The Everyday Main Street

     It doesn't matter if it is a small town or a big city, there are main streets that are boarded up for various reasons (ex: rents too high, not enough business to keep the doors open, outdated business ideas, occupants that have limited opening hours, failed or backed out of redevelopment projects, etc.) all over the world. This creates unsafe and undesirable areas within a city, but what can we do about this phenomenon? In the US there are tons of tax incentives for improving Main Streets across America, but for some small towns where most of the population is below the poverty line and cannot support and the continuation of the big box stores and online shopping driving consumers away, these downtown main streets continue to fall into decline long after the bounce back from the recession in 2008/'09. How do these everyday Main Streets adapt to these changes in our global economy while still providing a vibrant city for its inhabitant?