Property owners and architects stabilize historic buildings in Ellicott City, Maryland. © Patapsco Valley Heritage Area courtesy of Preservation Maryland
In addition to building more vital commercial corridors and economies, the Main Street Approach is an effective strategy to help communities minimize the impact of natural disasters because of our deliberate investment in smart land use and regional planning, historic preservation and small-scale development, and design practices that build on existing local assets. As the physical and economic impacts of disasters get more intense for Main Streets, we need to get even more strategic about positioning our work and leveraging the Main Street Approach to ensure our communities recover quickly from disasters.
The Main Street Disaster and Resilience Toolkit provides comprehensive advice and resources to help you navigate disaster resilience through planning, preparation, mitigation, and recovery. Here are three practical steps to successfully engage in long-term recovery and disaster resilience strategies in your community.
This is the third part in a series exploring the toolkit. You can read part one here and part two here >
Build New Partnerships and Funding Pathways
Main Streets can’t effectively access disaster funding and recovery support without building relationships before extreme weather events and disasters. Federal funding programs are competitive and often require state or local governments to apply on your district’s behalf. Work with your state and regional Coordinating Programs to build relationships now that will help you navigate federal emergency and recovery funding. Also, connect with aligned philanthropic, social service, and local financial partners to connect your districts to new resilience resources and funding opportunities.
As an example, consider the unique partnership of Main Street Osceola and the Red Cross in Mississippi County, Arkansas. The community is at risk for tornadoes, floods, and drought, so with seed money from a T‑Mobile Hometown Grant, the organizations completed the first development phase for a downtown community center that also serves as a “resilience hub” – the Osceola Main Street Community Room. The team has secured additional funds through the Red Cross and the City of Osceola to equip the community room to provide residents shelter, charging stations, food, and water in emergencies. This effort is so core to the work of Osceola Main Street that the Board of Directors established a Disaster Resilience Committee.
Right-Size Your Resilience Efforts
Significant long-term recovery and resilience projects, like funding bridge repair or floodproofing commercial district buildings, are technical and high-dollar projects. You can refer to Part 2 in the toolkit for actionable steps to fund large priority projects. But don’t overlook the power of initiatives at the business or property owner scale that also effectively minimize disaster disruption and damage in your districts.
The toolkit features several tactics to help your Main Street businesses be responsive in crises, including conducting market surveys to uncover new norms, performing technology audits to build a bigger digital footprint, and advising on sustainable funding strategies. There are also small-scale design interventions you can implement with small business owners in your districts to help with anything from heat island effects to groundwater run-off. Chinatown Main Street in Boston is pioneering a micro-grant program that will provide small businesses funding to mitigate the impacts of extreme heat through projects such as painting building rooftops white, investing in induction stoves, and installing water misters outside of storefronts.
Volunteers plant trees in Marion, Iowa. © Uptown Marion
Center Your Community Assets
Your Main Street’s historic built resources, cultural assets, local traditions, and regular events and festivals provide your communities with a connection and shared purpose to physically and emotionally rebuild after devastating disasters. Some of the most impactful recovery stories we collected in our research for the toolkit were the efforts of Main Street staff and volunteers to rebuild community assets and reconnect with neighbors after a devastating disaster.
The derecho storm that hit Marion, Iowa, in August 2020 was the largest natural disaster in the community’s history. The city lost 40% of its tree canopy, and, in addition to extreme heat impacts, residents expressed a loss of their community identity. Uptown Marion, the city’s Main Street program, responded by organizing volunteer tree replanting efforts. Their new streetscape efforts featured artists using downed trees to create new street furniture and leaf motifs were used as inlays to new street brick pavers. Uptown Marion also fundraised for long-term investments in urban forestry, including hiring a city arborist. The success of Uptown Marion’s recovery efforts has bolstered Marion’s appeal, and the community is one of the fastest growing in the state of Iowa.
Diving Into the Toolkit
Disasters take an economic, physical, and emotional toll. They can leave residents, business owners, your Main Street team feeling uncertain and overwhelmed: Should we reopen? Should we rebuild? What if this happens again? Taking steps to bolster your Main Streets against future disasters helps ensure your community will respond with more confidence and cohesion, and in so doing, minimize potential missteps and unfortunate loss.
Do you want to learn more about the toolkit resources and how you can use them to increase resilience in your community? Join Main Street America for a webinar on March 6th from 12:00 – 1:00 p.m. CST to explore all three toolkit sections and provide actionable takeaways to help your community plan, prepare, respond, and recover.
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