Two economic vitality programs coming soon to Sebastopol
At the last city council meeting, the Chamber of Commerce promoted Main Street America, while Councilmember Phill Carter introduced the idea of "Economic Gardening" to grow the local economy
At Tuesday’s Sebastopol City Council, listeners were introduced to two economic vitality programs, one or both of which might be coming soon to Sebastopol.
Main Street America
The first came in a presentation from the Sebastopol Chamber of Commerce’s Myriah Volk and Andrea Caron of the Sebastopol Downtown Association. Last September, Volk and Caron went on a road trip up through northern California to the Main Street America Conference in Eureka.
“We spent time on the way up, stopping in every small town that we could, to observe their downtowns—what each town did differently, what we saw as things that could be improved, what we saw as things that inspired us for Sebastopol,” Volk said.
“The conference itself was highly informational,” she continued. “I think this program is one that would be a great match for Sebastopol right now. It’s really all about the revitalization of the downtown corridor.”
Main Street America is a national nonprofit revitalization program, founded in 1977, affiliated with the National Trust for Historic Preservation. Focused on restoring economic vitality to small-town downtowns, it works with over 1,200 communities in 44 states.
Caron said Main Street America takes a four-point approach:
Design – Improve streetscapes, signage, and aesthetics.
Economic Vitality – Strengthen and diversify the local economy.
Promotion – Market our downtown to locals and visitors.
Organization – Build partnerships across city, business, and community groups.
The cost to join runs from $300 to $600. Volk and Caron said their organizations planned to pick up the cost of membership, but said that they wouldn’t turn down money if the city wanted to chip in.
What can Sebastopol expect to get for its membership in this organization?
Access to grant opportunities
Technical assistance and national resources
Training for volunteers and staff via conferences and webinars
Long-term sustainability planning for the downtown
Sounds good, but Councilmember Sandra Maurer asked how exactly it was supposed to work.
“Think of this organization like a library,” Caron said. “It’s a library, but it’s not books, it’s people who are all experienced in Main Street downtown issues. So we, basically, have our own issues. We go to their library, and we can get the information that we need to be able to implement things, instead of having to create something from scratch. That’s the thing that impressed me the most: they have a plethora of people, and we can say, ‘We have this issue.’ They’ve seen it, they’ve done it, and they have the specialists that will help point us in the right direction.”
“The thing that struck me is to have one source that we could go to for all of the issues that we need substantial information on and not have to keep piecing it out would be great,” Caron said.
Volk noted that Sebastopol isn’t the only small town struggling with these issues.
“One of the things that I found really interesting about the conference was there were people from small towns from all over the state,” Volk said. “I thought that some of the issues we have in Sebastopol were unique to Sebastopol and what I found was that that wasn’t really the case. There were a lot of overlap in the challenges that a small downtown faces.”
Caron echoed that thought. “A lot of Main Streets are dying,” she said. “I think it’s important to take advantage of this [program] right now. The cost is minimal, and I was just really impressed about how they now have a proven setup.”
“This, to me, as a businessperson who has been in business for 40 years, makes the most sense,” Caron said, “because trying to reinvent the wheel constantly is just a waste of time, and we have a lot to do.”
Councilmember Neysa Hinton noted that Sebastopol had been involved in this program in the early 1990s and that she and several others had gone to a Main Street America conference in Palm Springs, which they paid for themselves. In a conversation with the Sebastopol Times after the meeting, she said that many good things came from that initial involvement, including the banners around downtown and ideas for promotions like Moonlight Madness—in which people came down in their pajamas to shop in the middle of the night. Back then, she said the threat to small town downtowns was not Amazon, but shopping malls.
Public comment on this presentation was universally positive and full of good ideas for the improvement of the town. Kate Haug suggested using a Survey Monkey survey to solicit what business owners need to thrive; sprucing up the plaza; removing the visual blight caused by duplicative signage; cleaning up the light poles; and making sure the Rite Aid space doesn’t stand vacant and attract transients. Oliver Dick echoed the idea of sprucing up the plaza and suggested having a Visitor Center kiosk there, since the current Chamber visitor center is outside of the main tourist area. Bill DeCarli of Hopmonk suggested putting more flowers downtown, noting “that just lifts the whole space.” Linda Robinett suggested letting more people know about the Sebastopol swag available at the Chamber of Commerce. Bootmaker and former councilmember Michael Carnacchi threw his support behind the proposal as well and said Volk and Caron have his full support.
The council may bring this item back at a future date with the idea of funding all or part of Sebastopol’s membership in the Main Street America organization.
See the full staff report on this item here.
Economic Gardening
At the same council meeting, Councilmember Phil Carter proposed that the city begin an Economic Gardening effort, which despite the name has nothing to do with the kind of gardening that involves compost, seeds, and weeding.
According to the staff report, “Economic Gardening is a nationally recognized model that supports second-stage and growth-oriented small businesses by providing resources, networks, and strategic insights. Rather than focusing on recruitment [of new businesses], this approach strengthens the local economy from within—retaining the city’s cultural and economic identity.”
“This is a program that has proven legs and works since the late 90s to support businesses that already exist, so you don’t have to go out fishing for new businesses, adding tax incentives or whatever to get some brand new businesses in,” Carter said. “It mostly focuses on the businesses that we already have and provides them resources in education, mentorship, data, and supplies a venue for them to communicate.”
The first step, according to Carter, is a workshop to connect local business owners and city government.
“So basically, this is to begin a relationship with our business community through a workshop…on how the city can best help the business community,” Carter said. “We facilitate that by having a venue where people can express their knowledge, wisdom, feelings, what's inhibiting them, how the city council can best provide a way to support them.”
Carter said he would volunteer his own personal time to facilitate this effort so as to save on the cost of staff time. He also said he would work closely with the Chamber of Commerce to put this event together.
The cost of this initiative is already included in this year’s budget at $3,000.
The City Council approved the Economic Gardening event and authorized staff to proceed with organizing it. See the full staff report on this item here.
Walking our ‘downtown’ sidewalks as I have done in for example, Cloverdale, it seems to me that Sebastopol leaders don’t value trees. In my 15 years in this village I ponder this lack of care for long term good.
Other villages show more sophistication.
Continuing that thought reminds me of Singapore:
In the mid 1960’s Lee Kuan Yew recognized the best way to boost the economy was via foreign investment. To show investors they had long term vision and reliability he decided that Singapore would be a garden city, « no other hallmark of success will be more distinctive… »
Over the decades responsible leaders have accepted this insight.
Wikipedia tells President Yew’s history.
City trees show whether leaders pay for educated tree maintenance, and visitors can compare Sebastopol to other villages. Trees add value in cared for, and testify to neglect if not.
I think the best single act that could be taken to improve downtown is to, somehow, get that hotel built on the vacant lot. This would provide more upscale walking-around traffic and patrons for stores that would have the incentive to spruce up.