FUEL MAIN STREET USA WITH CREATIVITY

BE CREATIVE, VISIONARY AND ARTISTIC

• Turn vacant lots into weekend art festival spaces.

• Convince owners of vacant shops to donate space for gallery events -- to show off the potential of their urban storefronts.

• Encourage diners, coffee houses and taverns to host poetry readings.

• Urban culture doesn’t have to be on the scale of Manhattan -- it often grows best on a few good blocks of a century-old Main Street.

• Miami’s Calle Ocho was a ghost town of ruined blocks on a former Main Street turned into a 3-lane highway hurtling traffic into Brickell and Downtown.

• Then came Cultural Fridays – once a month events with music, art and food.

• Soon, galleries and theaters filled vacant storefronts, slumping shops and restaurants were re-energized while property values rose.