Making a Good Thing Even Better

Now...let's practice building upon things that we do already, ending up with even more value, and especially even more community.  Here are a couple of ideas around the Nashua Sculpture Symposium:

Nashua would benefit greatly from more publicity around the Nashua Sculpture Symposium. This is a big event, sometimes international, and leaves a lasting effect on the city with the placement of sculptures around town. The sculptors are currently working in a location a couple of blocks from downtown and have designated visiting hours. But there are no signs to the area from Main Street. The Millyard is easy to get lost in, and a little scary; wayfinding signs would extend a hand of welcome to the public.
Needed: a publicity/media resource, a sign-making resource.

An event to get children involved would be good. Visiting music groups and other artists often do workshops at schools. Wouldn't it be fun to see a whole group of children at Rotary Park sculpting away?
Needed: a coordinating resource, a materials resource,  a publicity resource.

Something that keeps the sculpture in front of the public would keep the art alive. How about a sculpture walk? A guided tour once in a while would be nice, but a downloadable .pdf file would be a start.
Needed: an author, a host site, a publicity resource.

What about getting the public more involved?  Could the applications be placed on line and the public allowed to vote? In other similar instances, the public choice is usually included, plus others selected by the jury. Could we get organizations to do some minimal landscaping around the sculptures? More complicated. These are issues that could be discussed at planning meetings for the next symposium. Needed: well advertised meetings for the next Symposium, open to the public; a web applications resource; a publicity resource.

This doesn't seem expensive or difficult. Thinking "Capacity Building" can make it happen.

Symposium Chips Its Way to Community

Here's another team effort in Nashua that deserves recognition. The Nashua Sculptural Symposium 2010 launched a week ago. We have three sculptures (7 artists) underway as we blog, and their sculptures will be added to the 9 previous that grace Nashua.

The event is a fine example of a group reaching out and networking to get where they want to go. The Andres Institute, Brookine MA, has hosted an International Sculpture Symposium each year since 1999. Sculptors are selected from all over the world, and they come to the peaceful Andres Institute of Arts for three weeks to create an outdoor sculpture, to be installed anywhere they like on the Institute grounds.

Nashua and the Andres Institute began to partner on a Symposium in Nashua three years ago, and the effort is now a partnership among Andres, the City of Nashua, CityArtsNashua (an Arts umbrella group), and the Nashua Area Artist Association. They produce the Call for Proposals; determine the installation locations; arrange for housing, workspace, tools; do fundraising and publicity and create a jury to select the artists from among the proposals.

Roberta Woitkowski at work slicing granite at the Nashua Sculpture Symposium 2010.

The sculptors have "open hours" when they can be visited at work. I visited the team of Margaret Woitkowski, Roberta Woitkowski, Dan Tomolonis, and David St. Onge at their industrial worksite in the MillYard. Roberta and Margaret (photo left) have numerous ties to the Nashua community. This, too, is a networked effort. Roberta did the proposal and was busy sculpting. Her mother Margaret prepared a project display and guest book and is an excellent hostess for our visit. She even arranged for blue wrist bands with "Imagine" on them. Denny is the hands-on sculpture fabricator and David is the nuts-and-bolts solutions man.

What would it take to turn this good effort into a great community?

Learning From the Green Team

Another wonderful experience today: attending a City committee meeting that was open, welcoming, and reaches out to the community. The Nashua Green Team was set up to move the City along as quickly as possible to becoming an environmentally conscious and sustainable community. The committee members, a mix of City employees and citizens, are all highly motivated to be "green" themselves and to encourage others to do so.

Like all City committees, the Green Team wrestles with a shortage of resources–yes, time and money, but most noticeably, people. The team noted the potential of the three attending visitors, insisted that they sit around the table with the committee members and had handouts for them (the committee members get their information via email...it's, well, greener.) They asked themselves frequently during the meeting where they would find a specific resource. The team also puts people on the email list and shares data even if visitors are not committed to being a committee member.

This works so much better than committees where the visitors, including Stakeholders, are relegated to silence on the side of the room, or the meeting handouts are not available for visitors on the internet or in a handout, or the committee members wrestle with completing all the work themselves, or the conversation trails with "Somebody should..." rather than finding a resource to join the community.

As the Cornell Visioning Notebook observes, when people are open, accepting, and expect that they will solve the problem, certain outcomes occur. The Green Team has a wide a variety of community organizations involved and they "tried on" different solutions throughout the meeting. "Maybe the Conservation Commission could lead that." "Maybe we can get the schools to work together to make that happen." "Maybe the newspaper could carry that ball." There was no evidence of the "victim mentality" here, nor did anyone appear to be "protecting turf." Their teamwork has reached a comfort level where one idea, followed by a suggestion, followed by a modification, followed by an "Aha!" leads to a new take or a new initiative.

Another characteristic is that they celebrate their successes. The group has many activities going and they enjoy each milestone they achieve. This has the effect of building a set of community "values" and educating newcomers.

Not to worry, the Green Team can teach us a lot.

Let's Start Capacity Building Today!

Well, it was a great day to start Capacity Building as I had the good fortune to meet with MicroCredit-NH Regional Manager Peggy O'Keefe. Non-profit MicroCredit-NH is sponsored by municipalities, the state, various agencies and grants. It is a subsidiary of socially conscious New Hampshire Community Loan Fund, and has the objective of providing loans, training and networking opportunities for  self-employed and microbusiness(1 to 5 people) startups statewide.

Peggy O'Keefe handles MicroCredit duties for about one third of the state, including Nashua. She's part sales person, part counselor, part trainer, part dorm mother, part psychologist and a whole lot people lover. Peggy explained the goals and activities of MicroCredit with great enthusiasm. A beautiful part of the program is the creation of local groups, six to ten local entrepreneurs with ideas, who meet together monthly as a group while they get their enterprises fledged. Bonds build, networking evolves, lessons are learned and the new business owner starts his journey with a built-in support group. MicroCredit even grants loans to a participant of up to $5,000 simply if the group approves his application–no collateral, no financial history required. And they have a special program for Artist startups.

I was unprepared for how completely Peggy O'Keefe and MicroCredit embrace Capacity Building. They don't call it that, but resources, connections, networking, growing the support base are all techniques that are central to their activities. For them, building a business is like planning a big event, baking a special cake, or running a chemistry experiment: you put the ingredients together and let the magic happen.

One place Peggy mentioned where magic happens is the Amoskeag Business Incubator in Manchester. Small office spaces are available there with full support at very low cost. People can take their ideas to the implementation stage in a very supportive environment. But the great opportunity is that ABI is "where it is at"! All types of business resources pass through there for meetings or classes or just networking. In the old model, we would say "Look how much the entrepreneur will learn from all these people." In the new model seeking Capacity Building, we realize " Look how many talented, different resources the entrepreneur has gained networking with these people!"
 
During our chat at the Nashua Library, one of Peggy's current participants spotted her and came to catch up. What was the conversation about? Rent? Progress on the Business Plan? How the Business Cards turned out? No way! She spoke of people she had caught up with and what had transpired– resources, progress, connections, what the next step is and who can facilitate. These are people that talk the talk and walk the walk. The young woman's news included that she had completely sold out of her product, far earlier than she had expected.
Today was a very good day to start Capacity Building.

Photo of Peggy O'Keefe from MicroCredit-NH website

When Can We Start?

Capacity Building is an umbrella term that covers a lot of things. Before we jump in, let's look at a small example of the difference between a volunteer organization and a Capacity Building organization:

A Volunteer Coordinator will call down a list of available people and ask if they are willing to help weed the out-of-control flower beds at City Hall.

A Capacity Builder will contact known resources, beginning with an identified leader who has influence at the local Garden Club or Master Gardeners and one who knows leaders at an environmentally oriented school. The CB will ask the two resources to see if there might be a mutual benefit to offering an outdoor learning experience to the school children. The CB will provide the name(s) of other resources who might have tools and equipment to facilitate. Another resource might be able to provide treats for the group, and a yard sign to be posted recognizing the workers.

