Editorial: Celebrating 20 Years On Main Street

Neil Heinen Weighs In On Commerce Department Revitalization Project

The heart of most communities is found downtown -- Main Street. It's the place where local businesses, civic institutions and public amenities combine to give a place an identity. Such community assets used to grow naturally. But as a variety of elements combined to spread us all out a little, we lost some of that sense of place. Clearly, a lot of people yearned to get it back.

For the last 20 years, the Wisconsin Main Street program has supported the revitalization of the state's historic commercial districts. Through a four-point program of organization, promotion, design and economic restructuring, the Wisconsin Department of Commerce has offered interested communities, training, design and market analysis, on site assistance and business counseling, resource materials and more through it's Wisconsin Main Street Program. The results include over 3,300 new businesses, 15,000 new jobs, almost 500 new housing units and an astonishing return on investment. Thirty-five Wisconsin communities have healthier downtowns as a result, some of the most successful among the first including Beloit and Platteville.

We join the Commerce Department and all the Main Street Communities in celebrating 20 years of revitalized downtowns.

-- Neil Heinen, Editorial Director, WISC-TV