Main Street, Economic Development attend national conference

   Sometimes you have to get away to somewhere else and recharge to get your eyes opened. Even if you’re someone who is always trying to spot the new opportunities and shifting dynamics in a community, it can be hard when it is part of the life you live and breathe daily. That’s why getting away somewhere can really help you readjust your goals and perceptions of your community.

   Recently, Monticello Main Street Director Brian Wolken and Jones County Economic Development Director Derek Lumsden got out of town to attend the National Main Street Conference in Birmingham, Ala. This conference mixes educational and instructional opportunities with networking better than almost any other conference and this year’s conference was no exception.

   The main area of difference between Birmingham and a small rural community like Monticello is the influence of the past. Birmingham was a crossroads for many historic events and people, especially during the turbulent times of the Civil Rights movement. From iconic statues at important crossroads to the Civil Rights museum, the community is awash in the fight for freedom and how that history has been preserved and told through generations to what our country is seeing now. Birmingham is also home to the oldest national baseball park where the Birmingham Barons played and where a women’s suffrage movement was held in 1915, years before the 19^th Amendment was passed. It’s because of this dedication to the past and driving motivation to improve the future that Birmingham stands out as one of the most historic places in the U.S.

   While Monticello also has a proud history that defines the community, sometimes it is worth visiting other places to see the struggles, triumphs, and failures they have had to help keep it in perspective that not all communities are alike in every way, regardless of how similar they might seem to the naked eye.

   One of the overarching features of any community is the ability to leverage outdoor amenities and opportunities. The outdoors is open to everyone and, if utilized effectively, can help influence possibilities throughout the rest of the community. Even though Birmingham is much larger than Monticello, it made the most of its outdoor space. One of its largest and best amenities is Rotary Park. The park features acres of open greenspace and native flowers and plants, miles of walking trails, waterways, meeting spaces, and more. Monticello, while smaller, also has these types of amenities. From the pocket park in the middle of downtown to Willow Park at the bottom of Oak Street, Monticello possesses the same ability and desire to engage residents in outdoor activities. We have the disc golf course, the farmers market pavilion, the storywalk, and more! And as Monticello continues to build on its recreational opportunities, more business opportunities will arise too.

   Other outdoor amenities helped flavor the area as well. While local parks are an easy one, there are other ways to draw people outside and let them enjoy their community. Monticello Main Street recently did that with the completion of their mural on the Innovation Lab, drawing the eye to the west wall of the building. Murals are an easy way to help embrace the culture and feeling of a community, allowing people to get an understanding of the community’s history, present, and hopeful future with a simple rendering of art. It also lets people know that it is okay to create and share public art on a grand scale.

   Just like the one in Monticello, the mural in Birmingham is on a downtown building, fronting a major intersection by the county courthouse and the future home of City Hall. Instead of being relegated to alleyways and being considered graffiti, this art is a showcase for the community on what it values and holds dear.

   Does Monticello have the ability to expand its business opportunities? Of course, it does! Some are already happening throughout the community, but even with a decently full and utilized downtown, Alabama reminded everyone that there are other ways to help businesses get a leg up, even if it’s not in the traditional storefront sense. The first of these was in the use of its shipping container incubator space. This space was in Heflin, Ala., a town a little smaller than Monticello. The local Main Street program had partnered with a downtown owner to put a small shipping container on their property near the main highway. That shipping container was outfitted to allow for electricity, Wi-Fi, and a small consumer area. The goal was to give home-based or aspiring small businesses an opportunity to try out a short-term opportunity and see if their business could make the leap to a larger and more traditional storefront. This was a quick and efficient way to give business owners a chance to see how they might do and if the move to a full brick and mortar location would be beneficial.

   Monticello has the latter part of this program with the work that can be received to some degree from Main Street Iowa, the Downtown Resource Center, and the Innovation Lab where the Monticello Main Street office is housed. Knowing that other rural towns similar to Monticello in many ways can make a small incubator space like this happen, opens the door for a comparable approach here.

   Another way that Birmingham showed off its ingenuity was the allowance of people to use underutilized or closed spaces. When many businesses are closed on a weekend, so too are the grounds they own and operate their businesses. But that just leaves gaps in the commerce of the downtown corridor and can have a larger impact on the district as a whole. What was impressive about Birmingham was the plethora of individuals using spaces for things that did not have anything to do with the business that was operating there. And this is not something often seen in the Midwest.

   Yes, a food truck might park in a parking lot of a business, paying rent and offering some quick food to the masses. However, to allow something like this where the land-owning business did not receive money and there was nothing to necessarily enhance the business was something new and empowering to see. Could this also be used to inspire young entrepreneurs to take a chance on a business by allowing them to try it and see without making it prohibitive?

   There were so many great things seen in Alabama from using small spaces in parking lots to build new businesses to turning an old school in a small town into a senior living facility. Birmingham offered a lot of access to a variety of beautiful architecture and some fantastic restaurants from cultures present around the world. Birmingham also offered the ability to move freely. There were easily accessible and wide sidewalks for walkers, abundant public and private transportation for those wanting someone else to do the driving, and of course, the favorite one: Electric scooters and bikes. This multi-faceted way of moving about the community allowed everyone to see it from different perspectives and still discover something new, fun, and different.

   Finally, Birmingham also afforded conference-goers the opportunity to learn from some great presenters on what they have been doing in their communities and a chance to network with colleagues to see what could be gleaned from interactions with them. This conference was full of great ideas and endless possibilities for what Monticello might consider next. This national network showcases some of the best practices for communities while still finding ways to be inspiring and creative…and we can’t wait to see what Monticello does next!