Main Street Spotlight: The Importance of Place

I often quip that I started FWC (with others) in 2015 because I wanted to build my ideal retirement village without having to move. And while that is true, there’s more to the story. In my first forty years I lived in dense urban areas, small towns, a very rural area and a few typical American suburbs. Rarely did I find a true sense of place. For the past twenty years, I’ve been living and working in Woodfords Corner - as renter, homeowner, small landlord, small business owner - and I have been feeling an increased sense of belonging to this area. Early on it became quite clear that in addition to having my list of wants, there was a longer list of what I should learn. So I read books, talk to neighbors and business owners, go to public meetings, work with city departments, seek out experts, connect with sister neighborhood leaders, watch documentaries and follow several larger non-profits that focus on how to preserve and support our neighborhood. I’ve been learning more deeply why neighboring matters to me and millions of people around the US. Starting this month, I’m making the effort to share a resource with you each month. Here’s the first offering - from Main Street America - the organization that is helping small commercial neighborhood organizations like FWC all over the country.

January 5, 2022 | Main Spotlight: The Importance of Place | By: Ed McMahon, Chairman Emeritus of Main Street America and a Senior Fellow at the Urban Land Institute

As we enter a new year, especially after the last 18 months, when many of us were forced to cancel trips to visit the places or people we hold dear, it is important to reflect on the role that place plays in our lives.

We live in a world of rapid and often disorienting change: shifting demographics, new technologies, political polarization, instantaneous communication, changing consumer tastes, gentrification, extreme weather, and the global pandemic are all turning communities upside down. However, if I have learned anything over my 40 years in the community planning arena, it is this: change is inevitable, but the destruction of community character and identity is not. Progress does not demand degraded surroundings. Communities can grow without destroying the places and things people love.

Place is more than just a location or a spot on a map. A sense of place is a unique collection of qualities and characteristics – visual, cultural, natural, and social – that provide meaning to a location. Sense of place is what makes one location (e.g. your hometown) different from another location (e.g. my hometown), but sense of place is also that which makes our physical environment valuable and worth caring about. READ FULL ARTICLE