Rural Regional Main Street Tier

CLIENT

Oregon Parks & Recreation Department

LOCATION

State of Oregon

DATE

2023

CONSULTING PARTNERS

Mary Bosch; Marketek, Inc.

Over 60% of Oregon’s 241 cities have populations less than 5,000. In these rural places, downtowns are often the epicenter of community connections and small business economies; yet they have different needs than their urban counterparts. Through the years, many of these rural communities have been challenged to sustain a commitment due to lack of capital and staff, volunteer burn-out, and overall capacity limitations. Yet, a strong desire exists among rural communities to strengthen local economies and breathe life into underutilized historic buildings.

Because of these realities, Oregon Main Street, Oregon Heritage, and Oregon Parks and Recreation Department sought to develop a game changing framework for a new Rural Regional Main Street (RRMS) Tier of the Oregon Main Street (OMS) Network. The intent is that this new tier will better integrate the existing rural efforts into the Network as well as create a pathway for new rural areas to connect with OMS and access vital resources to strengthen, preserve, and revitalize their historic downtowns.

The consultant team was tasked with building off existing pilot efforts taking place in several regions within the state, and developing a robust structure for the new rural tier that could be integrated into the existing OMS Network. This included: 1) recommended tier frameworks and structures, 2) application template forms for both Rural Regional Main Street coordinating programs (“Hub” organizations) and local rural communities, 3) marketing tools directed to both “Hub” organizations and rural communities were part of this scope, and 4) reporting and tracking tools to collect data on the region’s progress.

For more details, explore the full report here: Rural Regional Main Street