We work in collaboration with thousands of local partners and grassroots leaders across the nation who share our commitment to advancing shared prosperity, creating resilient economies, and improving quality of life.
Made up of small towns, mid-sized communities, and urban commercial districts, the thousands of organizations, individuals, volunteers, and local leaders that make up Main Street America™ represent the broad diversity that makes this country so unique.
Looking for strategies and tools to support you in your work? Delve into the Main Street Resource Center and explore a wide range of resources including our extensive Knowledge Hub, professional development opportunities, field service offerings, advocacy support, and more!
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Main Spotlight: Four Steps Toward More Resilient Main Streets
September is National Preparedness Month! The past few years have illustrated the increasing urgency of creating more resilient communities, and Main Streets can play a critical role in supporting these efforts. Climate change is an unprecedented threat, and it can often seem daunting to try and tackle the changes we need to make, so we are sharing four actionable steps that Main Streets can quickly implement to improve their disaster resiliency today.
Research Your Region
As the headlines fill with stories of extreme weather in far-flung places, it is easy to imagine natural disasters as a phenomenon that happens elsewhere, but climate change is increasing risk worldwide. For example, wildfires are often associated with California, but October’s widespread drought spurred wildfires across the country.
It is critically important that Main Streets understand the unique risk factors of their geographic regions to prepare for the threats they are facing. A tool like FEMA’s National Risk Index can help you better understand how a certain type of disaster is likely to impact your community. For example, you can view your community’s expected annual loss in population, building value, and agricultural value and compare these statistics at the local level to state- and national-level statistics. You can also view the social vulnerability metric which shows your community’s susceptibility to the adverse impacts of natural hazards when compared to the rest of the U.S. Furthermore, you can view your community resilience metric which conveys your community’s ability to prepare for anticipated natural hazards, adapt to changing conditions, and withstand and recover rapidly from disruptions when compared to the rest of the U.S.
Here are some other resources that can help you understand the impact of climate change in your region:
Climate change has been settled science for decades, and there are already strong networks of dedicated scientists, communications professionals, nonprofits, and governmental groups who are working on resiliency in and around your community. Reach out to them, introduce them to the Main Street Movement, and brainstorm ways that you can support their existing efforts. Now is the time to prepare in considering what will be needed to preserve your community’s historic, cultural, and archeological resources.
The following state and tribal agencies can also support you in this process:
State emergency management agencies: You can locate your state or territory’s state emergency management agency here.
Main Street Coordinating Programs are able to serve as an information sharing hub and provide downtowns and neighborhood commercial districts with funding or information about any available grant programs, technical assistance, educational workshops, and other hands-on support. They are especially helpful in helping to ensure that historic and cultural resources are brought up in state-level resilience and response conversations. They can also help connect downtowns and neighborhood commercial districts to the city planning process.
Incorporate Disaster Resiliency into your DEI Plan
Climate change does not impact all socioeconomic groups equally. Climate gentrification and migration are increasingly important issues as natural disasters pose disproportionate impacts. “Climate gentrification refers to the ways that climate impacts and adaptations may contribute to changes in community characteristics and potential displacement of vulnerable residents through changes in property values,” said an article in Frontiers Climate. At the same time, as certain regions become more prone to disasters, many will seek refuge in more stable climate zones, exacerbating these gentrification effects. Main Streets can prepare for these impacts by incorporating disaster resiliency into your existing DEI plan.
Some questions to consider:
Will your region be subject to climate emigration or immigration?
What infrastructure can you invest in to support communities fleeing climate disasters?
How is climate change already impacting marginalized people in your community?
What role can your organization play in mitigating these impacts?
Start Building Resiliency into your Design Projects
The best time to upgrade your buildings is today! From façade improvements to renovations and transformations, make sure every capital project integrates disaster preparedness standards. The nature of this work will depend on the research you do on what impacts your region is facing. For example, if your area will be prone to increasing flooding in the coming years, check out these flood adaptation guidelines for historic buildings from the National Park Service.
Main Street Community Disaster Preparedness and Resiliency Project
In 2020, Main Street America’s Strategic Projects team launched the NPS Main Street Community Disaster Preparedness and Resilience Program. Disasters have major impacts on Main Streets’ community members, local economies, historic and cultural resources, physical spaces, health, and culture. However, when faced with disaster mitigation and response, many local leaders do not have a plan or roles and responsibilities identified. Furthermore, Main Street communities and other downtowns and neighborhood commercial district organizations uniquely require a comprehensive set of resources that address the built environment, the local economy, and community impact.
Funded by the Emergency Supplemental Historic Preservation Fund, administered by the National Park Service, the NPS Main Street Community Disaster Preparedness and Resilience Program is designed to support downtown and neighborhood commercial district leaders in preparing for disasters and recovering in ways that make their communities stronger in the long-term. This funding focuses its support on communities most impacted by Hurricanes Harvey, Irma, Maria, Florence, Michael, and Typhoon Yutu, though planning for other types of disasters, including fires, floods, tornadoes, earthquakes, and pandemics are also incorporated into the NPS Main Street Community Disaster Preparedness and Resilience Program.
