Take a good look at the Florida Main Street program. It's sneaky clever. It's all about preserving the character and vitality of decaying downtowns -- and that would be reason enough to love it -- but here's the big bonus: It pumps cash like a wildcat well into all 50 Main Street communities.
If you've never heard of Florida Main Street, don't beat yourself up over it. You're in good company. I know at least a dozen veteran legislators running around the Capitol, making decisions on the state's now $70 billion budget, who haven't a clue what it is or what it does.
It just so happens that Florida Main Street has been celebrating its 25th anniversary during 2010.
For all those 25 years this program has provided a jaw-dropping return on taxpayers' total $5 million investment. Consider this:
- Since 1985, 90 communities have participated, yielding a return on public/private reinvestment in excess of $2.1 billion.
- New construction and rehabilitation projects run to more than 13,700, including a bunch that involve historic buildings.
- Add in 5,500 business starts and expansions.
- Plus the creation of 17,800 new jobs.
- Oh, yes, one more related benefit -- Florida citizens have donated 625,000 hours to their Main Street communities.
Allow me to explain a little about the Main Street Florida program -- and in the interest of disclosure, I'm not a dispassionate observer, I am on the board of Friends of Florida Main Street, the support arm of the organization.
Florida Main Street is deceptive. It is seemingly buried beneath layers of state government. It's administered by the Bureau of Historic Preservation, Division of Historical Resources, Florida Department of State. It is, nevertheless, what Florida is all about, dealing as it does in dreams of past and present, giving technical assistance to transform those dreams into something concrete for tomorrow.
If you want to see the success that Main Street communities have achieved in the preservation and renewal of their historic downtowns, visit Arcadia, DeLand, Ocala, Panama City, Plant City, and dozens more. They're all across the state.
Florida Main Street is not unique. All 50 states have a Main Street program. But the birth of Florida's in 1985 coincided with the state's landmark Comprehensive Planning Act. By that time, sprawling development had scattered the population. Once-cohesive, busy town and city centers were emptying like a bathtub with a faulty plug. Malls and strip shopping centers were popping up in literally hundreds of new suburbs.
Floridians were ready for a program like Florida Main Street, a program that stressed -- and taught -- the components of design, organization, promotion and economic restructuring, to restore and revitalize their dying downtowns.
During the 1980s I was living in Stuart, a city with a downtown given a dire prognosis and hooked up to life support. Along came its mayor, Joan Jefferson, and her architect husband Peter. They had a follow-our-lead idea that they could begin to revitalize downtown by purchasing and renovating one of the city's down-at-the-heels historic buildings, living in one part, working in the other.
I thought at the time that they were nuts. I thought the financial risk was too great. But they believed and took a chance.
It was the beginning of the resurgence of Downtown Stuart.
With Joan Jefferson's leadership -- Joan and Peter brought in planner Andres Duany to help design a work-in-live-in, walkable city -- Stuart was on its way. The city's participation in Main Street Florida was the coup de grace. Block for block, Stuart became perhaps the hottest property in Martin County.
In appreciation, the city of Stuart named a street after its charismatic leader, Joan Jefferson Way.
How fitting that today Joan is the coordinator of the Florida Main Street program.
When asked what she considers her proudest moments during her seven years heading up the program, she said, "I am proud of the buildings saved, the downtowns revitalized, and the positive economic impact provided by active Florida Main Street communities throughout the state."
And who wouldn't be?
Florida Main Street is all about quality of life, about preserving and showcasing the best of Florida's past -- its small-town flavor and sense of community, its penchant for rebirth, its entrepreneurial spirit. It is altogether shivers-down-the-spine exciting stuff.
I hope our new governor and legislative leaders realize what they've got in a program that makes money, creates jobs and advocates a return to community self-reliance.
Reach Nancy Smith at nancybutlersmith@yahoo.com, or at (850) 727-0859.
