The 2022 Illinois Main Street Conference ended its three day run in Bloomington at Reality on Monroe on Thursday with a keynote luncheon. The conference was attended by community dedicated professionals, volunteers, civic leaders, advocates, cheerleaders and industry experts.
Those attending believe historic Main Street Districts and neighborhood commercial corridors are at the heart of, and essential to, thriving communities. Attendees learned from each other how to grow and sustain downtown districts as centers of economic and social opportunity. The Illinois Main Street program seeks to create awareness of downtown development as a tool for community betterment across the state.
Cities 92.9 spoke with Melissa Hon, Bloomington Economic and Community Development Director, who was part of the group hosting the event, after its conclusion and asked her how the conference went.
Hon said, “I think it went extremely well. We had an excellent turnout from people all over the State of Illinois. We had wonderful presenters, people from the state and DCEO’s (Departments of Commerce and Economic Development) to other Main Street organizations providing an opportunity to come and learn what other main streets are doing and what resources are available.”
Bloomington Downtown Streetscape Plan Approved by 5 – 4 Vote
The keynote speaker was Rosie Drumgoole who is currently the Chief Program Officer at Chicago Cares. She leads the programs team which mobilizes volunteers and promotes change through diverse civic engagement and equipping civic leaders to help local communities, nonprofits, and corporations meet their strategic goals and priorities.
As an executive leader Drumgoole helped Chicago Cares navigate its way through the COVID-19 crisis while continuing to diversify its programmatic impact and volunteer base. She gave a dynamic presentation on building community partnerships in your neighborhood district.
Hon told us her main takeaway from the conference was, “I think collaboration. I think that really is a big piece of it and I think you heard it a lot at the end here, just collaborating with one another.”
Also in attendance at he conference was Kent L. Massie of Massie and Massie Associates Landscape Architecture and Land Planning. The City of Bloomington recently selected Massie and Massie as part of a team led by Crawford Murphy and Tilley (CMT) to conduct a pre-design study for downtown streetscape improvements. Both Massie and Massie as well as CMT are out of Springfield.
We asked Massie how he thought the conference went and he responded, “I think it went very well. It was interesting to see what other communities in Illinois are doing and to see what other main street people are thinking and how they react to Bloomington. So I was more of a listener this time just to see other peoples reactions.”
Massie said one of the big things he enjoyed hearing about was, “how main streets can generate business and pop up businesses and other things. In a changing world we just need to be flexible. And as I say some of the norms no longer apply. So it was sort of interesting hearing from other people what they have tried and what works and sometimes doesn’t work.”
We asked Massie how the Bloomington Streetscape Project was going and he replied, “We are just barely getting started. At this point we are doing quite a bit of data collection and reviewing the plans that have been on the shelfs for years and we are in the beginnings of talking with some people as well as doing things like traffic counts and all those things are starting up right now.”