Montavilla Neighborhood Info

marisa on Tuesday, February 9, 2010

The Portland Development Commission has officially kicked off its new economic development program, Portland Main Street®. The program, charged with promoting neighborhood commercial district revitalization, is based on the National Trust for Historic Preservation’s Main Street® approach that has been implemented in 2,800 communities within 45 different states.

The NTHP implemented the Main Street® approach in 1980 with 30 participating communities in six states. The trust started the program after seeing the deterioration of downtown business districts in communities across the country. Increases in suburban sprawl, national chains and freeways, diverted the focal point of these communities from the downtown districts to shopping centers on the outskirts of town. Consequently, businesses on Main Street began to close and business owners began tearing down their buildings to make room for national chains, or to replicate the mall-style in their own businesses.

In order to combat this trend, NTHP decided to put into operation a fund matching economic development program that put the focus back on Main Street. The members believed this was achieved by saving its historic buildings, reviving its commercial core, strengthening its businesses, controlling sprawl and keeping a sense of place and community life in area.

The program takes a four-point approach to encourage economic development within communities that is appropriate to today’s marketplace and helps preserve older and historic properties. These four points are:

• organization (getting the community working towards consensus),
• design (getting the commercial district in top physical shape),
• promotion (marketing the district’s unique characteristics and assets) and
• economic restructuring (diversifying the district’s economic base).

Montavilla is a prime location to instutute this program.  Please come out to support  METBA and the MNA in getting this started for Montavilla (if people do not show up at this meeting and volunteer to help then they will not pursue it since there is a lot of participation that needs to happen), meeting is from 7:00pm-8:00pm, Tuesday February 16th, 2010 at the Portland Yoga Studio- 7817 SE Stark St, 97215.

More info on the Main Street Program.