Main Street Arkansas Update - May 28, 2008

NEXT MSA QUARTERLY TRAINING: JULY 29-30, HARDY

Topic: Main to Main (how can we replicate this in AR?)

Speaker: Leon Steele, main to main coordinator, Louisiana main street

this topic has been requested by nearly all of our executive directors after last year’s destination downtown conference



LAST CALL - INVOICES for GRANTS awarded this fiscal year DUE in office THIS FRIDAY, MAY 30 – no exceptions!



OCTOBER 6-8, DESTINATION DOWNTOWN, BAY ST. LOUIS, MS

OCTOBER 21-25 – NATIONAL TRUST FOR HISTORIC PRESERVATION CONFERENCE, TULSA, OK



Main Street Arkansas Calendar May 27-30, 2008

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MONDAY MSA offices closed for Memorial Day
TUESDAY Caroline – ill
WEDNESDAY Mark & Susan, El Dorado
THURSDAY Main Street Arkansas Advisory Board Meeting
FRIDAY Cary – out

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AHPP LETTER TO AR BIZ
DODDS LETTER TO AR BIZ
SoMa PRESS
NATURALLY ARKANSAS
SPRING RUNS CELEBRATE NATURAL BEAUTY OF DOWNTOWN
HOW TO CHOOSE BEST TREES FOR URBAN LANDSCAPE
LOCAL HORITCULTURAL TALENTS SHOWCASED THROUGH GARDEN AND HOUSE TOURS
PROMOTE LOCAL FLORAL ARTISTRY DOWNTOWN THOUGH JURIED SHOWS & EXHIBITIONS
MAIN STREET ORVILLE, OHIO IMPLEMENTS SUCCESSFUL HANGING BASKET PROGRAM


AHPP LETTER TO AR BIZ (Full Text Posted at the End of the E-Blast)
http://www.arkansasbusiness.com/printable.asp?aid=105084

PAUL DODDS’ LETTER TO AR BIZ (Full Text Posted at the End of the E-Blast)
http://www.arkansasbusiness.com/printable.asp?aid=105267
- Paul is the President of the Historic Preservation Alliance of Arkansas

Southside Main Street invites passers-by to have a seat, enjoy
http://www2.arkansasonline.com/news/2008/may/20/southside-main-street-invites-passers--ha-20080520/
- subscriber only, sorry.

Naturally Arkansas:
Visit Naturally Arkansas at: http://www.naturallyarkansas.org/, to learn about “Arkansas Grown,” the Arkansas Agricultural Department’s trademark for local products. Use their web site to look up local products in your area, and become acquainted with the farmers markets in your county. Naturally Arkansas a great network of all things local, for farmers, vendors—even entrepreneurial chefs who wish to buy local, and support the local economy.

Make use of horticultural resources for streetscape advice:

The University of Arkansas Cooperative Extension Service has offices in every county in the state. Contact them for advice as you landscape your downtown. Visit their web site at: http://www.uaex.edu/

Also visit the National Arbor Day Foundation and become a tree guru. Browse their database for tree types and find out what is most suitable to you downtown and climate. http://www.arborday.org/trees/treeGuide/browseTrees.cfm

Spring Runs Bring People into downtown and surrounding neighborhoods:

Add a Spring Run to one of your festivals downtown this year. The City of Oxford, Mississippi does a tremendous job with their annual Double Decker Festival. They routed the runs and walks, involving all ages, through Oxford’s surrounding historic neighborhoods. Read all about it: http://www.oxfordcvb.com/doubledecker/2008/run.html

Showcase Southern charm through local garden and house tours:

Gardening is the top hobby in America today. Almost every Southern town has an older surrounding neighborhood universally known for its eye-catching house gardens. Historic Charleston Foundation does a terrific job of showcasing the area’s most beautiful historic homes and charming Southern gardens. It’s a great way for communities to promote their downtown neighborhoods, and highlight the local green thumbs. For ideas, visit Charleston’s Festival of Houses and Gardens at: http://www.historiccharleston.org/news_events/festival.html. They’ve got some great festivities incorporated into the festival, involving local artists, musicians, chefs and such. Think about inviting neighbors to collaborate to produce a classic neighborhood event.

