As followers of this blog know, from time to time we have guest bloggers. This week, we were scheduled to have Niles Main Street Manager Lisa Croteau featured as a guest blogger. Lisa contacted us and said she could write one, but had a hard time beating the speech her daughter had written for a college compeition this past spring. The speech was about why supporting Main Street is important. So, for the first time ever, we feature the writing of a college student on our blog. We hope you enjoy it as much as we did...

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This week, the MMS staff has begun the first part of some rather intensive training on being better communicators and presenters, skills that are needed on a daily basis as we work to inspire and enable people to their downtowns.  In the training, we’ve learned the “4 V’s of Believable Communication” meaning...

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Over the course of the last several weeks, the Michigan Main Street Center @ MSHDA (MMSC) has been receiving applications for communities to join the Michigan Main Street program. Just before the cut-off at 4pm on Friday, May 7, we had a flurry of applications come in – the last being...

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Main Street is truly a grassroots, community and volunteer driven strategy encouraging economic development through historic preservation.  We tell our communities that it can also be said that Main Street is based on a grassroots, community and volunteer driven strategy encouraging historic preservation through economic development...

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Guest Blogger Brian McGrain: This past weekend, I came across a new report released by the Brookings Institution, entitled The State of Metropolitan America.  Through analysis of available demographic data from the past decade, the report seeks to “portray the demographic and social trends shaping the nation’s essential economic and societal units—its large metropolitan areas—and discuss what they imply for public policies to secure prosperity for these places and their populations.”  While there are many interesting findings among the data...

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Last week, staff of the Michigan Main Street Center was in Manistee, MI, a beautiful downtown on the shores of Lake Michigan. The event was the Resource Team Visit, a valuable service of consultants (contracted through the National Main Street Center) that come to a selected community for four days of intense observation and recommendation...

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In my last post, “Downtown Retail as an Economic Engine,” I talk about the economic impact retail can have on a local economy. But what is local retail? There’s been a lot of confusion over the issue of “local” lately...

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It’s hard to believe, but fall is not too far away; which means that the Michigan Downtown Conference planning partners are hard at work to make the 2010 conference the best yet. Taking place in downtown Bay City on September 13 and 14, 2010, attendees will be treated to two full days of best practices and real life experiences from other Michiganians revitalizing their downtowns. With the theme of “Michigan’s Downtowns. Yes, We’re open!” based on the award-winning Michigan Main Street video, this year’s conference will feature ideas on how to revitalize Michigan’s downtowns.

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Just around the corner in may, it will be time to celebrate National Historic Preservation Month, a time for all to take a moment to consider the importance and impact our historic and cultural resources play in our lives and in our community...

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