In February, forty-one people participated in conversations about how to build collaboration and cooperation for projects to develop Downtown Newport.
The Gatherings were co-sponsored by The Northern Forest Center and Newport Center Downtown Development. Each of the four meetings included presenters who shared stories of successful economic development projects in similar communities in northern New England, and then allowed time for brainstorming and sharing ideas.
The conversations seemed to coalesce around the following areas:
- There is a lot of volunteer energy, creativity and expertise that should be intentionally employed in all of our efforts.
- Developing binational partnerships to develop Memphremagog as in international destination is a high priority.
- There is both great appreciation for the efforts of the City around making Newport beautiful, and a lot of interest in furthering those efforts through volunteer-led public art projects.
- Winter Saturdays were a huge success and there is a lot of interest in creating more family-friendly, low-cost activities that draw people to downtown Newport.
- Encouraging partnerships to build out housing that spans the income spectrum is a high priority for Newport’s development.
- There are some key properties in downtown Newport that have the potential to launch renewed commercial and retail activity to make our downtown a vibrant hub of economic activity.
- There is a great deal of interest and energy to do the work that is needed to attract public dollars to support infrastructure development that will encourage growth in Newport’s Downtown.
If you would like to be involved in these conversation, contact Rick@ncddvt.org or call/text him at 845-608-4056.