Tuesday, December 17, 2013

Jeff Speck, author of Walkable City, to visit Kentucky


The year 2014 marks the beginning of a new approach to thinking about historic preservation, and your opportunity to learn from exciting speakers and dynamic programming. For the first time, the Kentucky Heritage Council and Preservation Kentucky are partnering to present the Kentucky Preservation Series - a new initiative of quarterly workshops designed for broad appeal, and to give you the information you need to help care for your historic home or building and work more effectively in your own community. To kick this off, we proudly announce:

Creating Life on City Streets: Walkability 
Including a lecture and workshop with Jeff Speck, author of the new book "Walkable City: How Downtown Can Save America, One Step at a Time"

These keynote sessions coincide with the annual winter meeting of the Kentucky Main Street Program, in Frankfort from Jan. 15-17. New this year, the public is invited to join local Main Street managers, board members, elected officials and others to learn about current issues in community revitalization. Topics will be of broad interest to communities interested in strategies to preserve and utilize their historic downtown buildings, capitalize on authentic assets, promote heritage tourism and create positive energy that attracts residents and visitors.

Jeff Speck appearance schedule (sponsored through the support of KHC board member Nana Lampton): 

Lecture and book signing - 7 p.m.
Thursday, Jan. 16
Grand Theatre, St. Clair Mall, Frankfort
$10 general admission

Workshop - 9 to 11 a.m. 
Friday, Jan. 17 
Kentucky Transportation Cabinet, 200 Mero Street, Frankfort
 $25 general admission

 Click here for the complete conference schedule. Full conference registration is $100 per person and includes educational sessions, Jeff Speck lecture and workshop, a reception hosted by Preservation Kentucky, and the premiere of the film "Kentucky Governor's Mansion: A Century of Reflection," at the Grand Theatre. Single-day registration is $35.

Download the registration form and return with payment to the Kentucky Heritage Council, and watch for more details at www.heritage.ky.gov

 Given today's reality of tight budgets and limited travel time, this series will take place in lieu of the long-running biennial statewide historic preservation conference, which many of you have attended over the years. The goal of this new series is to present relevant preservation-related topics and hands-on training in strategic locations across the Commonwealth, working in concert with partner organizations at the local level, in venues accessible to a wide range of constituents.

 Administered by the Kentucky Heritage Council, the Kentucky Main Street Program is presenting the conference in partnership with the nonprofit organization Friends of Kentucky Main Street.

An agency of the Kentucky Tourism, Arts and Heritage Cabinet The Kentucky Heritage Council / State Historic Preservation Office is responsible for the identification, protection and preservation of prehistoric resources and historic buildings, sites and cultural resources throughout the Commonwealth, in partnership with other state and federal agencies, local communities and interested citizens. This mission is integral to making communities more livable and has a far-ranging impact on issues as diverse as economic development, heritage tourism, jobs creation, affordable housing, community revitalization, environmental conservation and quality of life.

Wednesday, December 4, 2013

Christmas Celebrations Coming to Downtown Middlesborough

Santa's House coming together nicely at 1927 Cumberland Ave.


Middlesborough, Kentucky - Signs of the Christmas holiday are everywhere in downtown Middlesboro. The big tree is up downtown, Santa has been given a new house on Fountain Square, and over 50 entries are getting ready for the Christmas Parade this Saturday at 3pm.

Volunteers from Discover Downtown Middlesboro have once again taken the lead organizing not only the parade, but also decorations to give the downtown a festive look and feel. Keith Nagle, DDM President said, “We are happy to invite people downtown this time of year to enjoy a one-of-a kind community celebration.”

A Tree Lighting is being planned for Friday, December 6 at 6pm in Fountain Square. In case of rain the location will be at Santa’s House at 1927 Cumberland Ave. Featured people and groups will include Kentucky Senator Brandon Smith, local singer Jade Robertson,and  Middlesboro Elementary School Principal Dr. Tony Maxwell. Area choirs, churches, and Ms. Cumberland Mountain Fall Festival Queen Brooke Gibbs will also participate.