Exhibit Local Floral Artistry:

Local florists and master gardeners in your community may be quietly itching to show off their artistic talents and compete to produce exquisite pieces for the public to view. The Minneapolis Institute of Art (MIA) just held its annual “Art in Bloom” exhibition earlier this month, where flowers were exhibited as fine art. http://www.artsmia.org/art-in-bloom But if you don’t have the wherewithal to host such an exhibition, consider transforming MIA’s exhibition into a broader downtown event. A few ideas: A sponsored competition of hanging and non-hanging flower boxes, free-standing floral sculptures, and fountain projects for public gathering places. Involve your local community master gardeners, university horticultural programs, 4-H kids, and neighborhood gardener gurus. Make it a juried show with prizes, and plan an evening event with music and food downtown.

Main Street Orville shares successful hanging basket program:

The Main Street Orville program, in Ohio, just finished hanging 250 hanging baskets in their downtown. The flower program is entirely funded by voluntary donations through a program they call Bloomin’ Orrville! The total cost is about $11,000 for the season. The cost covers the flowers and a maintenance contract with a local green house. Executive Director Darin Wasniewski reports, “This year we doubled the size of the program and the community stepped right up.” Main Street Orville worked with the local government and municipal utilities to provide a “painless” way to donate, Wasniewski said. Utility customers sign a contract to have $1, $2, $5, or $10 a month added to their utility bill. This money goes into a special fund for the Bloomin’ Orrville! program that they were able to request monies from to cover expenses. The donation stays in effect until the customer opts out. Main Street Orville raises nearly $6000 per year through this method alone and expect to increase funds each year. For more information on the hanging basket program, feel free to email Executive Director Darrin Wasniewski at: darrin@mainstreetorrville.org



Stranded in Suburbia

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/19/opinion/19krugman.html?_r=2&ref=opinion&oref=login&oref=slogin



11 Most Endangered Announced

http://blogs.nationaltrust.org/preservationnation/?p=588

- and a nice discussion about the list on MetaFilter.

http://www.metafilter.com/71824/Coming-Soon-A-pink-hotel-a-boutique-and-a-swinging-hot-spot



AHPP LETTER TO AR BIZ PRINTED IN THE MAY 19-25 ISSUE

As the state's chief advocate for historic preservation, I am compelled to respond to comments noted in the most recent Arkansas Business about the economic sense of restoring "old" or historic buildings.

To begin with, I am forced to address the issue of tearing down a building to make more parking - when it comes to revitalizing downtowns, density is critical. Little Rock is littered with surface parking lots, gaps in the proverbial teeth of our building stock, and the last thing this city needs is more surface parking. In fact, except in the economically strongest downtowns, rarely is the quantity of available parking spaces the issue. There are plenty of spaces. The issue is nearly always management of the parking that already exists. Also, a surface parking lot precludes the sale of goods and services in that location. Almost no use provides less property tax revenue than a surface parking lot.

Secondly, now that we're living in a "green" world, we must recognize that the greenest building is the one that's already built. If we're not thinking of the embodied energy lost in tearing down a historic building and the energy it takes to create a new building, then we're not looking at the construction picture holistically. As a comparison, tearing down one small historic building wipes out the entire environmental benefit from the last 1,344,000 aluminum cans that were recycled. Nearly a quarter of everything dumped at landfills is from construction debris. We don't often think about the environment in relation to the demolition of historic buildings. Historic preservation is the ultimate recycling.

We must also consider the quality of place that our historic built environment creates. Economic development in the 21st century means recruiting the most talented people. In recruiting people, place matters and that place almost always starts downtown where the majority of our historic buildings are located.

It's true that with the rise of construction costs (affected by everything from Katrina to the cost of fuel), rehabilitation costs are rising with everything else. That's why we need additional incentives to rehabilitate our historic buildings. Also, rehabilitating our densely built commercial core keeps our cities from being disconnected, which encourages a community's walkability - an important issue when fuel is growing closer to $4 a gallon and the waistline is growing at a similar pace.

