Thursday, August 14, 2003
Building downtown used to be based on retail strategies. Recreate retail space to compete with suburban shopping malls. But "big box" retail presents too strong a pull. People are not going to come downtown to shop.
Convention centers...also a component of traditional downtown strategies are turning out to have limited impacts. They typically operate at a loss and their impact is generally limited to hotels. (Translation: low wage jobs with limited upward mobility.)
We need new downtown development models that are based on mixed uses: office, manufacturing, residential, retail. All of these spaces need to be mixed together with good design to create interesting places for business development.
Yesterday's story about Dayton represents one city trying to develop a new model for downtowns. Duluth, MN provides another. Read more.
posted by Ed Morrison |
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Some Background on EDPro Weblog
The purpose of this weblog is to help economic development professionals -- EDPros -- keep up with the changes sweeping our profession. Strap on your goggles. It's a whole new game. There are no experts any more. The only place to learn about economic development is from other EDPros who are doing it.
One other point: the prevaling approach (paradigm, if you like) in economic development is shifting from competition to collaboration. There are a lot of reaasons underlying this shift, but here's the important insight: You, your community, and your region will do better by collaborating and sharing information.
If you are using a news reader, here is the link to syndicate this site:
Here's the link if you are a bloglines subscriber:
Speaking and workshops on Open Source Economic Development
As the idea of Open Source Economic Development starts spreading, more people are asking about it. Visit the I-Open web site to learn more. My colleagues and I are happy to explain the basic concepts in a talk or a workshop. E-mail Susan Alshuler if you'd like to learn more about workshops and speaking.
Background on Ed Morrison
Download some background information on me here.
We need new models for downtown development
