Book Review – Key to the City
Downtown – Rahway, New Jersey
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...
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Downtown – Occoquan, Virginia
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,...
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Downtown – Atlantic City, New Jersey
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....
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10th National Eucharistic Congress – Indianapolis, Indiana (2024)
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...
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Strategic Doing Credo
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...
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Downtown – Cranford, New Jersey
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...
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Downtown – Toms River, New Jersey
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...
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Main Street Now – Birmingham, Alabama (2024), Part 2
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...
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Terminal A – Newark, New Jersey
Recently Terminal A in Newark, NJ, was named the best new terminal in the world. Almost immediately upon arriving it was apparent why. Great thought went into designing an environment worthy of the travel experience. From the way finding, to seating, to public art, and retail mix with many local...
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Equitable Entrepreneurial Ecosystems and the New Economic Development Audience
Today the results from the Equitable Entrepreneurial Ecosystems in Rural Communities Pilot Program . Main Street America has positioned itself well at the center of these important discussions, continuing many years of excellent work with the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation. Several important findings were shared. Acknowledge and address imbalances and...
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Main Street Now – Boston, Massachusetts (2023)
The following are my recollections from the Main Street Now conference in Boston, Massachusetts. This was written 15 months after the conference itself. We drove from New Jersey to Boston, crossing the Hudson River on the still relatively new Mario Cuomo bridge. Joining me on the trip this year was...
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Kremer Family Garden – 2023
Note: the story of how our family garden came to be is here. Below are brief updates from the garden. 2023-Feb-26: We started a new grow operation with approximately 300 seeds of 12 different varieties. These included favorites that we re-plant from seeds collected, year after year. There were also...
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How the Progressive Republican who Named Metuchen, New Jersey, ‘The Brainy Borough’ was Run Out of Town
Truman Pierson, 1906. For the man who named Metuchen the Brainy Borough, there is a little-known story about how this newspaper reporter, turned utility superintendent, turned postmaster, turned Republican committee member, turned real estate and insurance agent, took on the bosses that led the Republican Party in New Jersey and...
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