The CB will ask the leader that a timetable be met and that an email be sent to another resource, a Publicity person. The Publicity resource will inform the media and arrange for photos to be taken to give to the participants, to put in the group's newsletters, to send to the media if they don't come themselves. The leader will be sure to get the contact information for all participants to send thank yous, and to add to the email list. All will be welcomed to the community.

Yikes! What a mountain out of a molehill! Wouldn't it be easier for the Capacity Builder just to weed the *** flower beds himself?

Doesn't matter to the Capacity Builder.  The whole point is to build, over time, a cohesive community that can work together efficiently, and creatively, to do what needs to be done. It takes a lot of up front work finding the leaders and resources; earning people's interest; developing goals, standards and values; providing a lot of training; and creating safety nets (insurance, emergency procedures.) But with the foundation in place, a simple project like weeding the flower beds builds even MORE community and brings to light new resources and partnerships. It is a win-win-win-win-win situation.

By the way, it comes as no surprise that the two groups who have been the earliest pool of resources for Urban Capacity Builders are Seniors and Youth. Here are two very large populations that up to now have not been asked to be involved– especially on a contributing leadership level. Smart cities and states that have started here got a jump start on their building effort.

So, in the end, Capacity Building isn't much different than what Easter Seals, or the Rotary, or the Hospital Auxiliary, or the United Nations, or Presidents Clinton and Bush do. It's just that it's time for our communities–neighborhoods, villages, cities, states–to do it. The longer we continue to believe that our Downtown issues can be fixed with Money-to-Buy-Things, without People-to-Build-Community, the deeper in we get. Today would be a great day to start building.

When The Going Gets Tough, Start Capacity Building

Capacity Building isn’t a new topic; it’s been around at least since the early 1990’s or before. The concept has been quietly gaining subscribers, in 3rd world organizations who fight illiteracy, poverty and political unrest;  to low-income rural school districts desperate to find a way to educate their children; to non-profits, political organizers, and now, to urban revitalizers who really believe in their cause. What’s the deal?

Here’s the nashualady take:

When there is accessible money and the problem is “doable,” we pull out the wallet and pay to get work done. When money is tight but the problem still needs addressing, we adjust our budget where possible and look for streamlining or technology improvements. When the money is gone, the problem gets worse, and all the technology tricks are exhausted, Capacity Building is what those who must succeed turn to.

So, what IS Capacity Building? This concept says that, whatever organization we’re in, we need to REALLY develop all the resources available to us, all the partnerships that can be useful, and all the sustainable techniques that apply. Then, we need to work with these resources so we understand them, and they understand us, and we come together, at least on a particular issue, as a community.

The Visioning Workbook from Cornell notes that when a community succeeds in building capacity, specific outcomes will be noted:

*Many local people are participating on a variety of community committees and the visible level of activities (events occurring, goals achieved, etc.) is high.
* The webs of relationships within the community are strengthened. Different segments are seen interacting. There is a loss of the too evident “victim mentality.” Letters to the editor use the words “we will” rather than “if someone would.”
* There is a visible increase in community initiative, responsibility and adaptabiity. Organizations can find common ground in conflicts.
* Leadership in local sustainability is noted at the state and local level.
* The economy is diverse and healthy, with businesses and organizations frequently cooperating, the level of technology use is high, and initiative and entrepreneurship is newsworthy.

Sounds like a good place to go,  don't you think?

Click "comments" below to join the conversation.

Is It As Simple As That?

It's been more than a month since the last "Seeking Downtown" blog, and I appreciate the regulars checking in during that time. Here's what happened: I hit the wall when I realized that I'm not the only one that doesn't understand the dynamics of building a better community in our beautiful downtown, nobody does! So the few things we are investigating are tangential at best. And the constraint of resources in unbelievable. Nobody–city workers, shopkeepers, downtown marketers–has any reserve to accomplish needed tasks.

It reminds me of my time in a dot.com startup where our very wise founder Paul Brainerd kept reminding us to "don't confuse doing things right with doing the right things."  His second adage always was "and get somebody else to do it when you figure out what the right thing is." This is the only way a startup company of 20 people can compete with industry giants.

When I picked up the threads of my search, I started where we left off: the power of volunteers. There is A LOT of information about volunteers, organizing, community groups, empowerment and more, but mostly descriptive, not proactive. Then, BINGO! I came across the "Visioning Notebook" compiled by Cornell University. Home run out of the park. See what you think....

First, the document includes the best explanation I've seen about the problem. Here goes:  Decisions are tougher; regional or global; require special knowledge and need multiple persons or departments to solve the problem. Decisions are coming faster. Rapid expansion and unanticipated events keep decisionmaker agendas backed up.

At the same time, traditional participation is down. Organizations such as bowling leagues and churches, where conversations used to take place, are down 25 percent in 25 years. Many of us work hard and prefer to enjoy our free time at home in front of the television.  Meanwhile partisanship, factionalism and divisive rhetoric are up. Decision making becomes "us" versus "them." People are frustrated, get angry and emotions run high. Not the best environment for building community or putting the "place" back in downtown.

Is it as simple as that? It just might be. Tomorrow we'll look at Cornell's concept of "CAPACITY BUILDING."

Click the word "comments" below to share your ideas.

Move Over, Archimedes

Remember Archimedes? He was the Greek techno-geek in the 3rd century B.C. who said "Give me a place to stand and I will move the earth." Archimedes was describing the ability of a lever to magnify the power applied to an object.

I guess that's what us would-be city planners start out as: technicians looking for a place to stand so we can give the problem a really big whack. And when it dawns on us that there IS no place to stand, we do the Rodin thing: put our fist against our head, sit on a rock and Think.

Well, some cities have succeeded in moving beyond that. "If we can't use a solitary guy with a big stick, what if we used lots of guys with smaller sticks?" they ask.

It's working: cities are institutionalizing the strengths of volunteers. With the addition of a volunteer coordinator position and an handbook, they are able to impact a lot of different problems simultaneously. It's not surprising to find dozens of cities, large and small, with Volunteer Handbooks that cover the waterfront: jobs, rules, application procedures, timekeeping requirements, legal issues and program positions, for starters. We're not talking only minding the Visitor Desk, either; we're talking about positions requiring a full range of abilities and skills across all the departments in the City organization.

In Washington state, they have even institutionalized the process of setting up volunteers. Their web page gives examples of the structure and documents needed to get going with more than 20 specific examples from different cities in the state.

Why all the attention on this? They cite the ICMA (a professional association for City Managers)  IQ Service Report on Volunteer Programs as saying that for every $1 invested by a local government in volunteers, it can realize as much as $10 in benefits. And that was in 1999. The city of Bellevue, WA, a boomburb of Seattle, has a population of just under 125,000 people. They use the services of more than 8,000 volunteers each year; volunteers outnumber city employees by more than six to one. Some cities, such as Boca Raton, FL, mention the great value of having their volunteer structure in place when disasters or special situations occur.

Richmond, VA, describes how their "Sign Up Now" Volunteer recruitment program began with a few citizens who "just asked if they could help." Their report contains a paragraph labeled "Unintended Consequences," which describes how the first project, the positive press and the interest of the community have leveraged the original effort many times over.

Archimedes, when you use a lot of guys, maybe it's not so hard to find a place to stand.

Big Rocks and Small Pebbles

The nonprofit Pennsylvania Downtown Center has developed eight guiding principles for downtown revitalization. These eight principles set it apart from other redevelopment strategies. Let's look at a couple.

First, we need to recognize that downtown revitalization is a complex process requiring a comprehensive strategy. No single project, whether a lavish public improvement or endless promotional events, will do the job.

This is pretty much where we sit now here in Nashua. While many ideas have been pushed, and great efforts have been made to shake fruit from these trees, it doesn't happen. Arriving at this realization is a good thing, as it makes everyone more open minded and willing to seek common solutions. But it still doesn't get any work done.

