Brian Yates

Alderman-at-Large, Ward 5
City of Newton, MA

Main Street—

The Proven Method of Revitalizing Neighborhood Business Districts

A great deal of attention has been devoted to revitalizing village business districts in Newton, particularly Newton Centre and Newtonville. Though there has been much hard work on these projects and some good ideas have been generated, they have gotten off track by focusing on new development on underutilized parcels, rather than on fixing what’s there already.

There is a proven method to do this developed by the National Trust for Historic Preservation and its Main Street Center and successfully implemented across the country and with great success in the City of Boston. I have repeatedly urged the city to follow the MainStreet approach with its Four Points and Eight Principles.

The Four Points of Main Street are:

  1. Community Organization
  2. Promotion
  3. Design
  4. Economic Restructuring.

The Eight Principles of Main Street are:

  1. Comprehensive
  2. Incremental
  3. Self-Help
  4. Partnerships
  5. Identifying and Capitalizing on Existing Assets
  6. Quality
  7. Change
  8. Implementation

To learn more about these Points and Principles, visit the National Trust Main Street

Center  http://www.preservationnation.org/Main-Street/ or the City of Boston

Main Street www.CityofBoston.gov/mainstreets

This page last updated on Wednesday September 09, 2009

Back to Brian Yates' Home Page