Main Street Matters By Michelle Owens - Executive Director, Tybee Island Development Authority/Main Street
WELCOME TO 2020: THE YEAR FOR PERFECT VISION
I got my first pair of eyeglasses in second grade, much to my dismay. I wanted 2020 vision.
Like any good sisters, mine showed support for my newly bespectacled status by calling me “four eyes” when our parents weren’t around. I dreaded wearing
those ghastly goggles and started hiding them in my bookbag at school. That didn’t last long. A certain, fearsome nun ratted me out to my mother and from then
on, I was too scared not to wear them.
Eventually I realized I could see better with my coke-bottles and my grades improved. So, the next time my sisters called me four-eyes, I embraced my farsighted
affliction and responded with the wisdom and grace of Yoda, “Four eyes are better than two.” Then I poked my tongue at them and ran off before they could respond.
Out of my early adventures in eye care, I learned an important lesson – there’s more than one way to achieve perfect vision and most of us need a little help
seeing clearly from time to time.
As we approach the year 2020 – the year of perfect vision – it’s an ideal time to ask “what is it I need to see clearly in the coming year, and what device will
help me see better?”
Over here on Main Street, we’re contemplating these very questions as we envision our goals, objectives and actions for the new year and we need a little help.
• What is it we want to see clearly in the coming year? We want to foresee which strategies, programs and services will best strengthen our civic bonds, preserve
our Tybee heritage and bring prosperity to our residents and businesses.
• What device will help us envision this clearly? It’s you dear reader. We need you to be that extra set of eyes that will help polish our ideas to 2020 perfection.
Our Main Street advisory board will be meeting early in January to set a course for 2020 and your feedback is crucial.
Edward T. McMahon, Chairman of the National Main Street Center’s Board of Directors, teaches that success on Main Street comes from broad-based community
collaborations and “is much more frequently about lots of small things working synergistically together off of a plan that makes sense.”
As part of the National Main Street Program and the Georgia Main Street Program, our goal is to develop and implement these transformative strategies by
working in four key areas, known as the Main Street Four Point Approach. Those four points are:
1. ECONOMIC VITALITY, which focuses on capital, incentives, and other economic and financial tools to assist new and existing businesses, catalyze property
development, and create a supportive environment for entrepreneurs and innovators that drive local economies.
2. DESIGN, which focuses on enhancing physical and visual assets that set a commercial district apart.
3. PROMOTION, which positions a commercial district as the center of the community and hub of economic activity, while creating a positive image that showcases
a community’s unique characteristics.
4. ORGANIZATION, which involves creating a strong foundation for a sustainable revitalization effort, including cultivating partnerships, community involvement,
and resources for the district.
So when you finish ringing in the New Year, dig out your lens cloth and help us polish our vision within this framework, into a plan that makes sense for our
unique island.
You can email, call or message us on our Tybee Island Main Street Facebook page if you want to share observations, concerns and suggestions.
Heck, you can even corner me at my next eye doctor appointment if you have something meaningful to share, because I still need vision wear, and to my
everlasting delight, so do my sisters.
How to share: michelle.owens@cityoftybee.org; (912) 472-5071; www.facebook.com/tybeeislandmainstreet
30 TYBEE BEACHCOMBER | JAN 2020
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