N. David Milder at DANTH, Inc.

Downtown Revitalization Specialist

Main menu

Skip to content
  • Home
  • About NDM
  • News
  • Downtown Curmudgeon
  • Reports
    • Long Island City (pdf)
    • Manhattan
    • Meredith (pdf)
    • Morristown (pdf)
    • Peoria (pdf)
    • Sherwood, WI (pdf)
  • Downtown Revitalization
  • Contact

Tag Archives: Central Social Districts

Post navigation

The Downtown Curmudgeon’s Take on Downtown Central Social Districts

Posted on July 15, 2021 by DANTH

As the readers of this blog probably know, I have spent a lot of time and effort on identifying the components of our Central Social Districts and analyzing what makes them succeed or fail. I’ve dug deeply into public spaces, movie theaters, housing, and various other components in cities large and small.

Recently, I was asked for one article that put it all together. I realized that I did not have one, so I consequently set out to write it. That article was recently published in The American Downtown Revitalization Review – The ADRR at https://theadrr.com/

Doing the topic justice meant that it would be long, about 30 pages, and more like a monograph than an article. Readers wanting a quicker take can just focus on the first six pages. However, if you are looking for more guidance about what to do and not do, you will need to dig deeper into the article.

Some of the important things I tried to do are to establish that some components are much easier and cheaper to establish than others, and which work better in different types of downtowns. I also tried to strip away a lot of the advocacy hype about some components that too often hides the challenges involved and obscures how progress needs to be evaluated, e.g., the arts venues, while spotlighting venues whose importance still goes widely unrecognized, e.g., libraries.

Here’s the article’s tease and link:

Strong Central Social Districts: The Keys to Vibrant Downtowns

By N. David Milder

 DANTH, Inc.

CSDs and Some of Their Frequent Components. Since antiquity, successful communities have had vibrant central meeting places that bring residents together and facilitate their interactions, such as the Greek agoras and the Roman forums. Our downtowns long have had venues that performed these central meeting place functions, e.g., restaurants, bars, churches, parks and public spaces, museums, theaters, arenas, stadiums, multi-unit housing, etc. The public’s reaction to the social distancing sparked by the Covid19 pandemic, and the closure of so many CSD venues, was a natural experiment that demonstrated how much the public needs and wants these venues. They are the types of venues and functions that make our downtowns vibrant, popular and successful. To read more click here : https://theadrr.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/Strong-Central-Socia-LDistricts-__-the-Keys-to-Vibrant-Downtowns__-Part-1-FINAL.pdf

Posted in Central Social Districts, Creative Class, CSDs, Downtown Merchants, Downtown Niches, Downtown Redevelopment, Economic Development, Entertainment, Entertainment niche, Entrepreneurship, Formal entertainment venues, Housing, Informal entertainment venues, Innovations, Market research, New Normal, Pamper Niche, Parks, Planning and Strategies, Public Spaces, Small Towns, Suburban Downtowns, Superstar downtown, The Arts, Tourism, Trends, Uncategorized | Tagged Central Social Districts, CSDs, Downtowns. |

Post navigation

Recent Posts

  • Let’s Recognize and Leverage the Opportunities the Covid Crisis Has Given Our Downtowns: Some Examples
  • The Downtown Curmudgeon vs The Retail Contrarian
  • OUR LARGE DOWNTOWNS CAN LEARN SOME IMPORTANT THINGS FROM THEIR SUBURBAN BRETHREN?
  • Non- Autarkic, Easy to Define, Pedestrian Friendly, and Residentially Centric 15-Minute Neighborhoods/Cities?
  • A Search for a Clearer and More Useful Vocabulary for Talking About and Analyzing Downtowns

Labels

  • 15 minute neighborhoods (1)
  • automated cars (4)
  • backdoor retailing (4)
  • BIDs (26)
  • Business Recruitment (28)
  • Captive Markets (8)
  • Central Social Districts (33)
  • Central Social Functions (1)
  • Change Agents (23)
  • clean sidewalks (2)
  • clean streets (2)
  • commercial nodes (8)
  • Contingent workers (4)
  • convenience (6)
  • Creative Class (31)
  • Crime (8)
  • CSDs (2)
  • DANTH (13)
  • Deliberate Consumer (13)
  • Downtown Garages (4)
  • Downtown Merchants (29)
  • Downtown Niches (59)
  • Downtown Redevelopment (66)
  • downtown retailing (63)
  • driverless cars (4)
  • E commerce (27)
  • Economci Development (54)
  • Economic Development (3)
  • EDOs (26)
  • Entertainment (41)
  • Entertainment niche (32)
  • Entrepreneurship (14)
  • fear of crime (8)
  • Financial tools (5)
  • Formal entertainment venues (26)
  • Formats Facades Signs (6)
  • Housing (7)
  • Informal entertainment venues (23)
  • Innovations (33)
  • Jamaica Center (3)
  • Jobs (6)
  • Leakages/gaps (7)
  • Live-Work (3)
  • Living donor (1)
  • Luxury retail (7)
  • Market research (5)
  • movie theaters (23)
  • Moving People (3)
  • multichannel retailing (20)
  • New Normal (50)
  • Office Development (8)
  • Pamper Niche (7)
  • Parking (5)
  • Parks (1)
  • Parksmand public spaces (6)
  • Pedestrian traffic (14)
  • Planning and Strategies (47)
  • Public Spaces (21)
  • Remote working (1)
  • retail chains (30)
  • self-driving cars (4)
  • Small Merchants (35)
  • Small Town Entrepreneurial Environments (8)
  • Small Towns (36)
  • Social Media (3)
  • Sprawl (3)
  • Suburban Downtowns (21)
  • Superstar downtown (2)
  • technology (11)
  • teenagers (4)
  • The Arts (25)
  • time pressure (5)
  • Tourism (6)
  • Trends (50)
  • Uncategorized (32)
  • Up for Grabs shoppers (2)

Links

  • CCED
  • Planetizen

BACK TO TOP

83-85 116th Street, Ste 3D
Kew Gardens, NY  11418
Phone: (718) 805-9507
[email protected]

Copyright © ndavidmilder.com