Moving Forward in Midtown
It has been an exciting few weeks for those involved with the Identify Tallahassee project. To begin 2010 ID Tally will be focussed on enhancing the identity of our first Target District: Midtown. To date our volunteers have been hitting the pavement and reaching out to those who live, work, and play in the Midtown district. Our efforts are picking up a great deal of momentum and our movement is growing at an exciting pace.
There are some great pieces of our project that are beginning to come together this month. For starters we have set up a partnership with 2010 KCCI catalyst Shawn Kalbli and his Landscape Architecture class at Florida A&M University to conduct a 10 week corridor study for the Midtown commercial district. The study will focus on a handful of important issues facing the district including but not limited to pedestrian access strengths and weaknesses, potential areas for development, street scape potential, and completed renderings of what the district could look like in the near future. That project is set to begin in late February and is sure to be an integral part of the community vision in Midtown.
We have had conversations with great community partners including the Midtown Neighborhood Association and the Midtown Merchants Association about their upcoming level of involvement. To date both groups have been very helpful in shaping our goals and vision and their involvement continues to grow. Both are obvious partners in this movement and everyone involved is very pleased to have them on board.
As a testament to the momentum that Identify Tallahassee and its Target Districts are gaining in the community just this week City Commissioner Gil Ziffer acknowledged our efforts at the City Commission meeting. He was given the go ahead by the Commission to act as a liaison between the City and Identify Tallahassee. Commissioner Ziffer dropped in on our last meeting and offered his support which is greatly appreciated.
Our efforts in Midtown are only the begining and our projects are really taking off in the community. Those involved have decided to host a standing group meeting for the next month at Krewe De Gras Midtown Tavern at 6pm every Thursday. We all hope that anyone interested will join us and help make Midtown and Tallahassee a better and stronger place.
District Profile: MIDTOWN
Midtown is becoming a Tallahassee hotspot for young professionals, growing families, and creative types. With a diverse selection of locally owned businesses and young residents the area has taken on a developing identity as one of Tallahassee’s brightest districts. Midtown is covered with restaurants, bars, coffee shops, and boutiques on top of existing associations and professional services that call the district home. With a vast collection of homes and neighborhoods surrounding Midtown businesses there are a great number of residents that serve as patrons to the district and are yielding the potential for even more growth in the near future. Identify Tallahassee plans to work with those invested there to formalize the district’s identity. By creating public outreach and sparking community investment Identify Tallahassee can help to define Midtown’s presence in the future of Tallahassee.
2010 Target Districts
The three target districts that Identify Tallahassee will work to define in 2010 are Midtown, G Street, and SOMO. These areas are all in different stages of organic economic growth. It is apparent to those involved in the initiative that these areas are poised for much future development and at this time could benefit from certain catalectic improvements. By encouraging these developing identities and adding to their sense of place Identify Tallahassee aims to supplement economic development in these communities.
Please stay tuned for our District Profiles coming soon!
For information on how to get involved please contact Jay Revell at jdrevell87@yahoo.com
Introducing Identify Tallahassee
Vision is said to be the ability to see things not as they are, but as they will be. As a part of an initiative to grow Tallahassee’s economy through an enhanced sense of place, the Identify Tallahassee project will begin in early 2010 with the goal of defining target districts in the urban core of the city as up and coming neighborhoods primed for development.
Over the next month, Identify Tallahassee will be introducing its target districts for the upcoming year. (The target districts for 2010 will include Midtown, Gaines Street, and SoMo. As more volunteers become engaged in the project and additional resources are secured, additional districts could be added.)
We want to know what your vision is for these areas. How do you see the district now, and how do you see the district in the future?
Please stay tuned for further updates, and for any questions on how to get involved, please contact Jay Revell at jdrevell87@yahoo.com.