Secondly, progress is incremental. To quote PDC: "Basic, simple activities lead to a more sophisticated understanding of the revitalization process and help members of the community develop skills to tackle more complex problems and ambitions projects."

This is a straightforward statement of a profound idea. It almost implies that the learning process is more important than the accomplished tasks. This makes sense, because once a community member becomes a team player and sees the results, they will be motivated to involve others and to contribute more. Progress will accelerate over time. It's a roadmap to move from a unitary "Cave-man" model to a cooperative "Ant Colony" model. And everyone involved is growing smarter as time moves along.

When we can focus on a simple activity that we know will be useful, we can answer the question "How can we get this done?" And the number of potential resources (business community, educational community, retirees, students, downtown residents, organizations) begins to increase as we stand back from the big problems a little.

Is this all it takes? Of course not. But even the smallest pebble thrown into the pool makes ripples.

Empowerment, One Step at a Time

Let's revisit Empowerment as an ingredient for success in downtown revitalization.

Our study group wrestled with a huge number of marketing and economic development issues before crumbling under their weight. Most group members are city merchants or employees and have priorities in their lives and heavy demands on their time. Without an infrastructure, or a "bigger picture" we were unable to define a common meaningful task for ourselves. My sense is that without the empowerment of understanding where everyone else (the City, the Chamber, the downtown organization, the residents) wants to go, the risk of spending time on the "wrong" task is too high for most.

Our resolution was to encourage subgroups or individuals who feel strongly about a task to execute it. The time the group has spent looking at issues and prioritizing them may be enough foundation to allow successful accomplishment of some projects. And that may buy time for the bigger picture to come into focus. But it is a shame to lose the synergy of the group's total power.

On the other hand, maybe there have to be certain foundations in place before an infrastructure can be built. The City has begun revising their web site, all to the good so far. Exciting advances in terms of customer interface seem tantalizingly near.  The committee studying a Downtown Improvement District is wending their way through the process, and has obtained excellent information from both customer and merchant segments. Other intermediate, almost clerical tasks, such as documenting the processes of Managing an Event, Starting A Business, or setting up Business Classes are essential to empower people. Big change cannot happen without more community members involved, and there need to be guidelines to make the involvement simple and successful.

So, indeed, it seems that our journey of a thousand miles begins with a few self-motivated steps. And maybe the footprints of those steps will lead others to empowerment.

What do you think?

Let's Look at What DIDN'T WORK

Maybe, instead of looking for easy ways to succeed with downtown revitalization, we should look at what hasn't worked.  Here's a short summary of what cities like Berkeley CA, St. Louis MO, Ocala FL, Sumpter SC, Des Plaines IL, Louisville KY and others have reported as unsuccessful.

*** Implementing change in "fits and starts" without an overall plan; generating policy that lacks purpose or is limited in scope, allowing public processes to deter private developers
*** Not involving citizen input, from overall plans to details such as adding tall skyscrapers to a mid-height city 
*** Failure to address stakeholder values, to muster stakeholder support 
*** Not planning for the right kind of downtown residences; attempting to segregate income levels, or simply plan only for upscale residents and customers 
*** Silver bullets: build very expensive large projects such as convention centers/ large upscale hotels, gallerias or downtown malls, huge museums, clear entire blocks to attract a developer



This list seems like a good map of land mines. The policy, and I would think, the vision,  has to be there first, and it has to be articulated somewhere: town halls, web sites, .pdf documents citizens can download and study.  If the city can't put the policy in place and get buy in, no amount of individual good intentions will get it where it needs to go.

Involving citizens is critical for a number of reasons: most importantly, it will help solidify where the downtown is going, "make it real." But also, citizens provide a number of insights that staff and contractors might miss. And without doubt,  they will give a preview of the problems or inconveniences that will need to be dealt with.

Stakeholders by definition make or break a project. If some stakeholders want to go in a different direction than the city or the consensus group, the re-education, negotiation or compromise should happen up front. When all are on board, the project will begin to build momentum.

Planning for residences is almost uniformly mentioned as important, and lack of planning for residences often is mentioned as a reason that a revitalization didn't "take." This is hard, as we discussed earlier, because the cost of housing often comes to more than downtown workers are willing or able to pay. But without the additional "regulars" downtown, shops, restaurants and safety are far less successful than with a full complement of residents.

It makes sense that soon after malls hit their stride, cities would try to provide that same environment downtown in a Galleria or indoor mall. Or that they would build a monument in the form of a museum or performing arts center that "would bring people in." Beautiful, glitzy, expensive, these projects never materialized  as great magnets. Fortunately, our economic times make this an unlikely problem in the immediate future.

So there are some of the things that have  tripped up cities, large and small, in their path to a new and better city. Lucky for us we have some history on these problems!

Okay for the HOW; What's the WHAT?

So we looked at a lot of excellent features that a city web site could use.  But that’s just the  HOW.  Here’s the more important question: WHAT do they cover? Let’s look at some cities that seem to have it together.

We’ll start by navigating back to Chandler, Arizona. Here’s  a city of just under 250,000 people, with all the issues that any city has. They divide their city information among four major organizations: the City of Chandler, the City of Chandler Economic Development Division, Downtown Chandler and the Chandler Chamber of Commerce. There is also a county site, and a separate site for their famous event, the Ostrich Festival (I do not make these things up), which attracts up to 350,000 people annually.

The Downtown Chandler website tracks events and the downtown businesses (including a nifty gallery of photos of business owners in their shops). With nearly one event a week, this is a sizable job.

The Chamber offers a “Sleep ‘n’ Eat” guide of restaurants and hotels, but mainly sticks to promoting and educating businesses. They offer a comprehensive business relocation package for $10.

The City of Chandler is mostly government oriented, with sections on leisure and lifestyle and on “our community.”  It's a very user oriented site; for example, they offer online brochures to help groups plan and fund special events.

The Economic Development department has a comprehensive section on the web with every piece of information I’ve ever heard about in this area. Demographics, property, relocation, industrial and techology initiatives, everything. They also have a basic website called “Visit Chandler” which is a lightweight but useful version of a Visitor and Convention Bureau type site.

Next, let’s look at Columbus, Ohio with a population of just over 750,000. They divide the information four major ways. The City of Columbus has a site centered on the city’s government activities. It is nicely organized and easy to navigate.

The second site is the Downtown Columbus site, which concentrates on living, doing business and experiencing downtown. This site is a livelier than the city’s and very marketing oriented. The Business section includes some information on real estate developments, new stores and homes, and market studies for Downtown.

The third major organization site is that of the Chamber of Commerce of Columbus. They feature all types of business networking and professional development information. There is information on the numerous active commitees and on Economic Development in Columbus.  GIS map tools and Business Retention and Expansion Research is ongoing. The Chamber also has a second fact-laden site called Live Work Play Columbus.

The fourth big web site is that of the Visitor and Convention Bureau. They concentrate on visitors, events and sections for professional meeting and tour planners.

Both of these towns seem to be doing a good job of organizing information so the people who need it can find it. There is minimal, and usually, appropriate overlap, although there are points at which one site could link to information rather than recreate it. In Chandler, the City’s Economic Development Department seems to be the driving force behind business present and future. In Columbus, the Chamber seems to be driving the Economic Development train. But in both cases, the information is there. These guys seem to have their WHATS together.

You're Pushing My Buttons Now!

Here is some great stuff on the "quality information" front...specifically, downtown web sites. In quickly checking out some of the most highly rated city sites, many excellent ideas popped up.
(Note: I didn't see any correlation between city size and web site quality; some big city sites are terrible and some small city sites are excellent. Achieving quality seems to be a vision thing.) 

Augusta GA is a clean-looking, easy-to-read site. Buttons on the mid-left are a customer's delight: Request a service (fix a pothole, traffic light isn't working); Online maps including real estate parcels; and Notify me (a way to get on an email list for any one of dozens of city meetings, threads about initiatives, etc.) There's a little "Spotlight" tease, some news items, and a plug for the city's award for being in the top 100 places to live in 2009, according to www.relocateamerica.com. Nice!