Consulting and collaborating with the program’s advisory committee, the NPS Main Street Community Disaster Preparedness and Resilience Program has hosted several national workshops. Virtual national workshops were held by Main Street America in the summer of 2020, in conjunction with the National Trust for Historic Preservation’s 2020 PastForward Conference; at the 2021 Main Street Now Conference; and in person at the 2022 Main Street Now Conference in Richmond, Va. Please view the national workshop agendas to find a full list of the national partners that have shared their much-appreciated time and expertise in this program.
In addition to these national workshops, the program is in the process of hosting a series of regional workshops in partnership with several Main Street Coordinating Programs. In March 2022, the program team met with 50 Louisiana Main Street Directors and Board Members, the Louisiana Folklife Program team, and NPS partners in New Orleans, La., for a regional workshop focused on disaster resilience. Presentation topics included new and existing funding, including NPS grant programs, preparedness planning for downtowns and neighborhood commercial districts, and preserving historic and cultural resources in the face of climate migration. Following this workshop, a team of MSA technical assistance providers visited Houma, La., an MSA community that was devastated by Hurricane Ida, providing recommendations on next steps forward in the recovery and resilience process.
This week, the program team is partnering with the Florida Main Street Coordinating Program, Ormond Beach Main Street, the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy, and the NPS to host scenario planning and funding workshops in Ormond Beach, Fla. Planning is underway for upcoming regional workshops in Texas and California in early 2023, as well as a culminating program workshop in the spring of 2023.
These convenings of national and local disaster preparedness and resilience experts are also helping to inform the digital NPS Main Street Community Disaster Preparedness and Resilience Toolkit and online resource clearinghouse, expected to launch in early 2023. This digital toolkit and online resource hub will help communities prepare for the next disaster, recover from previous events, and build stronger downtowns and neighborhood commercial districts. You can stay up to date on future programming and publication of the online toolkit and resource clearinghouse on the NPS Main Street Community Disaster Preparedness and Resilience Program webpage.
In this video, learn more about the Williams’ family story, how the business is helping to revive downtown Helena, and the impact they’re having on a national level.
In honor of National Disaster Preparedness Month, we are providing some practical steps that Main Streets can take to prepare for the next, inevitable disaster.
Main Street America is leading a coalition urging that the EPA make available the GGRF funds for adaptive reuse and location-efficient projects because of the substantial greenhouse gas emissions reduction offered by such developments.
On May 9, the National Trust for Historic Preservation released its list of America’s 11 Most Endangered Historic Places for 2023 which included a cultural district located within a designated Main Street America community.
From 19th-century mill girls to Maine's mill redevelopments and the regional manufacturers of tomorrow, learn about the amazing history and promise of the New England mill.
This article was published on January 10, 2023, by Next City, a nonprofit news organization focused on socially, economically, and environmentally sustainable urban practices.
Learn how Rethos, the Coordinating partner for Minnesota Main Streets, has partnered with Reuse Minnesota and the Minnesota GreenCorps Program to encourage community-led preservation.
Main Street organizations and other public-private partnerships can provide the focal point needed to fulfill the large number of roles required to reuse or redevelop a house of worship in a way that benefits the community.
How do those amazing Main Street rehabilitation projects happen? And what policies and public support make them happen? In the Behind the Ribbon Cutting series, we look at a project or businesses from concept to opening day to break down the partnerships and funding brought to bear and recognize how we can advocate for policies and resources for revitalization across the country.
Main Street America welcomed the National Association For Latino Community Asset Builders (NALCAB) to our Twitter channel to share stories of resiliency in Latino communities.
We sat down with Lindsey Wallace, Director of Strategic Projects and Design Services and manager of the the National Park Service Main Street Community Disaster Preparedness and Resilience Program, to learn more about her perspective on disaster preparedness on Main Street.
To support Georgia Main Streets throughout the recovery process and position them for long-term sustainability, Main Street America launched the Georgia Main Street Innovation Grant Program, made possible through generous support from The Williams Family Foundation of Georgia.
In 2016, the North Carolina Main Street & Rural Planning Center partnered with the University of North Carolina at Greensboro’s Department of Interior Architecture (UNCG) to provide design assistance to Main Street communities.
In 2015, the Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation (WEDC) partnered with the University of Wisconsin–Madison to engage Wisconsin Main Street organizations and farmers markets in the Metrics and Indicators for Impact – Farmers Markets (MIFI-FM) toolkit.
With 413 National Park areas¹ and over 1,000 Main Street America programs, it’s no surprise that many of the communities following the Four Point Approach serve as gateways to our national parks.
We measure the effectiveness of our last marketing campaign, weigh whether the investment in new street lights outweigh the political capital spent, and debate if the thousands of volunteer hours are worth the impacts created by a one-day event.
Main Street Iowa, a program of the Iowa Economic Development Authority’s Iowa Downtown Resource Center, created a one-of-a-kind three-year program to provide help for performance venues located in Main Street districts.