IMPACT
BUILT ENVIRONMENT
Walk down a main street and you can sense the health of a community. It doesn’t take long to determine if a place is thriving or suffering. LocalCode makes investments to improve the physical condition of main street built environments consistent with placemaking, regenerative development, energy efficiency, and adding residential and creative spaces that are missing in a community. These investments are organized to ultimately provide ownership to members of the community, either directly or through community land trusts.
SOCIAL FABRIC
A community is held together by the social bonds that bridge differences in class, race, ethnicity, identify and lifestyle. Creating spaces where these bonds can be made stronger is a key component of a regenerative economic approach. Engaging experienced mentors and mentees in the proven practice of apprenticeship helps build personal bonds between accomplished leaders and aspiring entrepreneurs.
BUSINESS COMMUNITY
The business community often has the most resources available to improve the quality of a community. Unfortunately, the priorities of business in many communities have become out of sync with the needs of main street and its citizens. By engaging the business community to serve as mentors to entrepreneurs and help promote pathways to more local ownership, an existing business community can contribute to a regenerative economy.
Walk down a Main Street and you can sense the health of a community.
The economic heart has been torn out of communities across the country, as big boxes and online retail divert commerce away from Main Street. The dominant economic policies since the 1950s have favored strip malls, suburbs, and multinational corporations, leading to a downward spiral of increasing wealth disparity, environmental degradation, and a lack of opportunity.
And yet, some Main Streets are thriving, with successful local businesses, engaged citizens, and local culture.
What can we learn from vibrant communities with healthy local economies?
How can we pass the lessons and experiences of healthy Main Streets on to help other communities?
What can LocalCode do that would be hard for any one community to do for itself to build a robust local economy and thriving Main Streets?