Fresno CA has a crisp, easy to navigate layout, with main menu buttons of For Residents,  For Businesses,  For Visitors, Government,  Discover Fresno, and News. On the For Business page, there is a complete set up to get started in business in Fresno, get your taxes and licenses set up, and to get business advice and loans. Many other great topics are on the pull-down menu.

Downtown Boulder is not the City of Boulder's main governmental site, so it concentrates on dining, shopping, visitors, events, and business. There is a page on downtown research–a compendium of studies done over the years. All in one place.  There is also a BID (Business Impovement District) in Boulder, and a page that compares the two organizations.

Downtown Wilmington NC has a lot of nice whistles and bells. They are not the official city site, but they do cover nicely Doing Business as well as living, working, events and others. They make good use of maps on many informational pages.

Louisville KY's main city site has simple buttons on the home page–Residents, Visitors, Business, Government, Online Services, and Programs / Initiatives. The latter button goes to a single page with links to all the major initiatives throughout the city.  Gold Star for this one!

A marketing guru got loose on the Alexandria VA city site. WONDERFUL! The Planning and Zoning Department page is a fountain of information, very well arranged by customer interests, not by the department generating the information. NOW we're talking transparency in  government. This page makes the reader think "this city is DOING things!"

Is it Stew Yet?

Time for a little recap: we've completed 20 posts, and looked into a number of different elements that make downtown tick (or not...)  Are we getting anywhere? We're stirring the pot and we are finding ingredients– a lot of ingredients!

Cooking up a city is like cooking up any recipe: any two different chefs will get two different results. And that's the beauty of it in terms of developing a unique downtown with a sense of place. We may use the same ingredients as many other cities, but with luck, our result will be perfectly suited to us.

Historically, downtowns started with the physical layout, and we are still enabled by, and hindered by, our infrastructure. But we've learned that by adding a big dollop of community and mixing well, we get an entirely different dish; one which holds together much better. However,  community won't set up unless you sweeten it with teamwork, an elusive ingredient which must be carefully hand-milled. And you have to cook the whole thing in a vessel of vision, or the ingredients will never get the chance to reach their full potential.

So this recipe is a far cry from what might be easiest: take a two-lane street with a median and turn lanes, add lights, seating and flower pots every 50 feet (or is it 25?), be sure the business windows are clean, and run a nice advertising campaign. Those are all tangible items, while everything we are finding important is intangible, and nobody can tell us how much is enough or too much. It's even hard to describe where to get some of these ingredients.

There does seem to be a commonality, though. All of these ingredients–community, teamwork, vision– only grow in a bed of strong communication. We'll need to know our market (tangible) and we'll need to decide who (City, Merchants, Chamber, Partners–tangible) is in charge of what (physical infrastructure, web site, recruiting, marketing–tangible). We'll need to decide who will nurture, grow and distribute the different kinds of information that we need (tangible). And we need to agree where we want to go (yes, tangible.) And at that point, we might be able to whip up those intangible ingredients and celebrate a culinary success.

The Power of Youthful People

Did you read about Youth Venture's latest projects in the Nashua Telegraph today? In a partnership with United Way of Greater Nashua, Youth Venture evaluates student teams who apply as a Venture Team to create, run and manage  a team that provides a sustainable community benefit. Approved teams earn a one-time grant of $1000 to launch their project.

Isn't this a great example of effective leveraging? United Way, who has funds and know-how, works with Youth Venture, who knows students and have know-how, and Nashua Community College, who have students and know-how, to recruit students to select a project and propose a solution. Hopefully, the insight that the teams have into youth problems and solutions will make them especially effective. Meanwhile, the students are learning entrepreneurial skills and making a real difference in their community. Most teams involve collaboration between high school and Nashua Community College youth.

What kind of projects? Well, 21 different teams have been approved in the past four years. In the most current group, Team Make A Scene is tackling cleanup of Nashua outdoor spaces, partnering with Nashua Parks and Recreation. Urban ABC's will provide alternatives to graffiti with weekly art classes and creation of public murals. These young people are really investing in our community. Thanks to the Youth Venture and United Way leaders for paving the path.  More information at United Way.

Community CO-OPeration in Action

 Manchester Food Co-op Steering Committee members Linda Purdy and Veronica Kamerman with guest Jeff Wheeler, President of the Littleton NH Food Co-op at the community meeting March 11.

What fun to see an organized, inspired community group going to work to achieve their goals! Such a group is the Manchester Food Co-op Steerng Committee, inspired by chair Veronica Kamerman (photo left). The group is in the first of three phases, organizing. Soon, they will move into a feasibility stage, then onto the implementation stage. Guest Jeff Wheeler described Littleton NH's journey along the same path, having just opened their co-op this past May.

At the very informational community meeting there were very valuable co-op technical details discussed, but there were three especially great take-aways for those of us Seeking Downtown. First is the great history of "pay forward" that co-ops have. Existing co-ops will go way beyond the call of duty to help forming co-ops. Littleton had great help from the Hanover co-op, for example, and Littleton is already helping Manchester. Co-ops are a BIG community.

Secondly, one of the reasons that Veronica gives for being so passionate about a co-op is that it will begin building a sense of community in Manchester. Co-ops are run by their members, and typically have a low share price - $25 to $100 with time terms available. The members make all the decisions for the co-op, and the store takes on the aggregate personality of the members. Veronica seeks to locate the co-op downtown (although the feasibility study will drive that train) to get a central, focused group of people achieving a common cause. Linda Purdy, a graduate student documenting the co-op's journey as part of a Masters Degree, is adamant about ensuring that the community is inclusive of all income groups; other members are looking forward to the diversity of ethnicity that a co-op can inspire.

And finally, Manchester Alderman Garth Corriveau (photo right) was in the audience and rose to encourage the group to do as much outreach as possible. Get on the city radar: introduce yourselves at a public comments section of the Aldermanic Board; go on Public TV; connect with InTown Manchester; connect with the Y; speak to Rotary, the Chamber and other Civic Groups.  Cast the next widely to include as much of the community as possible.

This takes us back to the "if you don't tell them, they won't come" adage. But it is more than that. I've seen innumerable hours of Nashua City meetings, and few organizations use the public comments platform to build community. What if the Board of Aldermen issued an invitation each week to an organization to come and speak for two minutes on "What are you doing that builds community in the city?" Veronica Kamerman would have an answer.

"Museum-This Way"

Sometimes, this traveler seeking downtown feels like the Energizer Bunny marching endlessly on a huge tabletop full of obstacles. Bumping into them, going around them, sensing the need to change directions are daily occurences. Once in a while, just as the Bunny teeters perilously close on the edge, a new concept--a new direction--calls and he is saved for the short term.

Okay, a little overblown, but it sure feels good when a solution to a sticky problem volunteers itself. For example:

Having arrived at the point of understanding that communication is a major component of putting the community back into downtown (hmmm, communication...community) the study group was analyzing how to get information out. Make specific tourist topic brochures. Duplicate a map of artist locations. Print a handbook of historic building walks. Distribute them to various appropriate locations.  Overwhelming–– when comes to the rescue, fanfare please: "Wayfinding."

Wayfinding has grown rapidly out of the burgeoning area of graphic spacial applications. Companies specialize in it, universities teach it, the government issues grants for it. Wayfinding begins with signage, and in my generation, the Dark Ages, that meant those shoe-leather brown signs with cream-colored type that say "Museum." Well, not any more. Wayfinding at its best is a form of story telling, and it can direct and interpret various threads in the fabric of our cities. (For an eloquent description, see Municipal Wayfinding and the Visitor Experience by Mark Denton of fd2s, a Wayfinding and Environmental Graphic Design Firm based in Austin, TX.)

