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Inspired by the shared belief that people and communities are the lifeblood of our great state, the Nebraska Main Street Network is dedicated to enlivening our downtowns as cultural and economic drivers for the future. The Nebraska Main Street Network partners with communities to transform and revitalize their business districts through educational programming and technical assistance. Fostering entrepreneurs, promoting environmental sustainability while ensuring equity and diversity, we help communities preserve local history and their treasured architecture. We're making history from history!

 

"It's not about doing big visible projects, it's learning how and building our capacity to keep our downtown vibrant for the long-term. Having the ongoing support system that both the Nebraska Main Street Network and the National Main Street Center provides helps us stay on task and motivated unlike many of the other programs we've been involved in where well-intentioned people come in, recommend a project or hold a meeting and then leave us to figure things out on our own. The Nebraska Main Street Network is there for us no matter what happens."

--Local Main Street Board Chair

  • Take a look at what Nebraska's Main Street Communities have to offer! Shopping, dining, entertainment and professional services deliver a great experience for locals and visitors.

  • The Main Street program isn't just about visible change, but tangible real change. You can see that in the vibrancy of our entrepreneurs and their businesses, the buildings that have been brought back to life, the public spaces that have been improved, and the sense of place that has been created through the teamwork between volunteers and local governments trained in the Main Street Approach™

  • What makes Nebraska's Main Street and Network communities successful? The hard work they put in to learning how to create a stronger sense of place while providing the resources businesses and entrepreneurs need to succeed. Communities look to the Nebraska Main Street Network to provide the opportunities for guidance and education that help them to help their downtowns. Click to view the cumulative economic impact that Main Street communities have had in Nebraska from 1994 to 2022.

  • The Nebraska Main Street Network is a Main Street America™ Coordinating Program. As a Main Street America™ Coordinating Program, the Nebraska Main Street Network helps to lead a powerful, grassroots network consisting of over 40 Coordinating Programs and over 1,600 neighborhoods and communities, rural and urban, who share
    both a commitment to place and to building stronger communities through preservation-based economic development. Main Street America is a program of the nonprofit National Main Street Center, a subsidiary of the National Trust for Historic Preservation.

News & Events

March 21, 2024
byDANTH

I am very happy to share this article on downtown multifunctionality/ functional diversity that was recently published in the JURR, a British journal focused on urban renewal and regeneration. It reflects my most recent thinking on this subject, as well as my efforts to add some analytical heft to it while also getting more people to find it of interest and importance.

Here’s the abstract:“In the large downtowns in the US, the adaption rates and impacts of ...

January 16, 2024
byDANTH

By N. David Milder

I am proud to share with you my article “How Our Downtowns’ Three Most Important User Groups Can Help Their Sustained Recoveries” that was recently published in the IEDC’s Economic Development Journal. It focuses on downtown workers, residents and visitors and covers our largest downtowns as well as those of more modest size. It presents several analytical conclusions that counter conventional wisdom. For instance, while the media have focused on the reduced presence of downtown workers in ...

October 13, 2023
byDANTH

By N. David Milder

I have really had it with the Doomers, those who argue that our large downtowns are doomed to failure and diminishment.[1] It’s time to call them out for being the downtown ignorant Chicken Littles that they are.

Their Covid crisis instigated doom loop analysis has been a considerable worry for many municipal business and political leaders, since it predicts not just the decline, but the end of our large downtowns’ ability to be thriving business districts. ...