Main Street 2012

Rediscover Main Street

For more than 30 years, the people who have been investing, shopping and living in Main Street communities have been waiting for the rest of the nation to figure out what we have known all along - Main Street's time is now.

National retailers, most notable "big box" stores are shrinking so they can fit into urban areas and downtowns. A flurry of national "shop local" campaigns and media attention has put a continuous spotlight on small businesses and how important they are to the economy. Sustainability concerns and shifts in quality of life preferences are forcing sprawling development and super sized retail footprints out of favor. Join us in Baltimore in April for education, networking and inspiration

Urban Main Street Summit

It’s been 27 years since the National Trust Main Street Center’s first urban demonstration project and 18 years since that demonstration ignited the spark for the first citywide Main Street program in Boston. Today there are more than 70 urban programs and five citywide programs across the nation, with interest building each year. Join us for two back-to-back, 75-minute sessions where we will share research findings (“The State of Urban Main Streets”), discuss best practices, question “what is urban?”—neighborhoods of major cities, downtowns of mid-sized cities, first-tier suburbs, and/or small towns located in heavily urbanized areas—and look at ways to adapt Main Street to urban environments.