This is not to say that it is easy. You have to have your branding and graphics in place, target markets nailed, historical and cultural attractions inventoried, and signage zoning updated. And then, you still have to storyboard what you want to tell. But what you don't have to do is depend exclusively upon paper brochures or elusive web sites to be kept in inventory and discovered for people to find their way. Wayfinding is woven into the fabric in the community.

Sounds like a plan to me. Just be sure to put in the RFP that it can't be shoe-leather brown.

The Invisibles Won't Be

Clearly, if you're going to be successful in a downtown revitalization project you must identify and collaborate with capable partners.  Everything is an overlap - take vacant floors and build affordable housing; use the City's empty waterfront as a site for a partner's recreational or retail project; turn an unused building into a downtown daycare and primary school with the help of a partner.

LISC (Local Initiative Support Corporation) builds healthy and sustainable communities. Since 1980 LISC has invested 9.6 billion dollars, which has leveraged 29.5 billion in total development. Everything––homes, schools, retail, child care, clinics, parks and facilities. Their money and a lot of partners. LISC is a professional partner, providing loans and knowhow for community projects all across the US in five areas:
    * Expanding Investment in Housing and Other Real Estate
    * Increasing Family Income and Wealth
    * Stimulating Economic Development
    * Improving Access to Quality Education
    * Supporting Healthy Environments and Lifestyles

 Bay Area LISC Native American Health Center
from the LISC site

This is the first list I've noted with the goal of "Increasing Family Income and Wealth." But–– why wouldn't it be a priority? Go head––do cosmetic surgery, add some new retailers and activities, build condos for empty-nesters near the restaurants––we still haven't spoken to the needs of many of the residents who live downtown.

Every town has an unemployed or underemployed segment of residents, especially in the current economic downturn. How would you feel living right in the middle of a city, knowing or sensing that many changes are going on, then realizing almost none of them apply to you? Being invisible is not a great incentive to teamwork.

Of course, solving this problem is not easy. Even LISC shows way fewer projects in this area than real estate, economic, education and health projects. Of course, they are a lending and real estate based group, so that would be what comes easiest.  They get points for taking ownership of the problem, but unless we do something about solving it, the Invisibles won't be.

If They Ask What You Think, TELL THEM

An open meeting for the purpose of citizen input doesn't sound like the most exciting way to spend a morning, but it turned out to be pleasant as well as educational. Nashua NH is a high-tech, entrepreneurial town with a higher than average family education and income, so citizens can be articulate and insightful. Add to that a passion for a subject–the arts, family values, history–whatever, and 2 to 4 minute snippets of personal reflection become little jewels.

The Board of Aldermen of Nashua are holding a series of four meetings, one in each quadrant of the city. Each meeting asks the same four questions and allows attendees to speak on the record about each one:

• What qualities of Nashua make it a great place to live?
• What qualities, services, or facilities would make it an even better place to live?
• On an average day, what things about the City impact the quality of your life?
• In the area where you live, what issues cause you the greatest concern?

At the two meetings that have been held so far, the participants expressed similar thoughts on the good qualities of Nashua, and the list got to be extensive.  Suggestions for additional qualities, services or facilities surfaced at least 30 excellent suggestions. Impacts and concerns were a little more predictable, but a few stood out as real insights.

The format was informal, so it gave people an opportunity to introduce themselves to each other and to compared ideas as each wrote their thought on a separate color-coded sticky note. It was, yes, the elusive "sense of community." Thanks, Aldermen!

The Aldermen have two more intake sessions to go, then a lot of work to assimilate the data and report it back to citizens. The consolidated information will be added to the city's baseline Strategic Report to update the 2003 document and new thoughts where needed.

The meeting was definitely not a yawner, even on a beautiful pre-spring Saturday morning. Several participants even asked if they could attend the other sessions. The Aldermen gave a resounding "YES! - Bring your friends!"  It will be fun to see if the number of attendees grows as the series progresses.

Brands Aren't Just For Cattle Any More

Nashua NH is ready to go through a Branding process. While the concept is easy to understand with cattle, toothpaste and tee shirts with a logo on them, the idea of a brand for a city is a little fuzzier for me. But one of the major problems with a downtown is that each visitor can come away with a different idea, and each merchant can emphasize different, maybe even conflicting qualities. And all of our ads and communications are radically different and vary in levels of professionalism.

City branding usually consists of creating a perfect tag line–"Alta, Utah: Way Up There!" (Just kidding, but you get the idea.) Add the right abbreviation for the city: Hendersonville is a long name to put on city banners, sooooo, "H" it is, in the right type font. And then a color palette, from which signage and banners will be chosen.

It's deceptively simple, but amazingly successful. The corker that puts it over the top is when the city encourages the use of the logo, tag line and palette, and it starts sprouting up all over. Voila! mission accomplished.

There are many books and web sites, and consultants, that specialize in Branding of cities. But, if you are looking for a good read while learning the ins and outs, check out downtownbranding.blogspot.com. Blogmeister Ben Muldrow IS a Brand designer and Partner at Arnett Muldrow & Associates in Greenville, SC. Ben says he has designed projects in over 130 communities.

What's fun is that when you see the illustrations on Ben's blog, the power of Branding comes into focus better. Here are some examples from the blog:
A photo shows the new Reidsville NC brand (sort of an "at" sign with an "R" in the middle) used on an intersection in the city. Very cool. I don't know if Reidsville NC used to be cool, but it is now.

A brief summary of the Opelousas, Louisiana project hit home for me, a closet Cajun accordion player and fan of Opelousas. The new logo, color scheme and tag line, "PERFECTLY SEASONED." are a perfectly seasoned gumbo. Good job!

Hendersonville, NC, will now be forever a special "H,"  with the tag "REALGenuine." And it works. I love the embellishments on the "H" and the tag over the seasons. Hendersonville has a CD with a style guide, templates for ads, color specs, printing instructions and the digital art that people can obtain and use. The whole town's graphic savvy and look just notched up about 5 points.

Well, I wonder where our Branding excursion will take us here in Nashua. Are we pink? Are we a serif font? Will we be able to come to agreement, here in the Gate City of the  "Live Free or Die" state? Mostly, I hope it doesn't take too long.

Now, go to http://downtownbranding.blogspot.com/ and check it out! Be sure to read the Wisconsin story.

Recruit Your Way To The Top

Many downtowns who have successfully revitalized have used the technique of recruiting businesses: planning the mix, looking for anchor "tenants", negotiating right of first refusal with landlords around town. One expert, N. David Milder of Danth Inc., wrote a thoughtful book, Downtown Business Recruiting, with many insights on other subjects as well. Moreover, Mr. Milder has published the book as a 117 page .pdf file on the Danth.com web site, where he consults.

Several of Mr. Milder's comments caught my attention, as they seem to be a little out of the mainstream. For example, many revitalizers swear by the practice of asking businesses and customers what businesses they would like to have fill empty storefronts. Mr. Milder says most of these plans do not work out. The mix of stores must be carefully planned around niches, or specialties that go together to make a whole greater than the sum of the parts. Never lose sight of the fact that finding tenants is about economic development, he admonishes.

Another interesting chapter in the book describes the personality of cities at various stages of sophistication in revitalizing. From the "Do-nothing" program, through Downtown Marketer, Deal Maker, Table Setter, and Targeted Program, Mr Milder describes the most likely actions and results, as far as long term success with the business mix. If you work in urban planning, you will find each person you know in one of these categories, and smile as you recall some of the meetings you have attended together.

Here in Nashua we'd be wannabes in the Table Setter category. Not a bad group to be in, but often unsuccessful in the end, Milder says, if they lack certain specifics such as large commercial spaces, and abundant pedestrian traffic. Oops...

Mr. Milder stresses that the recruiting process is a sales job, pure and simple. Sell the downtown as the right place to be, sell the property as the right place to buy or lease. Active, not passive, planning and recruiting is required. 

To read this book, go to Danth.com and click on the button "Business Recruitment Book" at the bottom of the home page.

