User:Mbrickn/Small Town Improvement

Intro
This article is essentially a refinement on my article Small Town Tactics.

It is essentially my thoughts on cheap ways small towns can improve their access and experience for tourists and local residents alike.

These are my own opinions, that of an amateur. You should always question if a decision is right before going forward with it.

Connect to Bike Paths
If there are nearby bike paths to your town, consider connecting your town with them via a connecting spur, ideally to a place in your town with restaurants and pubs. The initial investment here may be steep, but you may be able to get funding from grants for this sort of development. This gives your residents an enjoyable activity and boosts support for your parks department, while giving cyclists an easy way to go to your town and spend their money on food and drinks mid ride.

Improve Signage
It's a lot easier to find something in an unfamiliar area when places are better marked. Consider Findlay, Ohio, which has small districts in it's downtown, like the Irish block where the Irish pub is, artisanal shops, and a small artist community. The Irish flags on the street posts make the Irish block unmistakable when passing through, making giving directions there simple at the cost of a few decorative Irish flags. This can even be done with large landmarks, it costs nothing to call the block around a courthouse or town hall the civic district.

Electric Car Charger
Even just one public electric car charger in your town can turn a visit from a liability to an asset. Charging electric cars takes time, so put chargers next to attractions, local business or other areas travelers can spend their time.

Make walkways pleasant
When sidewalks are nice to walk on, it makes it easier to choose to walk to the next business over, instead of taking a car there. This reduces traffic on local roads, and holds true for both tourists and locals.

Educational Facilities
If you have educational facilities that contain a theater, planetarium, greenhouse, etc and your town lacks any other similar facilities consider hosting events in these facilities for the public when they are not in active use.

Arts Program
Consider promoting local art through an art festival, which encourages local artists, provides an event for locals to partake, and may draw in visitors.

Museum foundations
If you don't have a local history museum, but do have a local library, consider creating a small historical display cabinet in the library. This has educational value for citizens, and it also can potentially grow into a collection that could draw tourists to your town. For example, the town of McComb Ohio was home to some of the first Medal of Honor recipients, and they proudly display those medals in their Library, instilling civic pride and occasionally attracting history buffs to visit.

Educational items you can likely easily obtain for the start of a local history display.
 * An item that was made by a local industry.
 * Work by a local artist.
 * Brick, wood, or picture of a now demolished structure.
 * Old menu (Several decades old) of a restaurant, where the prices are much lower then they currently are.
 * Flag that few over a capital building.

Historical plaques
Local history often contains surprising and interesting facts if you look for them. If you find out something crazy happened somewhere in your town, consider working with the property owner and putting a plaque about it there or somewhere nearby.

Pool
I've noticed a number of towns calling their municipal pools water parks by simply installing a few slides and splash pads. Some go further to make the name legitimate by adding things like lazy rivers and real water slides, though this typically increases costs for municiplaities and visitors accordingly.

Natural Features
Make sure any interesting natural features (Springs, Old growth trees, Glacial grooves, pristine views, etc) are preserved and well known.