Walworthy County Today has a story online from Kevin Hoffman about downtown revitalization in small towns. Whitewater is part of that story. See, Communities work to revitalize downtown despite challenges.
Challenges there have been. The Great Recession took a toll everywhere in America, and 2007-2009 are among the worst years in American economic history. And yet — and yet — downtown Whitewater has done better in these times even than some might have hoped.
Not every problem can be blamed honestly on the recession. (The overwhelming majority of Wisconsin’s tax incremental districts, for example, have done better than Whitewater’s TID 4, excuse-making about the recession notwithstanding. TID 4’s situation, however, isn’t simply an example of private difficulties, but of political hubris, over-reach, and fumbling.)
Nevertheless, these have been difficult conditions in which to operate.
That’s true for merchants in every corner of our small town.
There was much fanfare when Whitewater became a ‘Main Street Community’ in 2006, but the hard work of day-to-day business survival since then — of the downtown’s merchants and their organization’s director — deserve the lion’s share of credit.
Customers aren’t a program, presentation, or ceremony: there are daily efforts — often unheralded — that have kept the downtown with a lower vacancy rate (13%) than it had several years ago. There’s much good sense in focusing on retention, as merchants beget merchants, and occupancy begets occupancy.
There’s more to Whitewater than her downtown, but had we slipped into a darker situation, and had the downtown become desolate, Whitewater’s overall condition would have been markedly worse.
We’re about two years past the technical end of the recession, but a powerful recovery is yet absent. Continuing sluggish growth may take a toll, as the worse prospect of a return to recession surely would. (Continuing sluggish growth seems the more likely of the two prospects.)
So here we are, not yet finished or assured, but still standing. That’s worth quite a bit, and all in all, it’s not a bad place to be.