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ABSTRACT
Towns on the periphery of metropolitan areas face threats from metropolitan growth and the rise of Internet retail. They may be able to play new roles in the regional economy, e.g. as locations for tele-commuting, small-scale manufacturing, artisanal work, or residential development, but such new functions may threaten their historic fabric. This paper describes challenges historic downtowns in the metropolitan periphery perceive and their efforts to address them, as revealed through a national survey. Some towns are receiving new economic activities, but only a small number of their surrounding regions appear to support both the economic vitality and historic physical fabric of these centres.
Acknowledgements
The authors are grateful to the National Main Street Center for posting our survey on their website for several weeks, and to the many Main Street community directors who took time to respond to the survey. We are especially grateful to the Main Street communities that provided interviews to assist with the development of the survey questions, and to those who provided illustrative images. We also thank Tom Jacobson, Adjunct Professor, at Virginia Commonwealth University for advice and images, and Scott Newhart, student at Virginia Commonwealth University, for research assistance.
Disclosure Statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).
Notes
1. These cities do not face the problem of over-tourism that has plagued historic central cities in Europe and elsewhere. Yet they share with them the challenge of preserving a mostly unchanging historic fabric and preserving local culture and livability in a dynamic economy. (See Becker, Citation2013; Mihalic, Citation2016; Loda et al., Citation2020).
2. In addition to the merit good quality of historic places, there are other welfare-economic justifications for government intervention through initiatives like Main Street. These include market failure, such as imperfect information that renders potential investors unable to accurately predict returns and positive externalities. Nevertheless, actual support for public historic preservation policies rests on the contingent and contested political power of advocates for those who derive meaning and identity from the historic built environment.
3. As of 2020, there are 44 statewide Main Street coordinating programs, over 1,200 Main Street designated communities, and many more program affiliates that are not full-fledged members (Staley, Citation2020). Local Main Street organizations are typically non-profits with paid directors, sometimes a small staff, and many volunteers.
4. Properties must generally be at least 50 years old to qualify as historic by official preservation standards (National Trust for Historic Preservation, Citation2015).
5. The U.S. Census Bureau (Citation2021) reported that the average one-way commute time in 2019 was 27.6 minutes. Considering this as an average commute radius, we adopted 60 miles (average distance traveled in 60 minutes) as a threshold distance between the metropolitan center and the historic towns in or near the metro core. We recognize that this is a rough definition of periphery and is not likely to fit each metro area perfectly.
6. For each case, we reviewed background information about the community and its Main Street program, we conducted at least one and in some cases two hour-long interviews with Main Street directors on site, and we followed up by asking the Main Street directors to complete and critique a pilot version of the national survey before we administered it nationally. We also drew upon prior knowledge of Main Street communities and we interviewed a statewide Main Street coordinator, who completed and critiqued the pilot survey.
7. Appendix A is available through the website: https://placesandregions.wordpress.com/.
8. Appendix B is available through the website: https://placesandregions.wordpress.com/.
9. We also asked about the town’s growth policies. Although the location of growth within the town does not have implications for regional growth management, the tools that towns use to encourage growth inside Main Street districts are of strong interest. They include directing potential businesses to downtown spaces and vacant properties, creating business recruitment guides showing how vacant spaces could look when occupied, providing incentives such as façade improvement programs, and rezoning.
10. These responses may change due to the COVID-19 pandemic, but as of March 2020, public policies were not encouraging tele-commuting.
11. The Perch shares a 9,000 square foot renovated 1940’s tire repair shop in Downtown Harrisonburg with Magpie Diner. The busy diner exposes guests to the diverse projects of the co-workers, many of whom work remotely.
12. In some communities, respondents noted that older buildings are not protected from demolition.
13. Appendix B is available through the website: https://placesandregions.wordpress.com/.
14. Note that local discretion over historic preservation standards is limited by the requirements of the federal (and in states that have one, the state) historic tax credit program.
15. This was an open-ended question.
16. Respondents could check more than one of five answers (derived from case studies conducted previously) or write their own.