We also need to recognize that the economic value of real estate stems not from within four walls and a roof but rather the context within which the individual property exists. We've seen the value of property in the River Market [District] and Argenta rise exponentially in the last 10 or so years. While there are many reasons for that, I submit that the No. 1 reason is the focus on historic preservation in both areas.

Frances "Missy" McSwain
Director, Arkansas Historic
Preservation Program
Little Rock

Only Asphalt Counts (Paul Dodds Commentary)
By Paul Dodds - 5/26/2008

Printed in May 26 Issue

(Editor's Note: Arkansas Business has not taken a position in favor of parking rather than historic renovation by Central Arkansas Library System or any other entity. The article Paul Dodds references was a news story exploring the use of taxpayer dollars on a construction project whose price tag grew from $5 million to $15.5 million. A single quote from veteran Little Rock appraiser Tom Ferstl was the only reference to parking in the 1,500-word article.)

Arkansas Business published on May 5 an article about the Central Arkansas Library System's Arkansas Studies Center. The article presented this important historic renovation as a vain, ill-conceived waste of taxpayer money. In it, the reporter approvingly quoted an appraiser who looked at the project and asked: "Are we really getting our best bang for the buck? You could've put parking in where the buildings are. That has been one of my pet gripes. The library doesn't have enough parking as it is."

Parking vs. preserving irreplaceable buildings for generations of public use? It is clear where the priorities of Arkansas Business lie. Parking. Rip the heart out of the city and replace it with the only economically sane use of the land. Parking. Destroy buildings that provide a major part of the backdrop of the most successful street in Arkansas. For what? Parking. The only sensible choice!

Isn't it time we stopped repeating this kind of litany as if it were true? How much of our social fabric do we have to shred in our refusal to honor either public spaces or the true economic and social values that historic preservation bring us? This kind of shortsighted miscalculation leads to nothing but ugliness and cheapness. It is not the kind of thinking that has made this country great. It leads us down exactly the wrong path. Parking.

We reject the analysis presented by Arkansas Business and refuse to believe that parking is the only rational choice. Clearly, preserving historic buildings is expensive. We know that. Every time anyone tries to save an older building, he or she opens up a can of worms - some worse than others. Building major public spaces for future generations is also always expensive. But when the malls are shuttered and the sprawl grows tired, this complex will still serve, and serve beautifully. It guards, and will help form, the city's living core.

Archives carry huge dead load weights. This is expensive, far more so than office buildings, however green and lovely. In comparing this historic rehab to the Heifer International building, the article compared apples to oranges without really admitting it. The article also failed to note that construction costs everywhere have increased dramatically since the Heifer building went up. Prices are not those of three years ago and not those of when this building was first planned. While skimming over these facts supported the article's "outraged taxpayer" tone, it did so unfairly. We cherish our free press and agree that public servants should be held to high standards - high, fair standards.

The Central Arkansas Library is an anchor for downtown, a building of which all Arkansans can be proud. Bobby Roberts' tenacious foresight is a gift. In measuring value, let's go past the comparison to asphalt and look again. Let's look at the value of the buildings around CALS and the value of the private investment that now flows through the River Market area, thanks in no small part to Bobby Roberts' vision.

Before Arkansas Business readers cluck and condemn Bobby Roberts as a wasteful fool for spending $233 per square foot to save the heart of Little Rock, ask some of the neighbors. How much per-square-foot value would First Security Building owners lose if their main neighbor were tarmac? How much would the Third Street tower lose? How much would the bars, restaurants and shops up and down Markham lose? How much tax revenue would be lost if a key block of downtown were devoted to nothingness and all the area around lost appeal? Add that up with the sharp pencil and tell us again. How dumb, really, was this public investment in preservation and creation of meaningful shared space?

Perhaps not so dumb after all. Hard to capture, we know, but real. These values are real. The CALS complex creates and supports the market all around it, and we all benefit. It is historic preservation at its most difficult and its most important. Please, Arkansas, reject the kind of leadership to nowhere that Arkansas Business' false "expose" seems to demand. There is another way, and it is far, far better than more blank, dead asphalt.

(Paul Dodds is president of the Historic Preservation Alliance of Arkansas. E-mail him at paul@dodds.us.)