Saline Main Street is on a road trip this week. Members of the organization, along with other area Main Street communities are invading Detroit, where they'll be joined by more than 1,300 downtown development professionals, volunteers and thought leaders from communities throughout the country. For four days, they'll attend 60 educational sessions in Cobo Hall, as well as travel to 15 areas in Metro Detroit for mobile workshops. They'll tour Ferndale. They'll party at Eastern Market. For the first time, Detroit is hosting the annual National Main Street Conference.
Why does that matter to Saline? Because over the last 30 years, the National Main Street Center has tracked $59.6 billion in reinvestment in physical improvements from both public and private sources in their communities, with a net gain of 115,381 businesses and 502,728 jobs. In 2013, every dollar invested in Main Street communities resulted in $33.28 of economic impact, making it most effective downtown revitalization effort in the country — and Saline has contributed to those great statistics.
Main Street communities such as Saline use the National Main Street Center's Four Point Approach, an organizational technique to revitalize historic downtowns. The concept centers on a comprehensive strategy that addresses a range of common downtown development issues simultaneously — all driven by volunteers.
"What began as a board of nine volunteers grew to a list of over 200 in as little as two years," says Saline Main Street Chair Cindy Czubko. "These volunteers come from all over the community, primarily within the Saline School district boundaries."
When Saline Main Street officially joined the program two years ago, they'd already been operating as a Business Development Association for some time. It's not uncommon for downtowns organizations to function in such an independent way, either as a BDA, downtown development authority (DDA) or principal shopping district. Though those methods allow for more local autonomy, Saline found that by partnering with the Michigan State Housing Development Authority's
Michigan Main Street Center to become an official Main Street community has made a dramatic difference.
Saline's volunteers are currently working on 30 projects, and have added several new events, including Taste of Saline, The Mastodon Celtic Challenge, Wicked Kickin’ Hoedown, and Music Under the Arch. They've completed an alley improvement project, partnered with Saline schools to beautify downtown with banners, held training sessions for local businesses and more.
Among the many services available to Saline Main Street, including training and free design, marketing and branding services from the Michigan Main Street Center one of the biggest benefits to being a part of the nationwide movement is the networking and support from other communities.
"The beauty of the Main Street program is that you do not have to reinvent the wheel," Czubko says. "The Michigan and National Main Street List Serves and resource centers are filled with information for any project or challenge you have putting you in direct contact with other Main Street communities throughout the country."
That networking is in hyperdrive this week during the National Main Street Conference. While the annual event has been hosted in such cities as Des Moines, Baltimore and Oklahoma City, Biladeau finds Detroit to be an especially apt location for this year's event.
"There is so much innovation happening in the neighborhoods of Detroit," says Patrice Frey, president and CEO of the National Main Street Center. "People are working to bring business back, and bring housing back, and that is exciting. There is a lot of excitement and commonality between some of the things Detroit's neighborhoods struggle with and what our communities struggle with."
What's more, though there are currently no official Main Street organizations within Detroit, Michigan itself is home to two state coordinating bodies, the Michigan Main Street Center and Oakland County's
Main Street Oakland County, and more than 30 local programs throughout the state. And, not to brag, but Michigan communities have left three of the last four National Main Street Conferences with coveted Great American Main Street Awards.
"We are seeing a lot of Michigan communities really standing out," says Frey, president and CEO of the National Main Street Center. "Michigan Main Street and Oakland County have a really strong track record of working with and investing in communities. But it comes back down to the people on the ground."
Those people on the ground, ready to lend a hand to make a better community are what Main Street communities have in common more than anything else, making the theme of this year's conference, "Works in Progress" incredibly appropriate.
"There might be a lot of work ahead for areas in Detroit, but we're a city on the rise and on the comeback," says Main Street Community Downtown Ferndale's Cristina Sheppard-Decius. "We have a lot of great lessons people can learn from that."
Fortunately, the Chicago-based National Main Street Center recognized that, and believed in the Detroit enough to bring their popular conference to a city with so much to share.
"Nobody knows better than Detroiters the power of a community-driven approach to revitalization," writes Frey and National Main Street Center Board Chair Barbara Sidway in the conference program.
And after this week, Saline Main Street and others will be bringing that knowledge and experience back from Detroit to the benefit of our area, just as Detroit will be left with some Saline wisdom to fold into the revitalization efforts happening there.
Want to see what's happening in Main Street communities throughout Michigan? Check out the eight other Issue Media Group Publications this week to learn how Main Street and this week's conference is making an impact from Iron Mountain to Saline to Ferndale.
This story is part of a placemaking series that is underwritten by the Michigan State Housing and Development Authority.