About Isaac Kremer

Isaac is a respected national downtown revitalization leader, speaker, and author. Districts Isaac managed have achieved $850 million of investment, over 1,645 jobs created, and were 2X Great American Main Street Award Semifinalists and a 1X GAMSA winner in 2023. His work has been featured in Newsday, NJBIZ, ROI-NJ, TapInto, and USA Today. Isaac is a Main Street America Revitalization Professional (MSARP), with additional certifications from the National Parks Service, Project for Public Spaces, Grow America (formerly the National Development Council), and the Strategic Doing Institute. He currently serves as Executive Director for Experience Princeton in Princeton, New Jersey.

Downtown – Rahway, New Jersey

Isaac Kremer/ September 4, 2024/ downtown, Field Notes, Physical, plaza, public art, Social, storefront, Writing/ 0 comments

This handsome station and plaza are a common sight for commuters. One needs to walk a few blocks away to see some exciting things happening. This monument on the Plaza recognizes Nikola Tesla. Apparently he had an important role bringing electricity to Rahway. It would be interesting to know more about this story, perhaps through an interpretive sign panel The

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Downtown – Occoquan, Virginia

Isaac Kremer/ August 29, 2024/ downtown, Field Notes, garden, Physical, preservation, storefront, Writing/ 0 comments

This cast concrete block building on the edge of town makes use of this distinctive building material. Upon entering town this skinny vernacular cottage caught our attention for the detailed spindle work. The town of Occoquan originated in 1758 when John Ballentine built his home Rockledge. Grist mills, a foundry, and tobacco warehouses predominates. During the Civil War, Gen Wade

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Downtown – Atlantic City, New Jersey

Isaac Kremer/ August 8, 2024/ downtown, Field Notes, Physical, public art, storefront, Writing/ 0 comments

The entrance into Atlantic City gives a nice sense of arrival with these vertical pylons with stylized letters. A cluster of national chain stores makes it clear this is a shopping destination. The Nike store has pride of place while turning the corner towards the major resorts on the shore. Coach is located in the Tanger Outlets development, basically turning

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10th National Eucharistic Congress – Indianapolis, Indiana (2024)

Isaac Kremer/ July 18, 2024/ Writing/ 0 comments

The first National Eucharistic Congress in over eight decades was an opportunity for Catholics throughout the U.S. and the world to reaffirm the presence of the body and blood of Jesus Christ in the Eucharist. Four pilgrimage routes converged in Indianapolis after travelling through the country for sixty days. One of those routes passed through my parish. During adoration and

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Strategic Doing Credo

Isaac Kremer/ July 5, 2024/ Civic, Field Notes, Strategic Doing, Writing/ 0 comments

This morning on the weekly Strategic Doing talk I was reminded of the credo for Strategic Doing. It’s been exciting to me as a Strategic Doing Practitioner to watch these ideas grow. This discipline has proven effective to build collaborations quickly and achieve scale with better coherence and communication. Work has been done to form clusters, such as around water,

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Downtown – Cranford, New Jersey

Isaac Kremer/ June 9, 2024/ Civic, downtown, Field Notes, garden, Physical, placemaking, plaza, storefront, Writing/ 0 comments

Cleveland Plaza is a level of architectural intervention unusual for an older building. The canopy on steel and reinforced concrete armature gives a neat hat to this building. i was fortunate to get a peak into St. Michaels church down the block. The stained glass, while narrow and compact had themes and coloration that made them stand out. Religious statuary

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Downtown – Toms River, New Jersey

Isaac Kremer/ June 8, 2024/ beer, downtown, Economic, Field Notes, Physical, public art, Writing/ 1 comments

Toms River proudly displays how they are one of approximately two dozen Main Street New Jersey communities in the state on the entry signage to their downtown. As the county seat for Ocean County there is a preponderance of offices here for the county, the Municipality, various organizations, and many lawyers. A small entertainment and restaurant scene is here also

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Main Street Now – Birmingham, Alabama (2024), Part 2

Isaac Kremer/ June 1, 2024/ Field Notes, Physical, preservation, Social, Writing/ 0 comments

Earlier we shared our story from arriving in Birmingham through the close of the Opening Plenary on Day 1. This post will cover the time after the Opening Plenary on Monday and before leaving Tuesday afternoon. A full day of programming was available Monday afternoon. I started by heading my way to the Shuttlesworth Screening. Despite being late, I was

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