Joe Borgstrom

Joe Borgstrom has been the Director of the Community Assistance Team (CATeam) at the Michigan State Housing Development Authority (MSHDA) for the last two years.  Prior to his current position, Joe was President/CEO of the Shiawassee Regional Chamber and was its first Economic Development Director.  Joe also was an original member of the CATeam when it was created in 2001, where he assisted in the development of many of the programs currently used, such as Michigan Main Stree. MSHDA’s CATeam provides communities with multiple tools for downtown revitalization, such as the Cool Cities Michigan Main Street program, the Cool Cities Blueprints for Michigan’s Downtowns, MSHDA Community Development Block Grant Downtown Initiatives, as well as non-industrial Brownfield redevelopment.

Monday

March 17, 2008

Downtowns are important.

I know that sounds a little odd to just put it out there like that, but it’s true.  Many of you have read the reports, articles, and blogs like this about the importance of place in the future of our economy.  Lou Glazer of Michigan Future, Inc. and Charles Ballard of Michigan State are just two of the leaders in our state when it comes to talking about the importance of place.  These experts, and others, are backed up by numerous national studies and reports pointing to the same result.  More and more people, and especially young people, are choosing where they want to live first THEN go looking for a job, or better yet, starting their own business.

I’ve often thought about what role we at the Michigan State Housing Development Authority (MSHDA), and more specifically, the Community Assistance Team (CATeam) can play in all this.  I’ve talked to a number of leaders ranging from Lou to frontline folks like Dave Ivan from MSU-Extension, Phil Hansen of St. Louis and the Michigan Downtown Association, Bob Donohue from Main Street Oakland County, Paula Holtz from Tecumseh, and the list continues.  The biggest challenge, in my opinion, is getting these important high-level concepts like density, Millennial retention and attraction, and green building into the hands of the people in the field in a form they can actually use.  I always like to refer to brilliant people like Lou, Adrian’s Jim Tischler, MML’s Arnold Weinfeld, and SBAM’s Mark Clevey as surgeons when it comes to these types of concepts; surgeons are highly skilled experts in their field, but not everyone can have one at their fingertips when they need it.  My job, and the job of MSHDA’s CATeam, is to function more like field medics.  Our job is to learn these concepts and find ways to use traditional resources in non-traditional ways so we can get these needed tools in the hands of local downtown and municipal professionals who apply them in their communities.  The CATeam works with these frontline professionals to make perfect theory function in an imperfect reality.

Over the course of the next few days, I’ll try to give a few helpful ideas about where I think Michigan communities make mistakes or miss opportunities and what they can do to put their downtown in the best position to bring people and businesses back.

Check back tomorrow to hear Joe’s ideas on youth being both our future and our present.

You may contact Joe Borgstrom at 517-241-2512 or borgstromj@michigan.gov.

Tuesday

March 18, 2008

Youth Aren’t Only the Future, They’re the Present Too!

Mister/Madame Mayor, tear down these signs!

We’ve all seen the signs downtown.  No, not the ones that tell you where to park or the sign telling you what store is in what building.  I’m talking about the “NO!” signs.  You know which ones.  They say “No Skateboarding,” “No Loitering,” “No Bicycles.”  They should just get to the point and say “No Fun!” or worse yet, “No Kids or Teenagers!”  These signs are an implied wall saying “you don’t belong here.”  Do you know what happens when kids are told not to go somewhere for most of their life?  They don’t go there even when they’re adults.  If we teach kids that downtowns are boring and restrictive places, then that perception will stick their entire lives.  Is that the impression we want a generation to have?  Instead, your community should take every opportunity to bring kids and, yes, teenagers too, downtown.

The Millennial Generation (born roughly between 1977-1992, also called Gen Y) is the first generation in human history that has been marketed to since birth.  They are the second largest consumer group since their parents, the Boomers.  They not only influence billions of dollars of their parents’ money, but are one of the most entrepreneurial generations to date, and make billions of their own money!  Since they have been marketed to since birth, they detect artificiality in an instant.  Disneyworld, Lifestyle Centers, Malls, Pop Music, you name it.  These folks are quickly sniffing out what is real and what isn’t.  According to preferential surveys, the Millennial Generation values authenticity, or what is real, more than any other attribute.

What does this mean for your community?  There is nowhere more authentic than your community’s downtown.  It was not created by one developer; most downtowns evolved complexly and organically over a hundred plus years.  How does your community start tapping into this market?  First, you have to connect with them.  Connect emotionally.  Now, I’m not talking about a big group hug or anything.  Just make downtown the setting for fun or meaningful events that involve them.  Have a park in your downtown?  How about a summer concert series that features local talent?  Have a lot of skateboarders in your town?  Shut down a block, build a big half pipe and hold a skate competition.  Do you have flower boxes?  Work with the local Boys and Girls Scouts to help plant them.  Do you have a lot of gamers?  Do a “Guitar Hero” competition.  Want to promote to them?  They’re ok with that, just do it their way.  Does your downtown have a MySpace page?  Do your businesses support their organizations and causes?  Being a sponsor of a socially conscious event goes a long way with this generation.