The Middlesboro Christmas Parade will start promptly at 3pm on Saturday, December 7. The theme of the parade this year is “An Old Fashioned Christmas.” People are encouraged to line the parade route along Cumberland Ave between 15th and 21st Street. Bleachers will be on Fountain Square and are available on a first-come, first-served basis.

A storefront at 1927 Cumberland Ave has been converted into Santa’s House for kids and families to visit with Santa Claus. Visitation will be open immediately after the parade on December 7, and again on December 13, 14, 20, and 21 starting at 5pm each night. Building owner Mack Yoakum generously donated the space for Santa’s House.

A student from LMU painting the window at JRS Restaurant Corp. on Cumberland Ave.

Building on a successful window painting project last year, this year faculty and students from Lincoln Memorial University and the Middlesboro High School Key Club have painted holiday scenes on storefront windows. Be sure to come out and see the festive scenes that they create.

Sponsors for the Christmas celebration this year include  Commercial Bank, Community Trust Bank, First State Financial, Home Federal Bank, Danny J Luttrell Insurance, and Southeast Eye Associates. Generous contributions have also been made by Ike Slusher, Dr. Kenneth Smith, Larry Brooks, and Steve Obermann. Local businesses that have made in-kind donations include Jim Brown Supply providing the lift to decorate the tree, JR Hoe & Sons giving the trailer for the stage, and East End Pawn, Mikel’s Pharmacy, Three States Printing, and Walmart.

Susannah Cadle with Antique & Modern Jewelry putting finishing touches on her Christmas display.

Assisting in our fundraising efforts is the Fund for the Arts based in Louisville and their Power2Give website. Every dollar that local people give will be matched by an additional dollar from LG&E and KU Energy. Donna Smith, Organization Committee Chair said “We encourage folks to make a donation today to make this Christmas a special one for everyone involved.”

A link to the Power2Give website is here:

Contact:

Isaac D. Kremer, Executive Director
Discover Downtown Middlesboro
(606) 248-6155


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Tuesday, December 3, 2013

Appalachian Transition Fellowship Fellows Webinar, Mon, 12/16, 5-6pm

Highlander Research and Education Center &
Rural Support Partners invite you to the:


Appalachian Transition Fellowship
Fellows Webinar
 
Join our webinar on MondayDecember 16 at 5 - 6 pm EST  for an overview of the program and how to apply. AppFellows are a select group of emerging leaders from across the region that are committed to finding innovative solutions to foster a just and sustainable Appalachian economy starting June, 2014!
 
Click Here To Register Today!
Learn More About Appfellows!
AppFellows seeks to increase the connectivity, collaboration, and capacity of Central Appalachian institutions and leaders by building a collective analysis and seeding projects that solve regional systemic problems and foster a just and sustainable Appalachian economy.
Can't Join Us in December?
Join our fellows webinar
 January 16th 1-2 pm. Additional information is forthcoming!

For More Information
Visit our Website: 

www.AppFellows.org

Saturday, November 16, 2013

Discover Downtown Middlesboro Thanks LMU's ENACTUS for work on Better Block Event


Harrogate, Tennessee, November 15, 2013-  Discover Downtown Middlesboro Executive Director Isaac Kremer attended the Lincoln Memorial University (LMU) ENACTUS meeting to present the student organization with a contribution in recognition of its service. ENACTUS members were among the 100 volunteers who contributed over 1,000 hours to DDM's Build A Better Block event which took place October 25-27, 2013. Volunteers worked toward the goal of revitalizing the downtown Middlesboro area by constructing a stage to provide local and visiting musicians a place to perform and completing renovations on downtown landmarks.

Pictured is Discover Downtown Middlesboro Executive Director Isaac Kremer presenting ENACTUS Chief Business Advisory Board and Alumni Affairs Officer Dustin Fowler with a  check in recognition of the student organization's contributions to the Build A Better Block event.

This project was funded by an Appalachian Regional Commission Flex-E-Grant through the Kentucky Department for Local Government and administered by Brushy Fork Institute of Berea College. Flex-E-Grant funds are made available to distressed ARC counties in Kentucky for projects that are designed to build capacity in these communities.

