The Ishpeming Main Street Program Story
The Ishpeming Main Street Program is an economic development program specifically targeted to provide technical assistance to the City.
In the summer of 2005, the City of Ishpeming was awarded the title as a Michigan Main Street. With this honor we will carry out the Nation Trust Main Street Centers approach, which the four-point approach and goes as follows.
The MAIN STREET FOUR POINT APPROACH is a comprehensive strategy that is tailored to meet local needs and opportunities. It encompasses work in four distinct areas - Design, Economic Restructuring, Promotion, and Organization that are combined to address all of the commercial district's needs.
The Main Street approach is incremental; it is not designed to produce immediate change. Because they often fail to address the underlying causes of commercial district decline, expensive improvements, such as pedestrian malls or sports arenas, do not always generate the desired economic results. In order to succeed, a long-term revitalization effort requires careful attention to every aspect of downtown - a process that takes time and requires leadership and local capacity building.
GOALS:
Improve the physical appearance and restoring the historic architecture that is our Community.
Strengthen existing business by providing resources to enable businesses to be successful and creating a business resource center.
Attract businesses that will bring new life and interest into the community.
To act as a clearinghouse for community activities and special events and to be inclusive.
To capitalize on Ishpeming's strengths:
- It's school system
- It's iron mining heritage
- It's natural beauty
- It's skiing heritage
