Main Street Alabama adds 4 new cities to its Designated Communities list
Reading time: 3 minutes
Main Street Alabama—a non-profit organization that aims to recognize the importance of city downtowns by creating dedicated networking opportunities for Alabama communities—recently expanded their reach, adding four new Alabama cities to their list. Keep reading to learn more!
Main Street Alabama
Main Street Alabama is a powerful networking tool for communities in our state that aims to benefit the local businesses and schools. Through their unique organization, design, promotion and economic vitality programs, each community can achieve its goals and thrive.
Interested in developing a local Main Street program your community? You can do it! As long as you have people in your community that are willing to raise funds and establish a revitalization program, then your downtown can apply to join the Designation List.
“Applying for Main Street Alabama designation takes time, dedication, and commitment from several
Mary Helmer Wirth, Main Street Alabama President + State Coordinator
people in a community. The process begins with attending a new city application workshop in January and then deciding to move forward with a letter of intent to apply that shows both public and private support for the effort as well as need and capacity.”
About the downtowns
Learn more about how each community made it to the Designation list:
- Demopolis—They aimed for better outdoor recreation especially since the Tombigbee and Black Warrior Rivers meet in Demopolis and are a major tourist attraction. Main Street Demopolis wants to increase the number of shopping and dining options and renovate the historic Marengo theatre.
- LaFayette—The people of LaFayette want to improve the appearance of historic buildings and streetscapes, while also diversifying the retail options. they hope to have more community participation as well.
- Leeds—This community wants to strengthen the charmingly historic downtown so more jobs and opportunities will expand and foot traffic increases.
- Talladega—The folks in Talladega want a district for all people. They want an economically-healthy pedestrian community so a diverse range of people can enjoy life in the town.
Since 2014, Main Street Alabama’s Designated communities have reported 909 net new businesses, 2,984 net new jobs and $688,329,640. We are excited to see these communities thrive in the upcoming years as they work together to figure out how to establish their goals.
Want more buzzy news that focuses on Alabama? Subscribe to our FREE newsletter to get amazing Bama news.