Lincoln Memorial University is a values-based learning community dedicated to providing educational experiences in the liberal arts and professional studies. The main campus is located in Harrogate, Tennessee. For more information about the undergraduate and graduate programs available at LMU, contact the Office of Admissions at 423-869-6280 or e-mail atadmissions@lmunet.edu.

Friday, November 1, 2013

McConnell Helps Middlesboro Secure National Park Service Assistance

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For Immediate Release, Wednesday, October 30, 2013
Contacts: Robert Steurer, Stephanie Penn 202-224-8288

McConnell Helps Middlesboro Secure National Park Service Assistance

WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell announced today the National Park Service agreed to provide technical assistance for Middlesboro, Kentucky, which will be used to help improve infrastructure to the Cumberland Gap National Historic Park. 

Earlier this year, Senator McConnell was contacted by Middlesboro officials asking him to assist with their grant application with the National Parks Service. In July, Senator McConnell contacted the Southeast Program Manager of the National Park Service on behalf of his constituents to encourage a “fair review” of their grant proposal.

On October 23, the National Park Service informed Isaac Kremer, Executive Director of Discover Downtown Middlesboro, that their application was approved and they would receive assistance for Fiscal Year 2014 for this community-based initiative.

“This is great news for the people of Middlesboro,” Senator McConnell said. “The Cumberland Gap National Historical Park is one of Kentucky’s top tourist attractions, and this effort will help attract visitors and highlight the historical, cultural and natural resources of the area.”

Isaac Kremer, Executive Director of Discover Downtown Middlesboro, said, "Senator McConnell has championed job creation, downtown revitalization, and economic development throughout Kentucky and our area of Appalachian Kentucky in particular. We are strengthened and encouraged through his support of our community revitalization goals that include development of a Cumberland Gap to Middlesboro trail."

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Sunday, October 27, 2013

DDM Announces 5-Year Vision for Downtown Middlesborough

Middlesborough, Kentucky - After an intensive seven-month community planning process, Discover Downtown Middlesboro announced their plan today for Downtown Middlesborough. The announcement was made as the culminating statement of the innovative Better Block Middlesborough project that put many of the strategic planning initiatives into practice.

The following 5-year vision for the downtown was announced:
"Beautifully restored historic buildings and clean and attractive public spaces have made Downtown Middlesborough a leading regional and statewide attraction.  A world class hiking, biking, and horse trail system draws people downtown and connects with Cumberland Gap National Historical Park.  A wide variety of shops and restaurants provide daily necessities and a quick and inexpensive meal, to higher-end goods, services, and fine dining all at locally-owned businesses. People travel from miles around to be part of the fun and excitement downtown has to provide."
Among the concrete actions that DDM will take to realize this vision are to create 1,000 jobs; establish a Bell County Endowed Community Fund to encourage community philanthropy and provide support for community revitalization and economic development. Restoration of the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks Home and other buildings throughout the downtown will be undertaken. New staff and volunteers will be added to take responsibility of initiatives and to help move the revitalization effort forward.

To read the plan in its entirety, please visit the DDM website and go to the Planning section. The link follows:
http://downtownmiddlesboro.org/planning.htm.

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Saturday, October 26, 2013

30 Ideas in 30 Days: #1 Think Incrementally

30 Ideas in 30 Days

Now that we've covered our 30 ideas, it's time to get out and Build a Better Block!

Idea #1: Think Incrementally

So you want to change your neighborhood? Ok. Just go out and do it. Worried about finances, zoning, rules, and regulations getting in the way? No problem. Get together a bunch of citizens and just make good things happen. The results will speak for themselves. This is increasingly becoming the ethos of a whole new set of related movements seeking to enrich places all over the planet.

