When national politicians refer to “Main Street America,” they usually have something like downtown Clarkston in mind.
To keep it that way, city officials are trying out Main Street Oakland County.
“Clarkston has a very unique perspective in that it is a community built around a main street,” said Curt Catallo, owner of Clarkston Union and Clarkston Caf?. “Washington isn’t referring to Main Corridor America.”
Clarkston’s Main Street “sets up the narrative for whole experience,” he said.
“Main Street defines the character of our community or township,” he said. “Otherwise, it could start to look like every third exit on I-75 and nobody wants that.”
Clarkston joined the county-run program on a mentoring basis.
“Clarkston, we think, is a perfect fit for Main Street,” said Brett Rasegan, Oakland County planning supervisor. “The mentoring program will allow the city to get a taste of what Main Street is all about and hopefully go on to apply for the full program in a year or two.”
If the city does not maintain a “vital downtown,” property values will drop, said City Councilwoman Kristy Ottman..
“We need to put our energies as a city into the base structure that we have now and build on it,” she said. “The MSOC program will help us work with other communities that our working to revitalize or improve upon their downtowns.”
The mentoring program is free, noted Ottman.
“More than that, it allows us to leverage all of the other communities that have gone ahead of us in the program,” she said. “We will not make the same mistakes that they made, they will be able to teach us, guide us, The mentoring program is free, which is in the cities budget, noted Ottman.
“More than that, it allows us to leverage all of the other communities that have gone ahead of us in the program,” she said. “We will not make the same mistakes that they made, they will be able to teach us, guide us, and help us to marry what we have and move forward using their experience.”
Main Street Oakland County was established in 2000, and is patterned after the National Trust’s Main Street Center, founded in 1980 and serving more than 2,000 downtowns in 40 states.
Four communities are also in the mentor program, Berkley, Clawson, Hazel Park, and Leonard. Twelve communities are fully involved, Farmington, Ferndale, Highland, Holly, Oxford, Ortonville, Lake Orion, Keego Harbor, Pontiac, Rochester, Royal Oak and Walled Lake.
The MSOC uses the National Trust’s four point approach of Organization, Design, Promotion and Economic Restructuring in helping communities, noted Rasegan.
Organization deals with recruiting volunteers. Design addresses physical and visual aspects such as building fa’ade, parking, window display, and street landscape. Promotion includes events hosted downtown. Economic Restructuring examines business mix within the downtown, compares that with market demand, and determines what’s missing.
Most MSOC communities have downtown development associations, which are encouraged to use the system to organize themselves, Rasegan said
Mark Young, Oxford’s DDA chairperson, said he noticed a difference, being part of MSOC and using the four-point program.
“With the four-point program, it gives a good framework to work from to allow the community besides the business people to kind of work together and promote the town and have some type of hand in how it’s going to be designed growth wise, what they want to see with their town,” said Young.
Oxford’s DDA director earns about $49,000 annually.
“The Oakland Country Main Street program offers over $28,000 per year worth of services to our community, which is invaluable in an economy like this where there isn’t a spare penny anywhere,” said Molly Lalone, DDA director of Ortonville.
Lalone said Ortonville had 83 events between April and June of this year held in downtown. The events were either sponsored by the DDA, businesses and volunteers put many of the events on.
“The volunteer basis of this is what really makes Main Street go when you get those volunteers involved,” said Robert Renchick, Ortonville DDA president and business owner.
Lalone, whose DDA manager position is parttime with a salary of about $15,000, said the Main Street program helps bring everybody together.
“It helps protect the downtown area that we have and make some of those business and property owners feel a little bit more secure even when it’s not necessarily a secure economy,” she said.
Lake Orion’s DDA Director Lois Golden said even in the current economy Lake Orion is doing “extremely well.”
She appreciates the services that are offered through the MSOC program.
“I think it’s valuable, sometimes the board members don’t always see the tangible benefits but definitely if I had to choose one thing that we absolutely couldn’t give up that would certainly be the design assistance,” said Golden, who was hired in 2006 at a salary of $44,200. “That’s definitely helpful.”
Anything that can be done to help Main Street should be welcomed, said Catallo.
“I’m not just saying that because I have businesses on Main Street,” he said. “Even if I was just a home owner in Clarkston I recognize how important that is to differentiate us from all these other communities.”
Mayor Sharron Catallo said time will tell.
“Only time is going to tell if there will be continued interest in the Main Street program,” she said.
Ottman said her intent in entering this program is to give the city a 10-20 year outlook as to what direction they are heading.
“The short term plan is changing daily with everything that’s happening, but a long term plan is crucial because we have to start with the end in mind,” said Ottman. “We cannot make decisions without knowing where we want to end up.”