Give this generation ownership of the downtown and they will help it thrive.  Oh, and don’t forget to lead by example.  If you want them to go downtown, be downtown too!

Check back tomorrow to hear Joe’s ideas on historic preservation.

You may contact Joe Borgstrom at 517-241-2512 or borgstromj@michigan.gov.

Wednesday

March 19, 2008

Historic Preservation is Green

Historic Preservation was green before Al Gore made “green” cool.

Never in my life did I ever think I would write the words “Al Gore” and “cool” in the same sentence, but that’s the way we’re headed.  There’s a lot of press these days about LEED and the green movement.  LEED (Leadership in Energy Efficiency Design), with all of its levels, seems to be especially confusing.  Gold levels, double gold, double platinum, triple platinum with a no whip vanilla mocha skim.  It’s all very confusing. Wait, did I just order a coffee with that last designation?

Rather than try to compare and contrast the differences between LEED and green or preach how you should be considering doing large scale environmentally friendly green projects like rain gardens and green roofs (you should), I would urge you to look at your community’s policies and ordinances as it relates to the original green movement, historic preservation.

Many of my historic preservationist friends tell me, “There’s nothing greener than a building that’s already there.”  That’s true most of the time.  Just as important as being good stewards of the environment, historic preservation can help make the kind of green that folds too.

Somewhere along the way historic preservationists got a bad rap.  They were villainized as the people who want to dictate to property owners what color they can and can’t paint their buildings.  They were seen as “impediments to progress,” trying to save “dinosaur” buildings.  Now, I’m not saying there aren’t people out there who want to tell you what color to paint buildings, because there are.  Don’t let a few bad apples spoil the bunch.  The people who get overlooked are the far more numerous practical preservationists.  These are the people who genuinely love historic buildings, but also realize you have to make a good business case to get it done.  Seek these people out and listen to them.

Here at the CATeam, we know there are far more incentives to keep a building than to knock it down.  There are Federal and State Historic Tax Credits, Brownfield Tax Credits, Low Income Housing Tax Credits, New Markets Tax Credits, Community Development Block Grants for façade, building acquisition, and rental rehab, loans and foundation grants.  That’s just off the top of my head!  These tax credits help make the business case.

Historic Preservation can also play a big role in your community’s ability to retain and attract talent too.  Remember I mentioned in yesterday’s entry that the Millennials value authenticity more than anything else?  They crave real stories.  Keeping the vestiges of these stories alive and vibrant will also help keep and attract young people to your community.  They want to live, work, and play in buildings with character and uniqueness, not strip malls.

Want some inspiration? Check these out…
Traverse City— Former Psychiatric Hospital (phenomenal before and after photos)

Grand Rapids— Historic Preservation and LEED certified buildings

Owosso— Former Manufacturing Facility

Big Rapids— Former Hotel Downtown

You can make it easier for prospective developers by including these buildings in Brownfield plans, and for Pete’s sake, create a historic district already!  Making the barriers to redevelopment as low as possible while maintaining a high level of expectation is the responsibility and duty of your unit of government.

Check back tomorrow to hear Joe’s ideas on getting people downtown.

You may contact Joe Borgstrom at 517-241-2512 or borgstromj@michigan.gov. 

Thursday

March 20, 2008

Get People Downtown!

Nothing attracts people like other people.

This may sound flip, but if you want downtown to be a busy, bustling place, do your part as a unit of government to make it a busy, bustling place.  Find any excuse to celebrate, and do it downtown.  Why not throw a birthday party for your city on its charter date?  Buy the cake if you have to.  When we did the announcement of the City of Scottville becoming part of the Cool Cities Michigan Main Street program, city officials shut down Main Street and put up a big tent.  We were impressed with the nearly 300 people on hand in the middle of the afternoon on a weekday. Many of the 300 people had read something in the paper about this whole Main Street thing, but when they heard there were free hotdogs and cake, turnout jumped.  (Here I thought it was just because of my sparkling personality.)  The bottom line was they all learned more about Main Street that afternoon because of the city and private businesses’ willingness to invest a couple of hundred bucks on food.  As a result, businesses downtown saw a dramatic increase in foot traffic that day and a number of citizens signed up for volunteer committees.  People in Scottville are excited about their downtown’s future.

