As many of you may know, the Downtown Curmudgeon is also the founding editor of The American Downtown Revitalization Review –The ADRR. Since almost its inception, members of The ADRR’s advisory board have engaged in an ongoing discussion on a wide range of subjects. A subset of those discussions has been the email give and take between me and Mike Berne, who blogs as The Retail Contrarian. I’d say that we agree about 60% to 70% of the time, but its our interchanges when we disagree that we most enjoy, and from which we often learn most from each other. Recently, we decided that The ADRR would add columnists whose articles would be a regular new feature, and the first of such columns is The Downtown Curmudgeon vs The Retail Contrarian. Here’s the LINK to our first article for that column titled “Whether And How Retail Will Drive The Recoveries In Our Large Downtowns?” Our next column will look at retail in our suburbs and rural communities.
By the way, I invite you to sign up to receive The ADRR’s email edition. It’s free, and I am sure you will find a range of very interesting content about downtown revitalization presented in a number of appealing formats.” The ADRR has taken the lead in covering a number of topics: downtown safety and order; capturing community value; Central Social Functions; the conversion of offices to housing; the impacts of remote work on our downtowns, and keeping our downtowns activated during cold weather.
