Keep calm and hold on.

This is a difficult time. It is tempting to give up hope for our downtowns and other special places.  

In many parts of the country, including our home state of Texas, the COVID-19 virus is taking a distressing turn. As of this writing, our governor has again closed bars and forbidden most assemblies of more than 100 people. Even in a best-case scenario, this makes things even harder than they were before. This is new territory, with greater challenges and less funding than ever.   

There is hope. But hope won’t come from doing things the way they were done before, or from spending big money that communities cannot afford to spend. The key is not to pour endless money on downtowns, but to take a more adaptive, flexible, and localized approach. As communities across the state and nation have proven, this can allow places to attract people, and economic development, even under extraordinarily stressful conditions.

The next several months are crucial. Cities need to act boldly, but they do not need to change everything, radically, all at once. Rather, they can take critical steps in the direction of their common goals. This may include holding safe events, attracting activity to empty storefronts or spaces, creating unique programs to help cherished local businesses, developing public art programs, and organizing their stakeholders under a unified purpose. As we have found in various downtowns and neighborhoods throughout Texas, a few small, thoughtful steps can help create wonderful experiences for locals and visitors alike - if done strategically and with focused purpose.

Here’s how towns and cities WON’T make their places extraordinary in the face of these challenges:

  • Waiting for the next big plan to come out before taking action

  • Focusing on “big ticket” employers, without paying attention to local businesses

  • Focusing only on the things that are expensive.

  • Focusing on things that aren’t expensive, without a strategy that ties them to specific goals

  • Creating plans that cannot be implemented, due to funding, market conditions, local politics, or other factors

  • Believing they cannot get started right now to create a better place

Here’s five examples of what you can do NOW:

  • Dig into your sales tax data to understand what businesses are recovering

  • Interview local businesses to identify specific needs

  • Form virtual stakeholder groups to build consensus around objectives

  • Test programs that support local businesses through various forms of direct and indirect investment

  • Promote small, safe events which incorporate the distancing spectrum

More than ever, people need signs of hope, joy, vibrancy, and connection to others. The more your downtown can offer these things, the more likely it is to survive and thrive through this period. This may seem like the wrong time to even think about this, with all the crises that cities and cites are facing. This is the right time, for three reasons.

  1. If people love your downtown, all of your other jobs are easier. As we come out of these crises, cities will compete to attract jobs, development, visitors, and talent. Having lively downtowns and other places that people love will make all of these tasks easier to accomplish.

  2. There is enough to work with - you just need a strategy to leverage it All communities already have ingredients that can make a positive difference with what they already have and with what they can actually spend. What they need is a guided strategy to identify these ingredients.

  3. Citizens need hope and a sense of normality They need visible signs that their community is recovering - economically, socially, and in other ways. Some positive momentum will do a great deal to improve morale.

In six months, many downtowns will be more desolate, with empty storefronts and few signs of life. This will make it harder for their entire communities to recover. Some cities will realize they could have done something to help - but it will be too late. But other cities will taking the steps they need to have a different outcome, where their stores, restaurants, and public spaces will likely be surviving, and even thriving. They will come out of this as resilient communities that supported themselves in the face of challenges.

You can’t do everything. But you can do something. With some guidance and elbow grease, you can take several steps in the next 2 weeks-2 months. Let us know if you want a free one-hour consultation, and see if we can help coach you to start taking the next steps now.

Rik Adamski