Jay Walljasper in All That We Share: A Field Guide to the Commons documented a number of trends reshaping the economy, environment, the internet, democracy, and our communities in a positive way. Walljasper begins by defining the commons as what we share. More precisely he says:
Commons: What we share. Creations of both nature and society that belong to all of us equally and should be maintained for future generations.
Several principles for protecting shared resources have been advanced by Elinor Ostrom, the first woman to win the Nobel Prize for Economics. These include:
  1. Define clear group boundaries.
  2. Match rules governing use of common goods to local needs and conditions.
  3. Ensure that those affected by the rules can participate in modifying the rules.
  4. Make sure the rule-making rights of community members are respected by outside authorities.
  5. Develop a system, carried out by community members, for monitoring members' behavior.
  6. Use graduated sanctions for rule violators.
  7. Provide accessible, low-cost means for dispute resolution.
  8. Build responsibility for governing the common resource in nested tiers from the lowest level up to the entire interconnected system.
As we've written before, this incremental approach is nothing new. The National Main Street Center through their Four-Point Approach has been advocating for incremental change through the work of volunteers on grassroots committees for decades. A rising tide of philanthropic activity nationally and internationally seeks to enrich communities using resources from inside and outside. So many of the tactics we seek to use for Better Block from street trees, to mobile vendors, and pop-ups are all incremental by design.

What makes this moment unique is that many forces are coming together all at once. Technology is providing unprecedented opportunities and tools to bring people together through social networking and crowd technologies. Great ideas now have the potential to spread far more rapidly than ever before. A movement started in Dallas is now having an impact in Appalachian Kentucky. At what other time would something like this ever been possible? Finally, the focus on the commons and all that we share is a concept with the power to bring people together all over the world around a similar theme - how do we make our place on the world a little bit better?

To close, never again should huge budgets or big plans get in the way of what can be done right now. For communities willing to think in $500 increments and about what can be accomplished in two weeks or less, the opportunity to bring transformative change for our communities is always present. We have the Orton Family Foundation and the CommunityMatters initiative to thank for sharing this important lesson with us. Power2Give and the Humana Foundation helped us to get that much further through their generous support. None of this would have ever been possible without the initial support from the Appalachian Regional Commission by way of a Flex-E Grant administered by the Brushy Fork Institute at Berea College.

Taken together Middlesborough has proven what many places are beginning to find - that citizen action is the surest and only way to bring about positive change and to generate true and lasting success for our community or any community for that matter. We hope our work plants the seed for long term change in our community and inspires people all over the world to take similar action for the betterment of their towns.

Better Block Middlesborough was held from October 25-27, 2013, in Middlesborough, Kentucky. To help with planning for future events like this, please consider making a donation today!

Managing the Event

Friday, October 25, 2013

30 Ideas in 30 Days: #2 Build a Better Block

30 Ideas in 30 Days

Now that we've covered our 30 ideas, it's time to get out and Build a Better Block!

Idea #2: Build a Better Block

Better Block is a movement that seeks to promote livable streets and neighborhood vitality through short-term interventions. Started by Go Oak Cliff in the neighborhood with the same name in Dallas, since their start in 2010 the event has been repeated throughout the U.S. and internationally.

Benefits include helping to fill previously vacant or underutilized space. Streets are reclaimed as places for people and not just for automobiles. Entrepreneurs are given a chance to get their start through popups and new jobs and businesses are frequently created as a result. Most significantly, the power to bring about transformation is put directly into the hands of citizens. This has the power to transform the way people relate to place.

One of the best qualities of Better Block is the open source nature of it. What one community has done frequently serves as inspiration for another. Efforts have been made to use social media - especially Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube to share results. FriendlyCorps based in Grand Rapids created a brilliant sign system that will be used in Middlesborough. Oak Cliff continues to have a big sway on all projects that have followed.

This TED Talk by Better Block Co-Founder Jason Roberts is inspiring, fun, and gives you some background - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ntwqVDzdqAU



The Better Block site has more of the thinking behind it - http://betterblock.org/ 

There's been 40 Better Blocks in the US and several internationally. The best and most up-to-date list we have follows.

Upcoming Better Block Events



Past Better Block Events
Now all that is left to do for you is to go out and help Build a Better Block!

Better Block Middlesborough was held from October 25-27, 2013, in Middlesborough, Kentucky. To help with planning for future events like this, please consider making a donation today!

