August 4, 2020 | Commercial District Design: Small Businesses |
Main Streets across the country have long been centers of innovation. Since the proliferation of shopping malls and big box stores that started in the 1970s, community leaders, and small business owners have rallied together to attract customers, new local businesses, and shoppers back downtown by leveraging their own unique, place-based assets, and implementing creative approaches to retail and services. The inherent drive toward innovation and adaptation found among many Main Street commercial district leaders and business owners serves communities well—and is important now more than ever as communities respond to and manage the widespread impacts of COVID-19. Continued innovation will be crucial to ensure that small businesses survive, burgeoning entrepreneurs thrive, and workers, customers, and visitors remain safe and healthy.
In this brief, produced in collaboration with AARP Livable Communities, we explore creative approaches to small business and commercial district recovery, focusing specifically on e-commerce and adaptive use of spaces. We also provide a brief case study on how one Main Street community—Florence, S.C.—is helping their small businesses respond and recover as a source of inspiration and guidance.
READ IT HERE >
About the Series: Produced in collaboration between Main Street America and AARP Livable Communities, Commercial District Design: COVID-19 Response and Management is a series of design-centered briefs developed to equip community leaders with safe, equitable, age-friendly strategies to support economic recovery from the impacts of COVID-19. View the full series here.
Disclaimer: This material has been prepared for informational purposes only and is not intended to provide, and should not be relied on for legal, insurance, liability, tax, or accounting advice. You should consult your own legal, insurance, tax, and accounting advisors for guidance on these matters. Photos may have been taken before the onset of the COVID-19 crisis, and not depict our current reality of the need to socially distance.