A regional resource center providing a comprehensive approach to strengthen main streets through commerce, community and culture.
Not all main streets are officially named “Main Street,” but even so – you know a main street when you see one. A main street is typically the primary thoroughfare through a town and the traditional center of commerce and social interaction in a community. Beyond this basic definition, main streets are often a crucial component of a community’s identity, a physical representation of how a community wants to be perceived.
The term main street means different things to different people. The Hudson Valley is home to many main streets of varying shapes and sizes, with historic buildings and unique architecture. For some, Main Street means a crowded city block with their favorite bodega on the corner, and for others, Main Street is a quaint tree-lined street comprised of mom-and-pop stores, local art galleries, and the local diner or coffee shop and some are simply quiet four-corners with the only commercial or retail establishments not to be found in miles. Within these different interpretations, there is a common desire: A pedestrian-friendly street full of economic, social, and cultural vitality. It is a gathering place for the residents and visitors to that community.
Like many main streets throughout the country, Hudson Valley main streets have experienced life cycles of booms, busts, and transformations as a result of economic and social trends. Within each county, you find neighborhoods in different stages of development. Many present a vibrant, cohesive identity, some were on their way to realizing their potential, and others still suffer from economic decline and disinvestment. It is time to support each community’s vision of their main street and recapture the spirit, which may have been lost.
– From The Pathway Forward
THE LUNCH & LEARN SERIES
How the Hudson Valley is re-using religious buildings for community good
Learn how RUPCO partnered with LUYNC to adapt and reuse the former United Methodist Church in Newburgh as a commecial and community service hub called Highpoint.
Learn how Jeremy preserved and restored the exterior of a church built in in the 1890s while transforming the interior into micro-offices. Learn about the project in Saugerties and the special permissions it required.
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Thinking about a Brownfield Grant? Learn how they can be used to revitalize your downtowns.
Click here to watch the video from this Lunch & Learn Episode
Join Pattern and the NJIT Technical Assistance to Brownfield Communities (TAB) program to learn about successful efforts in the Northeast that utilized brownfield grants and tax credits to revitalize downtowns. This digital lunchtime session will introduce Hudson Valley communities to a host of programs that have been used to clean up legacy pollution in communities, while also attracting new development to long-time vacant buildings and parcels. Several communities and developers in the Hudson Valley are utilizing brownfield programs to help pay for cleanup and redevelopment.
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Interested in Improving Your Main Street?
Strategies to Combat Downtown Vacancies
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MAIN STREET: HUDSON VALLEY
Not all the main streets across our region are the same, but you know one when you see it. They are hubs for economic growth, social connectivity, cultural experiences and more. They are the gathering places for local residents and visitors to the region.
Our main streets are vibrant, but they can also be vulnerable. Some benefit from good planning, steady investment, and a cohesive vision that drives their vibrancy. Others suffer from economic decline, disinvestment, and an inability to recapture the spark that once drove traffic to their streets, sidewalks and shops.
The Hudson Valley is more vibrant, prosperous and sustainable when its main streets thrive.
That’s why Pattern created Main Street: Hudson Valley – to provide programs, services and research that will promote the vibrancy of our downtown areas and build more local capacity for main street revitalization.
How will we do this?
In 2022, Main Street: Hudson Valley plans to take the following steps to support our main-street hubs across the region:
Main Street Bulletins
The main street center will publish a number of research papers that dive deep into challenges and opportunities facing our main streets.
Sidewalk Talks
Pattern will host a monthly webinar series that will feature speakers from across the Hudson Valley and the United States. Speakers will provide details on projects, initiatives, and best practices that improved their main streets and attracted more visitors to their local businesses.
Main Street Makers
A training program that will put our knowledge into action. The center will work with a select number of communities across the Hudson Valley to plan and implement projects to revitalize and support their main streets. Main Street Makers will be run by Pattern’s expert planning staff and focus on an actionable project in each community.
Annual Main Street Conference
The main street center will host an annual conference to convene local, state and national experts, promote brainstorming, and focus on core topics that are affecting main streets now.
Resource Center
Our Main Street Bulletins and webinars, along with other resources related to grants and best practices, will be accessible through a resource center hosted on the Pattern for Progress website. This one-stop shop will be updated throughout the year with blog entries and other resources that are helpful to our communities.
Upcoming Topics
People-First Main Streets
Whether it's pedestrian plazas, street festivals, or the utilization of sidewalks for businesses, main streets got creative to draw attention during the pandemic. The center will highlight some of the best examples from around the region and the country, along with guest speakers who conceived, planned and implemented an effort to make people-centric main streets.
Housing on Main Street
To mark National Housing Month, the center will focus on the synergy between main street housing and businesses, zoning that can encourage livable main streets, and the types of housing that are possible in the hearts of our communities.
Vacancy on Main Street
The center will focus on strategies to fill those vacant storefronts, small interventions that can help, trends in office and retail space, and tools that local governments can use to address vacant or blighted properties. Guest speakers will give examples of success.
Green Main Streets
The center will share the benefits of pocket parks, community gardens, street trees and other programs that make our main streets greener. Hear from those who have developed successful programs.
Local Business Support
The center will share a host of resources that are meant to support local businesses and spur their development, including incubator spaces, micro-businesses, legal business programs and an exploration of building codes that promote flexibility of commercial spaces.
Main Street for Everyone
As investments are made in our main streets, how do we balance the needs of tourists and the needs of local residents? How do we support businesses owned by minorities and women? The center will share strategies to encourage local investments that benefit local residents without displacing them.
Main Street Placemaking
The center will focus on downtown events and programming, art, culture, way finding signs, and creating an identify for your main street. The center will focus on unique ideas that have made main streets “the place to be” for communities within the Hudson Valley and elsewhere.
Parking on Main Street
Few topics hit all our main streets like parking. How do you strike the balance between walkability and the car? What are different parking strategies and how do they work? How do we design systems of parking that get people to our main streets without clogging them up? The center will look at best practices and unique solutions.
Main Street by Design
Much of what our main streets can become is dictated by zoning, codes and local land-use tools. We will explore models that exist, and the ones that work best to encourage different patterns of development and activity on our main streets.
Main Street Beautification
When it comes to main street, the look of our signs, facades, sidewalks, power lines and other outward appearances can mean a lot. We will explore sign policies, façade improvement programs, business improvement districts and other topics that determine the first impression people have when they land on our main streets.
More...
Main Street: Hudson Valley will explore additional topics throughout the year, including some best practices that set a foundation of success for the holiday season, and an international exchange that will provide exposure to ideas and models of governance that have helped to boost main streets outside the Unites States.
