Could Placemaking Fix Corydon?
A successful economic development strategy built on quality-of life to be discussed by Ball State on Tuesday
I’d like to invite everyone to a presentation Main Street Corydon is doing on Dec 2nd at 6:30 pm to 8 pm at the Harrison County Community Foundation.
Sharon Canaday from Ball State's Building Better Communities is going to talk about placemaking.
I recently went to Ball State's Primacy of Place conference in Indianapolis with Catherine Turcotte, the new director of Main Street Corydon (and the visionary founder of our local YMCA) and we were blown away by the new quality-of-life driven economic development thinking coming out of Ball State and some of the most successful Indiana communities.
Placemaking is a community and economic development strategy that relies on cleaning up your community through quality-of-life projects and efforts to help attract young professionals, active seniors and talented people to live here.
This influx of new talent then attracts businesses looking to locate where there are pools of talented workers. This strategy is working in places like Carmel and Columbus, Indiana, which have been growing jobs and raising income levels for their people. I think New Albany and Jeffersonville will also soon reap the benefits of their downtown efforts.
Click here for a great summary from Ball State about placemaking.
Main Street Corydon and community groups are interested in applying this strategy in Corydon. As everyone knows our downtown has struggled for decades, barely propped up by our strong regional tourism industry based around our history as Indiana's First State Capital.
But there is a re-urbanization going on in America and maybe Corydon can be one of the towns to benefit.
With the bicentennial celebrations focused here in 2016 - and the eyes of Indiana upon us - now is the time to make a new strategy and improve Corydon for the better.
Come out and talk with us Tuesday and share your thoughts on making Corydon better.
Construction Manager / Owner at Shireman Construction Management
10 年You should come tonight at 6:30 at the Community Foundation. Communities like Carmel and Columbus, IN have been at placemaking for decades and are showing results - way ahead of the state trends on income growth, prosperity, good-paying job creation, etc. As far as a local timeline, the Chamber, Town and Main Street Corydon will take most of next year to reach out to everyone and plan and then we hope to get started on some projects and get the snowball rolling downhill.
Marketer | Writer | Passionately Individual
10 年This is certainly an interesting perspective. I would be interested in learning more about this and also an initial projected timeline on how the other cities implemented their programs and when they began to see change. Jeffersonville and New Albany have both had resurgence in the last 10 years, though New Albany's has only more recently (within the last five years) become more noticable to the public. Many people think a decade is too long to see a change but the reality is a community can begin to feel the affects much sooner. Really, too, when speaking in terms of economic growth and development, 5-10 years is a very short time when you consider the planning that must take place and the capital that often must be raised for the endeavors. This will be an interesting and informative session, I believe.