Managing the Event

Thursday, October 24, 2013

30 Ideas in 30 Days: #3 Encourage Public Participation

30 Ideas in 30 Days

Getting people to show up is key to success with your Better Block event.

Turnout is key for a successful Better Block event. Credit: Team Better Block.

Idea #3: Encourage Public Participation

Communities with an existing organizational and civic infrastructure to support the work that goes into planning a Better Block event are at a competitive advantage to those without. Having a strong knowledge of who the important people and organizations in a community is key.

In the first half of the twentieth century community planning was dominated by large government and institutional actors. In the second half of the century the role of the citizen increased, with a higher value placed on gathering community input. This impulse was powerfully expressed through the emergence of the modern historic preservation movement that was grassroots and community based by its nature. More recently the Tactical Urbanism and Better Block movements have sought to place the power to act and transform places into the hands of citizens.

Direct action by citizens yields multiple benefits. Community participation in the planning and execution of the events instills a level of buy-in and support. Once the event is over the responsibility for stewardship rests with the community too. The community or the public is then responsible for moving forward with ideas generated after the event.

Rallying the community and building their support for the event is key. The first step in doing so is identifying leaders. This need not necessarily be elected officials, though their support certainly helps. Instead it is the building owners, business owners, and civic leaders who have the ability to get results when asked. These people will form the inner circle of a project team.

Then it is important to branch out from leaders to the general public to find volunteers who will be responsible for carrying out the work of the event. Social media tools like Facebook and Twitter are a powerful way to connect with these people in your community. Consistently putting your message out about what you are trying to accomplish has the potential to attract many people who may have never had contact with your organization, or never thought of themselves as change agents.

Public meetings are valuable for identifying shared goals. This also helps to bring out the best ideas a community has for itself, while downplaying those that do not help to realize shared goals.

Finally, one of the keys to success for any Better Block is having a great turnout during the event itself. Using any and every communication tool at your disposal will help to make this happen. If properly organized, the excitement people have for the event will cause them to enlist the support of their family, co-workers and friends. Providing opportunities for businesses or organizations to sign up their members or employees en masse helps to build up large numbers. Canvassing and one-on-one outreach helps. Finally, answering “yes” to anyone who has an interest in participating guarantees you’ll have a good sized crowd.

Ultimately the value and power of encouraging public participation is that this display of community support can be used to attract the attention of policy makers, investors, foundations, and others who want to support places with a strong civic infrastructure. So, in a way, the efforts to mobilize support for community projects initiates a virtuous cycle that attracts further support to realize the very visions the community defines for itself. 

 For more information, please see:



This banner on our Facebook page encouraged people to RSVP for a Facebook event. Credit: Discover Downtown Middlesboro.

Better Block Middlesborough was held from October 25-27, 2013, in Middlesborough, Kentucky. To help with planning for future events like this, please consider making a donation today!

Managing the Event

Wednesday, October 23, 2013

30 Ideas in 30 Days: #4 Temporary to Permanent

30 Ideas in 30 Days

Now we will discuss the extended impact of a Better Block event, i.e. what happens once the event is done.

Idea #4: Temporary to Permanent

Here are just a few ideas of how the improvements made during better block may lead to permanent changes in the project area.

  • Pop-up stores become actual stores.
  • Transportation planning process leads to upgrades and improvements.
  • Pop-up cafes become actual cafes.
  • Mobile vendors and food trucks and carts become bricks-and-mortar businesses.
  • Preservation work begun leads to comprehensive rehabilitation projects.

A commitment to evaluating the success of the event is essential. SurveyMonkey is a valuable tool to gather input from participants, stakeholders, and the public-at-large.

It is also important to make clear to the public a commitment to continuing change. This can be done before, during, and certainly after the event.

To close, if Better Block is viewed as just a freestanding event, then it is a lot of fun. If it is viewed as the initiation of a process that leads to continuous improvement, then it becomes a force to change places for the better now and into the future.

Better Block Middlesborough was held from October 25-27, 2013, in Middlesborough, Kentucky. To help with planning for future events like this, please consider making a donation today!

Managing the Event