Bringing Back Main Street

Bringing Back Main Street is an H-GAC initiative to help local governments, non-profits, businesses, and other stakeholders learn to work together to implement revitalization programs.

Downtown Revitalization Guidebook

Bringing Back Main Street: A Guide to Downtown Revitalization for Local Governments provides an overview of how communities can create vibrant downtowns, highlighting successful revitalization efforts implemented by small cities throughout Texas.

For generations, small towns have served as cultural and economic centers for surrounding rural areas. Their physical and social fabric reflect the community’s unique history and identity. Changing economic conditions and demographics create challenges for rural downtowns, yet many communities remain vibrant places, attractive to residents and visitors alike.

To retain and restore these downtown areas, H-GAC's Bringing Back Main Street: A Guide to Downtown Revitalization for Local Governments recommends establishing a community-based vision, investing in attractive streetscape design, encouraging a variety of uses, and developing effective marketing. For more specific strategies and examples of best practices across Texas, please read the full guide.

Roundtables and Workshops

H-GAC hosts quarterly roundtables at sites around the region to focus on downtown revitalization. In early 2015, H-GAC hosted a series of workshops with experts from throughout Texas providing tips on how to create an economically vibrant Main Street.

Resources

H-GAC provides this list of regional, state, federal, and private resources for envisioning, enhancing, and supporting vibrant downtown areas.

Funding Opportunities

H-GAC provides this list of regional, state, federal, and private funding sources for revitalizing, improving, enhancing, or maintaining downtowns for information and convenience for downtown planners and managers.