On an unseasonably warm spring day I made the two-hour drive to Vineland to participate in one of three statewide workshops to restart the Main Street New Jersey (MSNJ) program. Sitting in the recently renovated Grant Plaza meeting space on Landis Ave, I was surrounded by around 60 other Main...

Photo of entrance to 555 Hudson Street while holding open Eyes on the Street by Robert Kanigel with a photograph showing the same storefront with Jane Jacobs in the door. We took inspiration from the recent book Eyes on the Street: The Life of Jane Jacobs and set off on a walking...

Attending the Livable Communities National Conference in Dallas was a special opportunity. One of the unexpected highlights was an early morning session on the edge of the conference hall. The topic was on resiliency and disaster response. Four key elements needed during such times were: mental, emotional, physical, and spiritual....

This is the story of how a National Endowment for the Arts gathering of national arts leaders in DC that was listened to by leaders of a small town in Appalachia inspired them to connect with leaders in Milwaukee to transform a neglected park.  The National Endowment for the Arts...

The lessons I’ve learned as a downtown manager over the past 15 years could easily fill a book, or probably several. But if I had to distill everything down to a simple message, it would be this: Take risks, and make mistakes. Be open to unexpected surprises along the way....

This series of articles was first written to coincide with Better Block Middlesborough in October 2013. It has since been published here in full to show 30 different ideas to help make places better. Managing the Event #1: Think Incrementally #2: Build a Better Block #3: Encourage Public Participation #4:...

  Relatively few families have had a greater influence in forming our American character than that of the Underhills, and still fewer families yet have individuals like Captain John Underhill. Underhill found himself among the first and earliest wave of a trans-Atlantic progression, immigrating to the Massachusetts Bay Colony in...

Postcard showing Moonlight Tower (to left) on Woodward Ave. near Adelaide in downtown Detroit. At first this seemed like another interesting postcard of a long-lost Detroit streetscape. Upon closer inspection, however, there was a remarkable feature. Near the left edge is a latticed tower rising through and beyond the upper...

In recent years Flat Rock has made great strides with historic preservation. This includes successful moving and rehabilitation of buildings which otherwise would have been demolished; rehabilitation of several other buildings on site; applying for a state historical marker and National Register listing for the Ford Motor Co. Lamp Factory;...