Empowerment Overcomes Winter

 

Who'd think that on a grey snowy morning after storms left New Hampshire in a state of emergency, that people would have the energy or interest to go out in the weather to a Winter Farm Market? But here we were, about a hundred cars strong and two hundred or more attendees, enjoying the indoor Winter Farm Market at Coles Gardens in Concord NH.

This is a great case of empowerment. Joan O'Connor, of Joan's Famous Composting Worms, so enjoyed the summer farmer market in Concord that she wanted to continue it. She solicited friends, and sought a location that would work in January through March.  Cole Gardens looked like a great spot. Locals are familiar with it, Cole already does things with and for Concord, and they had lots of indoor greenhouse space.  Here's Joan hard at work with her composting worms.

What a match made in heaven! With all the Cole Garden infrastructure (cut flowers, garden tools and ornaments, great collection of herbs and indoor plants and more) adding color, the local merchants shop their goods.  The list includes artisan and organic breads, pastries, cider, honey, apples, syrup, jerky, jams, jellies, garlic, body-care products, fresh healthy meat–beef venison, lamb, pork, chicken, all types of eggs, fresh seafood and a huge pile of dog treats. The pizza vendor sets up and cooks just outside the door, and the lady fishing captain drives up her truck, opens the back and sells fresh local fish. And don't forget Joan's Famous Composting Worms!

Concord being the food-loving town that it is, and the blog- and Twitter-conversant population that it is, word spread, and now the three Farmers Market days are social as well as shopping events. Hats off to Joan.  

Put Your Town on A "Road Diet"

"Crimes of the Heart," a Health/Prevention article in the February 15, 2010 edition of Newsweek magazine, covers the waterfront of heart health. "Warn about cigarettes," "Reduce salt," "Subsidize whole grains," and...."towns should start a 'road diet': slim down roads a lane or two and substitute a sidewalk."  Whoa, run that by again? Dan Burden, executive director of the Walkable and Livable  Communities Institute makes the point that when sidewalks are built in a city, people start walking. When people start walking, they get healthier. And another benefit is that anything built to a walkable scale leases out for three to five times more money than non-walkable properties: more tax revenue on less infrastructure. 

Dan Buettner of Blue Zones Vitality Project has successfully implemented these theories with a huge project involving the 18,000 citizens in Albert Lea, Minnesota. The idea is to get a whole town to adopt healthy habits so painlessly, they don't realize the radical changes in their lives.

Dan changes the thinking about transportation and gets the whole town engaged. The town added sidewalks and built a five-mile walking path. Biking and walking are up, restaurants are making changes, people attend "purpose workshops" and get motivated. One creative idea is a "walk bus." Adults cover a route from homes to school, picking up pedestrian students along the way. The kids get exercise, socialize, breath the nice Minnesota air.

Over a 6 week measurement period, more than 700 people joined walking groups; nearly 1,000 people took workshops to help find purpose in their lives; and two-thirds of the restaurants added healthy offerings to their menu.

Here's a thought--maybe now we can get medical grants for downtown infrastructure improvements!

Making Matrix Management Work

Cities and towns today are managed by a conglomeration of entities. The city, of course, but also the downtown marketing organization, any Authorities managing Improvement Districts, Chamber of Commerce, Visitor and Convention Bureau, BYPs* Network, Historical Preservation Society, Block Grant managers, and more, more, more. In the Dark Ages, it was called Matrix Management, meaning that nobody had control, but anybody could get in a lot of trouble when things didn't work out.We used to deal with it by going on retreats over a weekend at a secluded B&B.  Good food, lots of wine, interminable Pictionary games and major late night discussions. Our spouses must have wondered when we returned on Monday totally wrung out.

On the other hand, if every entity involved in a city just did their job, WOULDN'T it work out? If someone has studied the variables and created a vision, we all should be able to progress independently. Unless, of course, there aren't enough people or isn't enough money for any specific entity. And there's the rub in a city the size of Nashua. Seldom does the marketing arm of a small city grow beyond two people...it's just a matter of how much you can tax the stakeholders. Bigger cities have a bigger tax base. And there's only so much that two people can do.

Or unless the downtown is not a priority for some of the entities. Here in Nashua, the Greater Nashua Chamber includes all of Southern New Hampshire, and the President is a legislative lobbyist who works both New Hampshire AND Massachusetts, doing quite a job of it (see Advocate Archive). And he takes education seriously, but not for his business membership. Other Chambers have on-going marketing and financial programs for their members, powerful committees for government, ecology, networking, young professionals, events, peer to peers and more. Isn't that all about education and communication? Nashua has just one committee, Advocacy. Events are limited to a few social hours, awards meetings, and legislative updates, none of which are held downtown. So that leaves one big stack of work for the other entities to pick up if the whole downtown balance is to work.  It should be noted as well that the Chamber has great funding, just from memberships. With each of the 750 members paying at least $300, their base budget is at least a quarter of a million dollars. With the resources, knowledge and experience that the Nashua Chamber has, it could be a real player in downtown revitalization. Maybe they could add one more committee: Lesser Nashua.

Of course, different cities handle the process different ways. Some have enough money to do it all with City and downtown Marketing employees. Some excel at recruiting and managing volunteers. And some of the most successful seem to do it with "buy in". They paint the vision in such vivid technicolor that all involved can work quickly and neatly with a minimum of mixup. And if they have done their homework by getting a lot of input from merchants, residents, shoppers, and other downtown participants, they'll have lots of people keeping them on track. It will be time soon for Nashua to pick a model to proceed by;  I wonder if that B&B is still books retreats?
  * BYPs - Beautiful Young Professionals

If You Don't Tell Me, I Won't Come

I've been cruising through Downtown sites on the net, looking for strengths and weaknesses and there's one thing that drives me crazy. A whole bunch of cities and towns just don't get marketing! "With-it" cities have lots of events and tell you about them all - on Downtown Web, Twitter, Facebook and Blog sites; on the Chamber of Commerce sites; in email lists and RSS feeds. But Rookie cities don't have many events or promotions.  And what's the worst? Those cities who have events, but don't tell you about them!

How do these cities think customers will find out about events? With today's rich choices in media (printed, web, email, social networks, radio, computer broadcasts, podcasts, video) promotion isn't hard, and doesn't have to be expensive. I made a couple of random Google searches to see how cities stack up:

"downtown raleigh nc events" - top reply is main site, event information is comprehensive and easy to read; just social/entertainment events, no meetings, conferences, Downtown committees. Easy to see Twitter and Facebook icons.
"downtown phoenix az events" - 1st two sites are irrelevant, third looks right, but it is an "About.com" column that says, in summary, "Phoenix has cool events."  It doesn't even link to a calendar somewhere, even though the article includes 26 links. The apparently real downtown Phoenix site appears 4 entries further down. All events are social/entertainment. Banner for Twitter and Facebook at bottom.
"downtown kansas city events" - goes right to the Visitor & Convention Bureau (are these passee?) with good information. Includes social/entertainment and special events, no promotional events. Icon for Facebook.
"downtown nashua nh events" - the first 6 items are downtown Nashua pages, but all for out of date events. No link to their Facebook page but if you get there it has Downtown Nashua promotional events, but no entertainment or other activities.
"downtown concord nh events" - Main Street Concord comes up first, and "Upcoming Events" is right on the navigation bar. But all the events are meetings and promotion oriented; there is no link to an entertainment or other activities calendar.
"downtown pittsburgh events" - goes to a calendar page with social/entertainment, educational, exhibition and other displays. Pittsburgh has a Facebook site, and with the feed you get many many promotions and events, as well as blurbs about closed roads, pothole reporting instructions and more. There is no Facebook link on the events page, however.

So you can try the same dipstick with your favorite cities and see who is on top of the information game. Meanwhile, let's all be empowered citizens: if you learn of a class, concert, art show, committee meeting, mrechant promotion, trade show or any other event after the fact, send a Tweet to your powers that be and remind them "If you don't tell me, I won't come!"

