Resources
Mainstreets mean many things to many people, and there are a number of organisations with resources that can be helpful.
Listed below are a few that we recommend.
Office of the Small Business Commissioner
Small business owners and operators create local employment, provide essential goods and services and help create attractive, liveable communities. The right mix of small businesses can create a sense of vibrancy and attract people to live, work and visit. Councils can have a significant influence over how attractive their area is for businesses to set up, and established enterprises to grow. They also play a key role in the lifecycle of a small business. Most of the interactions business owners have with government are at a local level. To help build stronger, more productive relationships between small business and council, the Office of the Small Business Commissioner (OSBC) has developed the Small Business Friendly Council Initiative. The Initiative aims to recognise councils that are working to support their small business communities.
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2022 - 2025 Strategic Plan snapshot
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SA Small Business Strategy 2023-2030
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Mainstreet Management: Successful Retail Strategies
By David West, Premier Retail Marketing
Discover how to engage businesses, improve the business mix, effectively promote mainstreets and deliver events. This book also demonstrates how to implement responsible governance processes and how to measure results and celebrate success and is full of practical advice.
www.mainstreetmanagementstrategies.com.au
SA Active Living Coalition
Street design has long been focussed around motorised transportation. For ideas to create pro-people street design with pedestrian and cycle friendly environments we suggest you have a look at SA Active Living Coalition's Streets for People Compendium.
https://communityplaceplanning.com/active-living
You can also read more on walking and cycling friendly mainstreets in the Heart Foundation's Discussion Paper, Good for Busine$$
https://www.heartfoundation.org.au/images/uploads/publications/Good-for-business.pd
City of Adelaide - Adelaide Design Manual
A toolkit that builds on the City of Adelaide’s strengths and draws from local, national and international experience in urban design and sustainability principles, providing direction for the design of public spaces.
https://www.cityofadelaide.com.au/development/development-resources/adelaide-design-manual/
For more than twenty years, the Belgian Association of Town Centre Management (AMCV) has been working to make town centres good places to live, work, study and socialise. In this time they have built up considerable resources that we encourage you to explore.
https://amcv.be/livelycities-projet-en-18.html
100 Ways of helping the High Street
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Main Street America has a new publication (November 2019) - The Future of Retail: Creative Approaches to place-based Entrepreneurship. The paper provides a roadmap on how to adapt to the evolving retail landscape, with trends that are relatable in the Australian context.
The Canadian Urban Institute has produced an excellent toolkit: Rapid Placemaking to Bring Back Main Street - A Pandemic Recovery Toolkit for Local Communities. The toolkit provides examples of programming and interventions, as well as advice on how to use an inclusive process for rapid placemaking in a COVID-19 world.
https://bringbackmainstreet.ca/rapid-placemaking
Let us know if there are other resources you think should be included in this list.