Page 65 - South Mississippi Living - July, 2020

DOWNTOWNS
Why
Matter
Thomas Gregory, State Coordinator, Mississippi Main Street Association
When Hurricane Katrina made landfall in Mississippi nearly 15 years ago, it completely devastated the communities along the
Mississippi Gulf Coast. Residential neighborhoods were destroyed and the historic commercial districts in Mississippi’s coastal communities were left in ruins. The downtown districts that once served as the center of economic and social activity along the Coast were no longer.
In response to the widespread devastation along the Mississippi Gulf Coast, the Mississippi Renewal Forum was established. Teams of national experts in the elds of architecture and urban design worked in each of
the impacted communities to develop visionary plans that promoted the principles of new urbanism. These plans led to some early progress, primarily in rebuilding housing and other critical infrastructure in residential neighborhoods. However, the downtown areas along the Mississippi Gulf Coast continued to struggle, in large part due to the lack of a clear implementation process.
Enter the Mississippi Main Street Association,
a preservation-based economic and community development organization with local programs across the state of Mississippi.
As a follow up to the aspirational community plans that emerged from the Mississippi Renewal Forum,
the Mississippi Main Street Association developed the Mississippi Gulf Coast Resource Team. This multi- disciplinary group of professionals, including architects, planners, designers, and downtown revitalization experts, worked with community members to
develop implementation plans in the 10 Main Street communities along the Mississippi Gulf Coast.
What emerged from the Main Street resource teams was a set of speci c, actionable recommendations that followed the time-tested Main Street Approach of organization, design, promotion, and economic vitality. These plans were not lofty visions of what could be
with unlimited nancial resources but rather were plans rooted in reality and lled with incremental projects that local leaders could get to work on immediately.
The individualized plans gave our Main Street directors a checklist of things to do, programs to create, and projects to accomplish. Little by little, our downtowns along the Coast began to make a comeback.
In my experience, that is where Main Street has always excelled – creating realistic plans alongside our communities and establishing a system for getting things done. One need only visit the vibrant downtowns in our coastal Main Street communities to understand what I am talking about. Biloxi, Gulfport, Long Beach, Moss Point, Ocean Springs, Pascagoula, Pass Christian, and Picayune are all examples of communities that have created vitality in their downtowns by implementing the Main Street Approach.
Fast forward 15 years and our downtowns are in the process of recovering from a di erent kind of disaster
– an economic disaster created by a tiny coronavirus. The lessons learned from Katrina have informed our approach to assisting our communities in the disaster recovery process. Together, our Main Street directors and their local business owners are working through the checklist to reopen our downtowns safely and e ectively.
The Mississippi Main Street Association knows a thing or two about resiliency. If a disaster knocks us down,
we get back up and get back to work. Our Main Street communities have the tools they need to respond to disaster by bringing people together, catalyzing public and private investment, creating jobs, celebrating local assets, and creating a powerful sense of place in our downtowns.
The success of Main Street cannot be achieved without the commitment of those who care about their community. Together, we can link arms and continue the important work of preserving and revitalizing Mississippi’s historic downtowns and districts.
SOUTH MISSISSIPPI Living | www.smliving.net
July 2020 | 65
Main
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