It's Time to Bring Main Street back to Elizabethton

You may have read a month ago about a meeting with the National Main Street and Tennessee Main Street Directors here in Elizabethton. This was the first meeting of a group of folks comprised of downtown businesses and significant stakeholders. We currently have this small group looking at the benefits, ramifications, and costs associated with bringing Elizabethton back into the Main Street program (we were once members back in the 90s) to help make downtown more cohesive and attractive for new business.

For those who are unfamiliar with the program, the Main Street program is a nation-wide program that helps communities revitalize their downtowns and other commercial districts using a four-point approach -- economic vitality, design, promotion, and organization. A committee is assigned to each of these four "pillars" as they are called. The committee is charged with working within the district to promote and develop their specific pillar. Additionally, a Main Street Director (paid position) must also be appointed to oversee the organization and implement the four pillars within the downtown district. The best way to describe this program is to use the idea of a mall. A mall is essentially a commercial "district" comprising of many separate and privately-owned businesses. Just like a mall has a company that manages the design or look, economic balance, and promotion and public perception of the mall, so too is the role of the Main Street Director and the Main Street board.

The Main Street program is a proven model that has been used across the country by hundreds of city and communities. The best part is the same model is proven for both small cities such as Jonesborough and larger cities like Murfreesboro or Kingsport. Because of the hundreds of cities that utilize the program nation-wide, joining the Main Street program gives us access to all those communities to discover what works and what doesn't work without having to try and find out ourselves. A small benefit of becoming a Main Street community is being able to obtain additional grants for downtown programs.

For Elizabethton, becoming a Main Street community provides an outlet for interested citizens to get involved in the success of downtown, a point person for downtown businesses wanting to develop a new festival or promotional event, and a group solely dedicated to seeing downtown grow and succeed. Just as successful malls have great management companies, the same applies to great downtowns. As our group moves forward to consider bringing this program to Elizabethton, we ask for your support and your involvement. After all, it's your downtown. Let's talk about it!