Nice Place to Visit; But You Can't Live There

On any given Downtown plan that you might read, there will be a casual mention somewhere of converting buildings or upper floors of downtown buildings to residences. I had no idea how many buildings sit with retail on the ground level and nothing going on upstairs. And, it's a well documented fact that downtown residents are an important thing in making downtown work: having people out and about increases safety, retail purchases, culture attendance and more. So, cool, let's populate those puppies.

Not that easy. A comprehensive article by Jeff Mucciarone at Hippo Press in Manchester NH points out that it is very hard to rehab a building economically.  Bringing old construction up to zoning standards is often difficult, sometimes impossible and always expensive. Whether it's safety, the ADA requirements, or just space for an elevator, it's going to be a challenge.

Another big hurdle is parking. Most urban dwellers have a vehicle, and they want a safe, convenient location to park it. Usually, historic buildings don't have dedicated parking, and it is difficult to get long-term leases on public garage space. Deal breaker.

Also, bank loans for the large amounts of money needed are very scarce. Some grants or incentive funds may be available, but those haven't been too helpful in stimulating developers. Successful developers have learned to go to 5, 6, or 7 different sources to help finance the project. The good news is that when you do build it, they do come.

The Allegheny Institute for Public Policy in Pittsburgh has an interesting take on the issue: when government steps in and provides a gap loan, it may help help the project happen. But it may also inadvertently defeat the law of supply and demand. And keeping the market price up means that the construction probably won't be in the affordable range that city dwellers are looking for, so units end up costing $300,000 to $1 million.

Not surprisingly, some projects creating artist studio space have been successful. Nashua NH has one apartment conversion success story, the Flanders Building on West Pearl Street. Just off Main Street in mid-town, the Flanders is in a perfect location, surrounded by fun shops and good restaurants. The developer owner now has it up for sale. Manchester has had the Opera Block, Historic Chase Block and the Dulap Building renovated.

Maybe we need some creative thinking here. Reuters reported that budget hotel operator Travelodge in London is creating a "recyclable" hotel from container crates stacked and bolted together. Check it out here.  Okay, something more traditional, but is there a less expensive way to make these conversions? Can we go up and get more units in the same footprint? Can we rough units out and let the owners complete them? Let's figure something out!
    

The Flanders Building at 116 West Pearl, Nashua NH has two retail units on the street level and 13 one or two bedroom apartments above.   Currently for sale.

Setting Sustainable Dominoes

Concord Re-Thinks Main Street

Time for a re-think in Concord NH this week! A series of meetings sought citizen input on a downtown project titled "Re-Thinking Main Street." The Main Street Concord marketing organization and the Concord 2020 transportation catalysts are ready to help Concord move to the next level of economic development downtown.

Concord's a funny place: it is the state capital; it's located nicely in the center of the state on major freeways, conveniently between Massachusetts and New Hampshire ski areas; it has many attractions of all types, and it has a fabulous set of shops and stores. But downtown is not attractive, or workable. Main Street is four lanes of Highway 3. Just standing on one side, peering w-a-a-y across to the other side and thinking about crossing will take a couple years off your life. And you get the feeling that because of the accessibility and aesthetics issues, many residents don't actually understand what a wonderful city they already have. Who can explore?

The slide show presented by Jennifer Kretovic of Concord 2020 (left) and Jessica Eshleman of Main Street Concord (right) was outstanding, with many options and neatly illustrated "before" and "hypothetically after" photos. They did a great job of soliciting ideas from the attendees, and answered many technical questions easily. Interestingly, the wonderful meeting room was at Red River Theatres in the heart of downtown, neatly tucked into a basement corner of the municipal garage. The theater complex is itself a success story of many dedicated volunteers who took seven years to turn a dream into a reality - and a beautiful reality at that!

New Hampshire is known, and rightly so, for its long history of successful entrepreneurs. While most people think of technical entrepreneurs, or medical entrepreneurs, or energy entrepreneurs, another entrepreneurial group deserves some recognition: New Hampshire merchants. The room was full of merchants and residents who shared their thoughts and concerns with the facilitators and it was fun to see how many could see a handle labelled "Change" and not be afraid to grab it and turn it, at least a little ways.

The Re-Think working paper weaves together new freedom for all types of transportation- bikes, pedestrians, public transport, automobiles–starting with trimming the highway down from 4 lanes to three: one each way and a median/ turn lane The greenscape with some wide sidewalks, pedestrian scale lighting, welcoming trees and flowers, pocket waysides, banners and median strip would go a long way toward enhancing Concord downtown. There are even possibilities with "gee whiz" factor: warmed sidewalks which never ice, and median plantings that get put away for the winter.

More importantly, the plan puts in place a structure that will serve well future "neighborhood" type urban growth: young professionals with their apartments, lofts, entertainment spots, and trendy boutiques centered here; the upscale empty-nesters with their quiet restaurants, jazz club, fun home decor merchants and cultural venues centered there, all walking and sharing downtown. There's no way this important economic transition can even start until changes are made on Main Street Concord.

Some Concordians have heard these stories several times before, don't really buy it and make good points about the problems. Most, however eagerly embrace the opportunity. Mayor Jim Bouley is enthusiastic and motivated to put a better infrastructure in place for the future. With all these hardworking heads together, they're sure to craft a solution that Concord will celebrate.

Successful Concert or Not?

I headed to a concert at the Keefe Auditorium at the Elm Street Middle School in Nashua early this evening and sat in the car waiting for the doors to open. Finding a parking place is iffy at best, and knowing that seems to push drivers over the deep end. Drivers pull "U-eys" in tight traffic, swoosh into the wrong lane to scoop someone on a parking spot, ignore fire lanes, snow drifts and "No Parking" signs to get close. Some attendees just give up and park at the shopping center 3 blocks away – a long walk on a cold New Hampshire night.

Patrons arrive at a tiny lobby which quickly fills since the auditorium doors remain closed until 30 minutes before the performance, so most people end up waiting outside. The auditorium, until recently, had no rails anywhere on the stairs up to the front door – a serious challenge for most senior citizens and a number of others. 

"The Yeas are right, we need a new Performing Arts facility." I thought, as I sat in the car waiting. "This is a hopeless, out of date building." I remembered the last concert I attended. Inside the auditorium, a fan continuously blows cold air,  so nearly everyone enjoyed the concert with their coats, and sometimes hats still on. A little of the ceiling paint is peeling. And the bathrooms are the ones that the kids use, few in number, far from the auditorium and low to the ground, to say the least.

But tonight, as I continued watching the pageant of crazy drivers and people arriving, I slowly realized that the block that the school sits on offers adequate space to build out a larger lobby, with room for restrooms – and maybe even a refreshments counter. The auditorium has minimal ornamentation inside, so perhaps electrical and audio upgrades would be pretty easy. There also would be space alongside the auditorium for a small parking garage, a facility that might be valuable to the community as well. The auditorium is at the end of the school building, so access to it for construction should not be a problem.
 
I wonder what the cost difference between a remodel and and new facility is. Tonight's concert was one in the Nashua Community Concerts series. The house was nearly, if not totally sold out – 1500 seats. The beauty of this program is that the series ticket (for 6 concerts) costs $50 ($15 for students). If you want a ticket to only one show, it costs $25.  Stroke of genius. So people buy season tickets, and holding the tickets, they go to the shows. This is their 79th season, which by anyone's definition would have to be called successful.  At some point, a new facility, (or an expensive remodel) would make this program unaffordable, and that surely would disappoint 1,500 patrons. Let's be careful what we wish for: maybe we don't have to give it to the Yeas just yet.

Entertainment -- at what cost?

Here's an issue that Nashua NH seems split evenly on: should we have a new Performing Arts Center? The Nays point out that we have the 1500 seat Keefe auditorium at the Elm Street Middle School (which was the High School back when Hector was a pup...) and the smaller 14 Court Street Theater right downtown with a couple hundred seats, a facility cleverly fashioned from a Fire Engine building dated 1847.  The Yeas counter that we have two workable venues that need some updating and that a new facility will be VERY expensive. What we all can agree upon is that we currently have a lot of arts in Nashua, even if all of them aren't right downtown: ballet, symphony, chamber music, flute choir, excellent theater companies for young people, as well as visiting productions from outside the city.

