by Bill Fontana
There is light at the end of the tunnel, or at least there appears to be. With a bit of luck, and a commitment to getting as many of us vaccinated as possible, the incredible challenges of the last eighteen months are hopefully coming to an end. But let’s hope that the light we see at the end of the tunnel is truly a return to whatever the “new normal” will be and not a freight train barreling toward us.
For the last year-and-half we have become incredibly comfortable with Zoom meetings, with working from home, with ordering in, and with shopping on-line. So much of what we are talking about and planning for now is expanding broadband, exploring delivery services, upgrading our ability to learn, and working remotely. We know that downtown commercial office space will take a hit. How that will impact the dining and retail sector remains to be seen.
Don’t get me wrong…I get it. The benefit of not having to travel a few hours to get to a meeting is undeniable. The savings in food and lodging and gas is good for the bottom line. So is the ability to not have to pay rent for upper floor office space in central business district buildings. Even before the pandemic came upon us, the use of technology was having an impact on how we interact – as individuals and as a society. I remember going into a restaurant and observing a young couple who sat across from us. For the entire 45 minutes that they were there, they didn’t say a word to each other. They got their food and promptly returned to texting on their smartphones. I wondered if they were texting each other.
Here’s the thing – ultimately this “remoteness” is not what we are about; it’s not what we are trying to accomplish as a profession, or as revitalization organizations. I can’t tell you how many groups that we work with that say that they want their downtown to be more “vibrant.” And of course, the next question is “what does vibrant mean to you – to your organization?” And almost universally, the answer is always some version of more foot traffic and/or more people on the street. Is all of this remoteness contributing to vibrancy?
I see this remoteness evidenced also in how we interact as a revitalization community. The time was when the “manager community” couldn’t wait to get together. The camaraderie, the networking to share and solve problems, the socializing, and the friendships that evolved, were, and still are, a critical part of what helped to make us a community. Whether it was the annual conference, the manager’s meetings, the new manager training, the revitalization academy, etc., not only did managers look forward to the day, or days, they would spend together, but they often came in a day early so that they could spend an evening going to dinner and informally sharing their success and failures, and the highs and lows of their personal lives. In many ways, it’s not too dramatic to say that the professional community became a professional family.
The camaraderie, the networking to share and solve problems, the socializing, and the friendships that evolved, were, and still are, a critical part of what helped to make us a community.
Now, all too often, the questions become… “do I have to attend this?” …can we attend remotely?…will this be recorded?...etc.,etc. The sense of professional community gets lost and the potential to maintain the professional family becomes almost non-existent. The desire to interact face-to-face, to incur the costs of maintaining these personal relationships and of growing the profession, is greatly diminished.
If WE (those of us charged with helping to make or business districts and neighborhoods more vibrant) can’t maintain these in-person professional connections, we shouldn’t be surprised when the customers, the clients, the remote workers, the past festival goers, and the once-upon-a-time downtown diners, don’t either. When our central business districts become little more than retail warehouses for on-line shoppers and commercial kitchens that have food delivered by Uber-Eats or Door Dash, we shouldn’t complain about the lack of downtown vibrancy. As Pogo said…” we have met the enemy, and he is us.”
The good thing is that the evolving end of the pandemic gives us a tremendous opportunity to reset our working relationships. We have the chance to rebuild our professional network, to rebuild and reconnect the community of professionals that needs to be, and in fact MUST BE, at the forefront of our communities’ collective chance to fully recover. We can start by looking forward to and attending the upcoming conference in Reading in September, of giving serious consideration to attending the National Main Street Conference in Richmond, VA, next Spring, and of looking at attending the manager’s meetings as an opportunity to advance our professional connections.
We can see the light at the end of the tunnel as a new day for our communities, our professional network, and our growth as individual revitalization professionals. We need to lead by example. The vibrancy that we all seek for our communities starts with each of us recommitting to reconnecting.