Foundations to Futures: Preserving History and Fostering Growth
March 25, 2024 | Logan Breer
The 2024 Missouri’s Premier Downtown Revitalization Conference draws closer. This year’s conference will be hosted in Kansas City, MO. After careful consideration of where Missouri’s Main Streets want to be in the future, alongside national trends, our staff picked “Foundations to Futures: Preserving History and Fostering Growth” as the theme of this year’s conference to support local programs building a firm foundation of knowledge amongst their volunteers and staff to pursue the best possible future for their historic commercial district and overall community.
Foundations
The foundation of any successful downtown revitalization effort, which preserves the area’s historic character and fosters community-input led growth, starts with the Main Street Approach™. Just like pouring a strong cement foundation for a building, it takes the four points of the Main Street Approach™—Design, Organization, Promotion, and Economic Vitality—working together for successful historic preservation-based economic development initiatives. Building a strong foundation in new programs and maintaining a strong foundation in seasoned programs is always a priority of Missouri Main Street Connection as it is important to have the proper foundation to build upon as the organization grows and invites more community members and stakeholders to participate in their efforts as volunteers. New and seasoned programs can anticipate having foundational sessions to send their volunteers to in order to learn foundational information about how Main Street works and the groundwork for preservation education, awareness, and utilization.
Futures
The Main Street Approach™ is focused on preserving our history and heritage. Local Main Street programs implement this focus by emphasizing economic vitality and building a strong future for their community. As local programs work in their communities to preserve their history and foster growth, we believe that through their collaborative efforts, of engaging with the community for input, the best possible future is pursued. Attendees can anticipate forward thinking sessions that connect historic preservation, upper story housing, and historic commercial districts together as a unique solution for communities to achieve thriving local economies and walkable neighborhoods. As leading advocates and implementors of solutions, Main Streets are positioned to champion the cultivation of their local community to meet growing housing and other demands by increasing their density and diversity to boost their local economy while preserving and promoting the culture of their historic commercial district. Housing, especially middle housing, is an area in which it has been forecasted by analysts and leaders that Main Street can provide through innovative residential-focused utilization of under-utilized spaces. The futures of Missouri’s Main Street communities will be explored through ways they can address pressing issues they face.
Missouri Main Street Connection is excited for the possibilities that this year’s conference theme will open up. We encourage you to come learn how you can step through new doors full of opportunities to collaborate with partners in innovating your historic commercial district into walkable economic hubs that people call home.
1 thought on “March 25, 2024 – Foundations to Futures: Preserving History and Fostering Growth”
Love the blending of foundations and futures for this conference theme. Looking forward to being back in Kansas City.