Almost all of us can picture the new Performing Arts facility, even before any architect renders it:   it will be dramatic, beautiful, inspiring, luxurious, high quality, in short, wonderful. A real asset to the City. But where will we put it? How will we pay for it? Whose responsibility will it be? And how will it tip the balance of arts as we now know it?

Not too long ago, the city of Daytona Beach achieved its long-standing dream of a glamorous arts center perched at water's edge in downtown Daytona. It was a creative partnership with Daytona State College (base for a Dance program and company), the City of Daytona, and the town philanthropist, Tippen Davidson of the Daytona Beach News Journal.

The first thing people noticed was that the prices for performances went up - WAY up. $15 - $20 shows were now $40 to $60 or more. The second thing that happened was that the small theaters and theater companies started to wither. They couldn't afford to present at the new facility, and sources of support for their smaller theaters were now redirected to the big show in town. The last I knew, the death of Mr. Davidson and legal issues at the News Journal threatened to put the facility into bankruptcy and the community college took it over.

Maybe this is a case of "Be careful what you wish for."  A palatial facility that has been funded with bonds or ongoing high mortgage is not ideal. A functional facility that we can afford will simply compete with Manchester's Verizon Arena and Lowell's Memorial Auditorium.  Maybe an assortment of smaller venues - a jazz club, a trendy boutique movie theater/meeting facility, a branch museum, would do just as much to draw people to downtown and encourage dinners and a night out. And these could be projects in the private sector. We already have creative businesses like Studio 99, a music venue, studio and lessons source, along with the many restaurants and bars offering live music.

Is the big Performing Arts Facility a "must-have" to cement a city's reputation as "vital" and "successful?"   At what cost?

The Essence of Discovery in Downtown

Part of the fun of a small city such as Nashua, NH is the ongoing discovery of the the goods and services available downtown. Being from a family with a retail shoe background, I felt I'd reached shoe Nirvana when I went into Alec's Shoes on Main Street. At almost any time there is a full boatload of commissioned sales persons ricocheting about, which would normally be a turn-off for me. But there are shoes and accessories (does your shoe store have alpaca socks?) everywhere and two boatloads of customers and the sales people are simply getting to all and satisfying their needs. And if you want to shop for some Nashua Downtown Dollars or other downtown promotional item, Alec's has the time to help you. It's a fun experience, and you feel great walking out with a slick new pair of shoes in an Alec's bag. 

Another example is the cozy shop with an understated name, Canal Art and Framing. In a great location on Water Street, 30 feet off Main and across from the linear Parc de Notre Renaisance along the Nashua River, Canal Art and Framing just keeps surprising. Yes, proprietor Samantha Thompson provides expert framing, framing advice, art classes and consultation. She also curates and promotes a monthly artist showing, and has a wonderful gallery of original local art, greeting cards, and jewelry. Her space is arranged to accommodate caring for her youngster on site. AND she organizes her leftover matting from picture framing and sells at reasonable prices - a crafter's dream. Here are two handcrafted greeting cards from Canal Art & Framing:

What brought these two examples to mind was an article in Fast Company magazine (Nov 2009) on Noreena Hertz - a previously under-the-radar economist from Cambridge University who popped onto the international economic radar by calling the current financial crisis before it hit. Hertz wants the human social context put back into economics and business, and has world politicians, economists and yes, activists like Bono listening.  I don't know how much success Hertz will have at the top level encouraging sustainability, social responsibility, or more adaptive "co-op capitalism" among world leaders. But, down here in the trenches, when you look at entrepreneurial businesses like Alec's and Canal Art you see the flexibility, adaptability, social awareness and creative solutions that Hertz is looking for.  Maybe Nashua could start an internship program for Economists and CEOs...

When we think about "improving Downtown," we often think of increased promotions,  more focused tactics, major infrastructure changes. When we think about "increasing Discovery" we may think about prettier interiors, products in more colors, stores open additional hours. All of which are good things.

But isn't discovery about the difference, the delta as a scientist might say, between what you expect and what you find? Stepping up to a counter at a big-box framing store, handing over your art, pointing to a desired mat and frame is one experience. Entering Samantha Thompson's atelier with custom framing solutions, wonderful art and local products, the opportunity to return for classes and enjoy the environment AND the chance to tell your crafter best friend about the treasure trove of matting, now that's a discovery.

Is it about Empowerment?

We've been spared a lot of weather this winter - which is good since this is my first winter here and I'd rather phase in gradually - but today we're getting a nice deep snowfall. Maybe 8 inches by tomorrow morning. I made a loop around the Riverwalk just before the storm hit this afternoon.

Top of the Falls and south side of the Riverwalk below Library parking lot

The Riverwalk is a work in progress of trails around the part of the Nashua River that runs through the city of Nashua. From my condo by the Main Street Bridge, I can walk down the north side, over the river on the old railroad trestle bridge, continue past the new Senior Activities Center, then the Crosby Bakery (yum!) and back down Main Street back to the bridge. Today, I took my alternate path to stop at the Nashua Library. They do a great job of community outreach with a lot of interesting programs for people of all ages. Their auditorium is the most active meeting place in the city, with groups from Condo associations to Photography clubs to speakers of all types.

In New Hampshire, each city is responsible for its own library. In Florida where I lived, libraries are a county-wide operation. While that allows sharing of resources (all the books in each library are available to each county resident), it seems to inhibit initiative. Libraries here are motivated to provide REALLY interesting activities for kids after school; to help unemployed residents get back into the swing; to bring the community together over common interests such as health, nature, hobbies and music. The libraries here are keeping up with new technology, too. No clinging to the printed word as job security!

The Nashua library is a big part of the vitality of downtown Nashua. The library touches people and adds to their whole...What drives this organization? Is it about empowerment? Maybe I can find this elusive ingredient in other successful downtown organizations...

Does Great Dining make a Great Downtown?

No doubt, having great restaurants downtown is a big part of being successful. LOTS of great restaurants. But what makes a restaurant great?  If you are a city-dweller, and eat out almost every day, your ideas might differ from those from a couple in the suburbs looking for a magical place to celebrate their anniversary. Or, if you are a young professional, living downtown in a hip loft over the haberdashery, you might think that dining hours should run later than the affluent empty-nesters that are moving into the city think. What's a restauranteur to do?

Here in Nashua, we have small cafes and coffee shops that provide for our early to mid-afternoon needs. You can't beat the breakfasts at Jackie's Diner and City Room Cafe; the lunches at The Seedling Cafe, Norton's Classic Diner, Thousand Crane II, Vietnam Noodle; and lunch buffets at San Francisco Kitchen and Cafe India.  Our coffee houses, including Riverwalk Cafe, Bonhoeffer Cafe, Express Cafe and Patisserie Bleu serve up ambience as well as good brew - often locally roasted.  Martha's Exchange hangs in 7 days a week for lunch, dinner and drinks while our trophy restaurants, Michael Timothy's, Surf, Saffron Bistro and Stella Blu provide wonderful "dinner experiences," for a price.

My personal favorite currently is Fody's Tavern. Housed in a historic building in Railroad Square, Fody's is personable, lively, welcomes diners of all ages and has excellent food, although pricey. What's cool is that Fody's offers a $4 Burger Sunday evenings, and a variety of specials during the week including 2-4-1 entrees on Tuesday, making it practical for us daily-diner-outters to eat there.

Does that sound like enough dining options to make a great downtown? Well, there IS room for more: the efficient quality sandwich/soup provider that caters to our downtown workers and shoppers short on time; the dinner restaurant that opens at lunch to offer small plates and lighter entrees; the restaurant that offers a place for reasonably priced morning meetings and quick, affordable catering options for lunch meetings.  . . .And does anybody know WHERE in New Hampshire you can find a superb German restaurant?