has been instituted. Editor's note: The full text of this article is available only to ULI members.

Thanks to Urban Land Magazine