Having events downtown is one piece of the answer.  Many communities unknowingly facilitated the decline of their downtown by allowing property owners to cover upper floor windows for façade “improvements.”  Covering up these windows made it impossible, by fire code, for people to live there.  As a result, less people lived downtown, foot traffic dropped (making retail a harder sell), and buildings became less profitable as the commercial portion had to shoulder the whole load of the mortgage payment.  These upper floors were shuddered or used as storage.  If your community has any of these, do whatever you have to do to remove those facades and renovate the upper floors.  There are numerous incentives to do this (see yesterday’s entry on Historic Preservation).

Once you have them downtown, make sure they feel safe walking around.  When I say “safe” I’m not referring to keeping the criminal element away, although that’s very important too.  When I say “safe” I mean as pedestrians.  Does the other side of the street feel like you’re crossing the Grand Canyon?  If people feel the cars driving by could hit them at any moment, they certainly don’t feel safe.  In Paco Underhill’s book on retail called, Why We Buy: The Science of Shopping, he talks about when people feel foot traffic brushing up against them while they’re browsing, they don’t feel comfortable and therefore don’t continue to shop.  And that’s just another person!  Can you imagine how uncomfortable a person must feel when two tons of steel and plastic come “brushing” by?  Think of the pedestrians walking as your primary customer for downtown.  I’m quite sure your businesses downtown already do.  Like other retail centers, know that the more comfortable people feel somewhere, the longer they stay.  The longer they stay, the more money they spend.  The more money they spend, the more businesses you can attract.  The more businesses, the more revenue your unit of government will see.  Make sure your pedestrians have the opportunity to feel comfortable as they walk.  Provide places to sit and rest, or to read a book.  Make them want to walk around…and spend.  After all, rarely have I seen a customer make a purchase downtown while still in their car!

Check back tomorrow to hear Joe’s ideas on downtown revitalization.

You may contact Joe Borgstrom at 517-241-2512 or borgstromj@michigan.gov.

Friday

March 21, 2008

Downtowns Revitalization Doesn’t Happen By Accident

If you do only one thing…do it all.

When I was growing up, my dad used to tell me, “A half-assed effort results in a job done half-assed.”  If you are going to bother to get people excited about revitalizing downtown, make sure you follow all the way through.  Many communities think that because they have a Downtown Development Authority (DDA), they are revitalizing their downtown.  Most DDAs look at one, maybe two, things: infrastructure (including parking,) and, if you’re lucky, maybe one event.  Successful downtown revitalization takes years of hard work and preparation.  A good downtown has balance and doesn’t happen by accident.  By far, the most comprehensive approach that I’ve seen in downtown revitalization is the National Main Street Center’s Four-Point approach™.  Whether or not your community values historic preservation (it should), and regardless of whether you have a traditional downtown or not, addressing these four areas of your commercial district will make your community more attractive to new economy businesses, retain and attract new residents and talent, and will increase your tax base.

The four areas your downtown should be addressing:

Organization pulls together the people and financial resources for a downtown revitalization program.  As I said earlier, downtown revitalization doesn’t happen by accident.  A good downtown organization brings everyone to the same table and gets them pulling in the same direction.

Promotion sells a positive image of the commercial district and encourages consumers and investors to live, work, shop, play, and invest in downtown.  You could have the best downtown on the planet, but if you don’t promote it, how will anyone know?  

Design means getting downtown into top physical shape.  An inviting atmosphere conveys a positive visual message about the commercial district and what it has to offer.  People will judge a community before they even get out of their cars—if they even do that.  Addressing things like being pedestrian friendly, using design standards for building,s and infrastructure improvements and form-based codes are critical to making a positive first impression.

Economic Restructuring strengthens a community’s existing economic assets while expanding and diversifying its economic base.  For some reason most communities aren’t aware they can go out and actually ask a business to come to their downtown.  Furthermore, most communities have no clue what their market potential is or how much money is leaving their community everyday.  Figure those things out and it makes selling your community a lot easier.

Italicized portions are courtesy of the National Main Street Center.

Communities who dare to be great don’t wait for things to come to them.  The worst thing a community can do is see itself as a victim.  Bad economy?  We’re a victim.  Revenue sharing cut?  We’re a victim.  Bad things happen to everyone.  Do good anyway.  Downtown redevelopment, more than any other kind of city business, is less dependent on municipal financial resources and more dependent on municipal cooperation.  Be a good partner and make it easy for people to say yes.  Now, go out there and make it happen!

Thank you to Dan Gilmartin and the fantastic staff of the MML for allowing me to ramble, rant, and rave on this Blog this week.  We at MSHDA are proud to partner with the MML, and count them among the strongest supporters of downtowns in our state.

You may contact Joe Borgstrom at 517-241-2512 or borgstromj@michigan.gov.

Check back on Monday to hear from Jason Moon, Public Information Officer for the Michigan Office of Financial and Insurance Services.