Downtown/Suburban balance possible
A lot of Saskatchewan communities are developing a strong suburban presence in their towns.
Unfortunately, downtowns are suffering because of it.
According to Kieron Hunt, Director of Canadian Operations, Cushing Terrell Architecture Inc. a balance is possible and better for a community.
Hunt presented on this balance at the Main Street Conference on Nov. 5.
Based on some interactive questions asked of the many community representatives present at the conference, Hunt learned that most communities do not have a downtown vision.
“Without a vision, it’s hard to really know where to go, or where you are coming from.”
Hunt hopes that events like this will stimulate this kind of planning when it comes to community revitalization. This type of discussion is also making people think on a proactive level, says Hunt.
According to Hunt, this downtown and suburban balance is found in proactive communities that protected their downtown from suburban growth while it was happening.
“Those communities that were ahead of the game; they realized they’re going to allow suburban growth but at the same time know their downtown needs to be preserved.”
Suburban developers know what they’re doing, says Hunt, so they’ll take care of their own suburban growth.
Downtown preservation is a little more complicated than that with a complex mix of land users, businesses and owners, says Hunt.
A sign of a healthy downtown is people on the streets, says Hunt, if people are out and leaving with a smile.
“When you go to a successful downtown, you’re intrigued by the mix.”
When there are lots of different people on the streets, talking with neighbours and enjoying the space, there is a happy community, says Hunt.
“That to me is a successful mixture.”
Hunt has heard many times from communities who have tried unsuccessfully to revitalize their downtown. He wants to know why communities have failed to revitalize downtown cores because this the reason for a lot of towns focusing on suburban development.
“It’s important to understand what drove the process and what didn’t work and you can learn from that.”
Suburban development is necessary for communities to grow and offer these shops and services, says Hunt, but downtown areas provide something important too.
Downtowns are being reinvented. Not to compete with suburban development but to provide something new, says Hunt.
“(They) provide a different ambiance, a different atmosphere, a different place than what the suburban areas can provide.”
Based on interactive questions he presented to the audience, most people do see this value in downtowns.
However, it is a challenge to get that message across to developers and the public.
“Sometimes you’re educating some of those groups outside who aren’t familiar or are less comfortable with main streets. It’s an education process with them.”
Reaching out to the community is essential to this process of selling the downtown value, says Hunt.
Part of selling this vision is having your own faith in downtown, he says.
“If you don’t have faith in your own downtown, the business community won’t.”
This belief will spur others to believe in downtown, Hunt says.
Retail Reality hits Main Street Conference
The face of retail is changing and that is having an effect on main streets all across Canada and United States.
Margie Johnson, a retail consultant with her firm, Shop Talk, out of Virginia Beach, Virginia, U.S. discussed the new face of retail and how that changes downtown at the Main Street Conference on Nov. 5.
“The consumers are changing; their patterns, their desires, the demographics are driving how a lot of people are shopping.”
Johnson also has a subspeciality in revitalization along with working with all kinds of retailers in the United States.
Johnson’s trip to Humboldt was her first trip to Canada but Johnson says she sees no real difference between Canadian and American retailers.
The biggest part of a revitalized downtown is retail and that includes anything from speciality and local stores to restaurants and bars, she says. Vibrant, lively stores and restaurants bring people to the downtown core.
Johnson has been in the business a long time and she’s seen many things come and go. She would not even guess on what current trends are going to stick around but she says the biggest trend right now is that people want it fast and convenient.
Access to new technology and the 24 hour shopping mentality has been a big part of this. Johnson gave examples of store front shops being transformed into giant computer screens after hours where customers can browse the stores website.
This Christmas, Johnson advises retailers will see more along the lines of gift cards, pop up sites and online shopping.
“There are a lot of new things that are out there that retailers have to embrace and accept that this is just the new normal.”
These are opportunities for retailers, which was why she came out to Canada, she says.
But for every trend there is a counter trend, says Johnson.
“One of the trends we’re seeing now is people want a sense of engagement in a physical world and this sense of community. They like being in business that are robust, where people are talking.”
Downtown revitalization teams would do well to take advantage of this new sense of human interaction. Johnson mentioned one business that is really popular where people learn to paint in a bar with alcohol.
“Technology is one side of the trend but people still want to be with other people.”
Retailers still need to rethink some aspects of their business, says Johnson. People are not living in a 9-5 world anymore. Working parents need to go shopping when they’re available and if stores do not give them that time, they’ll go to stores who are open or shop online.
Change is something that is hard for some retailers but part of surviving change is not doing something just because they’ve been doing it for a long time.
Embracing different aspects of the retail world is the best way to stay relevant in a changing world.
“Just because that’s the way we’ve done it doesn’t mean that’s the way we’re going to do it because that model is not necessarily working.”
Mapping the rich history of Saskatchewan towns
Shannon Crooks and Brittney Beckie got interested in cultural mapping in university.
After that, they took they advertised to towns across Saskatchewan.
At the Main Street Conference on Nov. 5 in Humboldt, Beckie and Crooks got the chance to present their cultural mapping projects of Melfort and Kerrobert.
After graduating from the University of Saskatchewan, they took their love to towns in Saskatchewan, sending out many emails looking for communities who would be willing to hire them to culturally map their town. In the end, Kerrobert and
Melfort were the only ones with the resources to hire Crooks and Beckie to map out their own places of interest.
Through research into local history books, archieves, libraries, museums, and interviews, Crooks and Beckie mapped out public art, cultural businesses, parks, heritage buildings, stories, community initiatives, and long standing businesses.
Getting all this information, Beckie and Crooks set up shop in the basement of the town hall in Melfort and a conference room attached to the Town Hall and Museum in Kerrobert. They interviewed between 250-300 people in Melfort and around a 100 individuals in Kerrobert, both times including new residents and long standing ones. One on one interviews gave them more indepth answers than a survey would have, says Crooks.
Crooks hopes more communities culture map their town because it can provide a real benefit to them.
“Lots of people want to learn about the history of where they live, where they come from, where they’re moving to but they don’t know how to access those resources.” says Beckie. “It’s been our job to dig deeper into the past, find out where to find that information and make it available to people who are interested.”
Culture maps also encourages residents to discover their own town and take some pride in it, says Crooks.
Knowing more about a town can also guide future development, she says. An example they gave at the Main Street Conference on Nov. 5 was natural landscape.
If there was a tree at the edge of a vacant lot, by discovering more about its species and how old it is, they can curve development away from cutting it down.
If towns want to do a culture map project, it does not exactly have to be their team that does it, Crooks says, but it is definitely an idea that she hopes catches on.
“Small town Saskatchewan has so much to offer, has a rich history and it’s begging to be documented.” Says Crooks.
Population decrease does not make towns less interesting and we need to celebrate these towns, she says.
For towns that want to do their own cultural mapping project, Crooks advises to cast your nets wide. Get all the information you can and sift through it to find the most interesting things.
