Working in Rhode Island to improve state economic efforts in cities
By Pamela Thomas
Published: December 5, 2011
Related story: 'Eyes on the street' in Providence
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Gov. Lincoln Chafee
When Governor Lincoln Chafee marched down Main Street in Woonsocket this spring, he vowed that his administration would seek ways to breathe new life into the struggling downtowns of Rhode Island’s largest communities.
The newly elected governor knew that his state was plagued by chronic high unemployment but blessed with a robust small-business spirit. If he could somehow nurture the entrepreneurs that typically fill Main Street storefronts, perhaps he could also develop some desperately needed jobs.
Just as Chafee was shaking hands on the vacancy-studded Main Street, an unexpected source of help was preparing to arrive in the Ocean State.
Armed with a large grant, national experts on urban commercial revitalization were packing their bags. Rhode Island had been chosen as one of three locations nationwide to participate in the Corridors of Retail Excellence Program, sponsored by The Institute for Comprehensive Community Development, a part of The Local Initiative Support Corporation (LISC).
In Rhode Island, LISC was well-known for its success in transforming blighted neighborhoods into safer places to live, with numerous physical improvements from housing to parks, and increased participation in community life by its residents.
But, now, Rhode Island LISC wanted more: The next step in building a vibrant community was to improve its local economy and raise its residents’ quality of life. To LISC, a thriving Main Street meant more jobs, higher incomes and a better way of life.
Turns out, that’s just what Governor Chafee was thinking.
Revitalizing Main Street
Though his state budget was bleeding red, he said he envisioned a “main street revitalization initiative” that would offer incentives to breathe new life into commercial corridors , and provide access to capital.
“We want to help revitalize some of these more-distressed communities,” Chafee said. “We’re here to listen, but what we hear over and over again is that access to capital, infrastructure improvements and permitting are frequent refrains. … Anything that helps small business prosper, that’s what we want to do. That’s the heart of the main street.”
Shortly after that, Carrie Zaslow, the Rhode Island LISCprogram officer, welcomed into town Helen Dunlap and Larisa Ortiz Pu-Folkes, consultants with LISC's Institute for Comprehensive Community Development.
After a whirlwind two-day visit to several sites in Rhode Island, meeting with a wide range of community leaders in Woonsocket and Providence’s West End and touring the commercial corridors of both areas and talking with merchants, they began to brainstorm over what they had learned.
Safety for shoppers was an issue in the West End. So was parking.
In Woonsocket, Main Street was lively at both ends, but littered with vacancies in the middle. The Stadium Theater and several nightspots already attracted plenty of out-of-towners into Woonsocket’s downtown — a priceless starting point — but how could those visitors be persuaded to stay longer to patronize other businesses?
Spending power
And, in both regions, LISC’s number-crunching analyses offered up a big surprise to community business leaders: The spending power of area residents was much higher than previously assumed.
One important point soon became clear. Gov. Chafee’s Economic Development Corporation was working to clear away the red tape and ensnarls many start-up businesses in the state, and it was laboring with the state’s various chambers of commerce to help individual businesses. But no mechanism existed to target help to investment-ready market areas, including the Main Streets that the governor hoped to boost.
In fact, it turned out state legislation even forbade one common economic tool in American cities, the Business Improvement District, from being used in any town with less than 100,000 people.
In Rhode Island, that meant only Providence was eligible. (And it was using its BID with great success).
Sharing insights
Because the Corridors of Excellence project seemed to be dovetailing so closely with the Governor’s desires, Zaslow, Dunlap and Ortiz decided it was time to talk not just with the communities they were trying to help but the state powers themselves. The information they were gathering needed to be shared.
At a meeting with EDC officials in September, the LISC team presented its message:
Woonsocket, at the northern border of Rhode Island
On Main Street, it’s not enough to help one business. A plan for a whole area needs to be developed and managed. In Woonsocket, for example, plans were now afoot to spruce up all the available storefronts and hold a one-day Storefront Open House so potential business owners can conveniently see many spaces at once.
But small merchants themselves are already over-extended in keeping their businesses going. They don’t have time to step back and work on implementing a Main Street strategy with ambitious projects such as a storefront open house.
That would require another set of hands — someone or some agency that could take the lead in making plans for a Main Street’s entire market and coordinating those efforts so the businesses would then be able to focus on taking advantage of the work.
Ortiz said that, through the two sites where LISC is working, “we can demonstrate these principles.’’ LISC is serving as the change agent for connecting the communities and the state.
Right now, she said, “There’s no connection but for LISC.”
After the initial meeting with LISC, the EDC wanted to set up further meetings to figure out what can be done, Zaslow said. That’s being worked out now.
Dunlap is hopeful that, with state involvement, some real progress will develop for Rhode Island’s Main Street businesses. In Woonsocket now, for example, the excitement level is high for getting things moving.
“We have a community in Woonsocket that has energy for change, a governor who wants change, and LISC is assisting merchants with a roadmap for action,” said Dunlap. “We’re learning and educating, but we’re also taking action. "
Posted in Rhode Island