Starting Monday, Tulsa will host professionals from across the country for the Main Street Now Conference to learn how the cities successfully operate main street districts.
The conference will bring together an anticipated 1,900 attendees to learn more about how to build welcoming and vibrant communities, said Alicia Gallo, associate director of strategic communications for Main Street America.
“The conference really provides an opportunity to shine a spotlight on the amazing communities and corridors that make up Tulsa,” Gallo said.
The event is Monday through Wednesday at the Arvest Convention Center with more than 200 sessions planned. The Main Street Now Conference is the annual conference for Main Street America, which is focused on strengthening older and historic downtowns and neighborhood commercial districts across the country.
Mobile workshops will bring attendees into Tulsa’s four main streets:
- Tulsa Global District, which is focused on economically revitalizing the area around 21st and Garnett.
- Historic Greenwood District, which is focused on “crafting a community rooted in its rich past and vibrant future.”
- Kendall Whittier Main Street, which is focused on transforming the area at Admiral and Lewis.
- Tulsa Route 66 supports the preservation and revitalization of Tulsa’s southwest corridor of Route 66.
This year, the Tulsa Global District is a semifinalist for the Great American Main Street Award, which recognizes communities who serve as a model for comprehensive preservation-based revitalization efforts. The award will be announced at the conference.
“The Global District is very interesting that it’s an immigrant entrepreneur area and it’s also very autocentric,” Skee said. “And we’re about to see more areas like that across the nation be a part of Main Street.”
This article was produced as part of a partnership between the Tulsa Flyer and La Semana, a Tulsa-based bilingual Spanish-English newspaper serving Latino communities in Oklahoma.
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