THE NEW NORMAL REQUIRES MORE DYNAMICALLY MANAGED DOWNTOWN ORGANIZATIONS

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Introduction

Since even before the onset of the Great Recession at the end of 2007, a new normal for downtowns has been emerging. Downtown retailing, office use, entertainment niches, housing development, population growth, transportation use, etc. have all experienced significant changes. From my discussions with downtown leaders and merchants, municipal economic development officials and developers, my reading of many articles, my participation in online discussions and my assessments of a number of revealing recent RFPs, I have concluded that the vast …

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These Downtown Emperors Too Often Are Not Wearing Any Clothes

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As a child I was very taken by Hans Christian Anderson’s tale about The Emperor’s New Clothes, especially the part where every adult seems to go along with the new clothes until a child simply states that the Emperor is nude. Often in working on downtown revitalization I am reminded of that tale: lots of what appear to be basic axioms or essential parts of conventional wisdom about downtown revitalization are too often partially or entirely wrong. They are to …

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WILL DOWNTOWN RETAIL SOON REBOUND?

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Recent press reports have indicated increased retail sales and I am seeing in most media reports on the subject a kind of optimistic mood emerging about this sector’s recovery. I would suggest, however, that in looking at retail one should keep in mind the “show me the money” rule, i.e., to identify where consumers will be getting the money for their increased retail expenditures. The family house as a “piggy bank” from which consumers took about two trillion dollars in …

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TIME IS RIPE FOR DOWNTOWNS TO AGAIN GROW HOME AND HEARTH NICHES

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DANTH has long argued (see the September 3, 2008 post to this blog) that many downtowns are very congenial locations for home and hearth niches. Independent operators in this niche often do not require spaces in vanilla box condition, but will satisfice with serviceable spaces in decent condition that have affordable rents.

Unfortunately, this niche was badly hurt by the Great Recession as deliberate consumers cut back on big ticket GAFO expenditures.

But, with the stalled housing market, folks are paying more attention …

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SOME INTERESTING DATA ON 2011 TWITTER USAGE FROM PEW INTERNET

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According to a PowerPoint presentation by Mary Madden at Pew Internet, their survey showed that in 2011 about 74% of adults are now online. Their survey also showed that only about 13% of the surveyed online users use Twitter!

These findings suggest that for most downtown merchants, Twitter offers limited ability to reach shoppers in their local trade areas.

However, the table below from Pew shows that those in the 18 to 34 year old range are much more likely to be …

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