Main Street Now Conference 2023 Highlights (part 1)

As soon as I can, I intend to post a little more about what Dan, Brad and I got from attending the Main Street Now conference, the annual national conference of the Main Street Program movement in America, in Philadelphia.

It was a fantastic 3-1/2 days of sessions, tours, rallies, etc. I had a brief encounter with Mary Means, who founded the national program in the 1970s. I’ve worked with Mary in small ways on about four projects in the past. This time, after attending her session on her new memoir entitled “Something Worth Saving,” I stood in line for the book signing and got her to sign my copy, which was also a chance for a 1-2 minute conversation. I had longer conversations with many others.

My list of people I spoke with at the conference grew to about 74 names. As I’ve said in prior years, there are at least that many people now working in Downtown revitalization across the state who know something about Monongahela, its rich history, its many live music events, the number of pleasure boats and small yachts that pull up to the Aquatorium during the summer shows, our excellent Farmer’s Market, our boutiques, our amazing ice cream shop and coffee shop a bakeries, our Street Fair, the seasonal rooftop decorations at Angelo’s, and so many other things.

Last year, when I met Mike Lombardo, mayor of the City of Pittston, right after he won an award for his Main Street activities there (at the York conference of the Pennsylvania Downtown Center), he said – “Oh, the town the rooftop decorations.” And we had a great conversation from there. Mike said he wants to visit Monongahela – he’s been trying to get to every one of the 57 official cities in the state.

When Dan attended the Scranton PDC conference with me the year before that, he met Lewisburg’s Mayor Kendy Alvarez and introduced her to me. I spoke with mayors and Lewisburg’s Main Street Manager Ellen Ruby this year. What we discussed this year was how we could all visit each other’s towns.

I also met Winston Taylor, an architect and AME clergyman who runs a Main Street Program with a very modest budget in the West Side of Atlanta, and Trish Hredzak, a very enthusiastic young woman who is vice president of the Borough Council in Verona, Pa., and worked on their WalkWorks APT plan there.

I had a nice chat with Bill Kohler, Main Street Manager of Waynesboro, Pa. (south of Chambersburg), and another nice talk with Donna Ann Harris, a consultant who advises Main Street Programs and lives in one of Philadelphia’s tiny “trinity” house on one of the City’s “small streets” (very narrow residential alleys developed early in the city’s history). Brad and Dan also met a lot of people. In fact, I repeatedly thought I was meeting a new person and then found out that the new person had already either Dan or Brad and already had a rapport with them. I’ll write something later on about how those connections and other connections may mean a lot to us in the long run.

Terry A. Necciai, RA, Exec.Dir., MMSP