Episode #7: How to Save Your Downtown with Small-Scale Manufacturing with Ilana Preuss

Episode #7 of the Econ Dev Show Podcast is now live.

What's your downtown like?

As a county economic developer, I can look out over several different cities, all with a diverse array of downtowns:

• Some are vibrant, beautiful tourist destinations.
• Others are transitioning and improving with city dollars and commercial reinvestment into new stores, new facades, new lighting, new life.
• Some suburban cities, to their shame, don't even really have downtowns. (Unfortunately, I live in a town like that.)
• But still, others are shells of their former selves; Empty storefronts with faded signs and broken sidewalks -- places that you don't go after dark -- not because they're dangerous per se, but because there's no reason to.

Our guest today, hopes to change that. Ilana Preuss and her book Recast Your City: How to Save Your Downtown with Small-Scale Manufacturing offer an excellent primer on how to rebuild your downtown without relying on outsiders to bring their businesses to your community.

I hope that you enjoy my conversation with Ilana, and read her book.

Give it a listen.