I recently had the privilege of attending my second National Main Street Conference. It was a great chance to see another part of the country and reconnect with people from Wyoming and across the nation. This trip served well to remind me of why I love our downtown, community of Laramie and the state of Wyoming. It also reinforced for me 3 things that I believe in for our community. They revolve around community service, need for housing, and need for small business support.
“This trip served well to remind me of why I love our downtown, community of Laramie and the state of Wyoming. It also reinforced for me 3 things that I believe in for our community. They revolve around community service, need for housing, and need for small business support.”
Spending time with others from around the state for 2 days learning new things and sharing was a highlight. It is always fun to learn what other programs are doing and how they are doing them. This allows for fresh new ideas to be shared and tweaked to fit the needs of downtown Laramie. I also had the opportunity to get to know others from our own community a little better and see them serve, learn, and be excited about existing and new ideas and opportunities for our community. Those that know me know that I believe wholeheartedly in serving my community and that everyone else also has a place in serving. We can go and gather lots of great ideas to help but without able bodies to help carry out the vision we can only accomplish so much.
This trip was a much-needed revitalization for me for my love of our downtown along with a stark reminder that there are so many more great things we could be doing if only we had more people to help us do the work required. Not everyone is called to serve downtown but I do believe there is somewhere for each and every person in our community to be able to serve others for the benefit of the community as a whole.
I was also able to attend some sessions to learn more about housing issues across the nation. I know this is a big topic for Laramie right now so as crazy as it may seem, it was nice to be reminded that we are not alone. National Main Street is working on some great data for our downtowns to use to understand where downtowns fit into the housing crisis. I am excited to see how Laramie continues to tackle this issue and specifically how Laramie Main Street can work with property owners in our downtown to increase the number of housing units available in our downtown. We have so many opportunities and now is prime time to figure out how to capitalize on them.
Lastly, I was reenergized about some ideas for supporting the businesses and budding entrepreneurs in our community that had been topics at the first National Main Street conference I attended a few years ago. One of these programs helps use public funding for businesses to start or expand. It allows ideas to come forward and community members to show up and choose which idea they want to start at a low cost of $5 per person. A business can use this to pitch an expansion, a patio upgrade, a new offering, or anything else they can think of that they think the community would support. Businesses are offered some guidance and coaching throughout the process and then the community gets to be involved in helping with funding and encouragement. New businesses can also pitch themselves in the same vein to garner community support and funding.
Another great idea for our community is a Possibilities Tour. This takes vacant spaces in our district and invites the community to check out the spaces and envision a future for those spaces. This can help existing or prospective property owners to get ideas for the spaces as well as understand more about things the community desires for Laramie spaces.
As a small business owner myself I know that it can sometimes seem like we are alone in this journey. I know that Laramie Main Street tries to support or businesses in our downtown in many ways. I also know that all my needs and desires can’t be met without some of my own time and resources being added to the cause. It was nice to be able to visit with other business owners from across the state and the nation to help understand how their main street programs have helped them and what they are doing to help these integral parts of our community.
I personally was reminded of my need to help figure out more ways to help the small business owners in our downtown help themselves and help the community. I have committed again to pursing ways to finish our wayfinding signage and entrance signs into our beautiful downtown. I also hope to be able to do more business to business outreach for Laramie Main Street as well.
“Remember to find your place to serve in the community and to shop local!”
Ultimately, as our Great American Main Street Award win show, downtown Laramie is doing great things for our community. And I am energized about that. But I also know that this was just a stepping stone on the way to many other great things to come with support from community member involvement, helping to shrink the housing shortage, and continuing to support our local small business owners. Remember to find your place to serve in the community and to shop local!
