If you didn’t get a chance to roll or stroll down Canal Street in Lewiston Thursday, you missed something good.
It was a glimpse of the future, a glimpse of the possible.
As part of the third Build Maine Conference held in Lewiston in as many years, the street was converted to a single travel lane with angle-in parking and sidewalk food vendors, artists and pocket parks.
It was, for a day, a renovation of purpose and imagination.
The project was intended to create a temporary active urban space so people can envision permanent change. A facade was erected to mimic a contemporary building — with a roofline exactly like Bates Mill No. 5 — designed to make people really look at the space around them.
Canal Street is, as people who travel it often already know, a thoroughfare. It’s not driven to enjoy the surroundings. It is a fast-moving transportation corridor.
Except it wasn’t on Thursday. It was the same street with a totally different feel. The change in scenery forced people to really look at the street, its sidewalks and the buildings that line the road.
The work of Build Maine, a project of real estate agents, developers, municipal planners and others, is to build economically stronger towns and cities.
Its supporters ask two basic questions:
• “What if all people involved in the work of building Maine — the builders, funders, elected officials, engineers, lawyers, planners, finance institutions and rule-makers — all converged to share best practices and aspirations for moving Maine forward within the reality of the new economy?”
• “What if we added into the mix focused conversations with nationally renowned leaders in the fields of street design, real estate development and public service to introduce ideas on how to do more with less?”
The answer is that, if we did these things, we could improve our urban areas, boost our economy and make life better in Maine.
Hundreds of people were in Lewiston Thursday to talk specifics about how we get these things done, hearing about urban revitalization successes in Vermont and New York, and sharing thoughts about how to bring some of those ideas here.
The study of urban development in Maine may seem less than important, given most of the state is deeply rural, but that actually makes urban development more critical. Just because Maine’s largest cities are default service centers for the state’s population doesn’t mean they can’t also be livable centers of commerce, art and recreation.
In fact, if we don’t specifically think about how best to do this, it doesn’t happen and these important elements of urban life can disappear. We’ve certainly seen that happen in Lewiston in the past, but there is now a sense that the reinvention going on in this city is real.
On Thursday, a model of urban living was booming along a couple of city blocks.
As cars briskly backed into angled spacing, other vehicles moved steadily down the street, cordially pausing for pedestrians to cross. Visitors were talking with sidewalk artists and sitting at street-side cafes for a quick bite and a craft beer.
A couple of people from Portland were overheard talking about how cool the Lewiston project was. Cool, right?
One of the conference speakers, Jonathan Nass, deputy commissioner for the Maine Department of Transportation, warned that the concept “build it and they will come” doesn’t work.
It’s too scripted.
The real solution, he said, is to “work with the market, discover what the needs are, discover what products are moving and then invest in ways that can impact that.”
Right.
In other words, don’t sit and wait.
Grab the brass ring.
Embrace the past, but create the future.
Plan for success.
Lewiston is doing that, and it’s working.
Think back to the time when the Bates Mill closed and the city was left holding the keys to the front door.
Since then, much of the mill has been renovated for dining, housing and commerce. It took entrepreneurs and innovators to make that happen, along with a fair share of courage. Progress continues with the anticipated work at the largest remaining unrenovated space there: Mill No. 5.
Much of the commercial space along lower Lisbon has been renovated and is occupied, with the District Court building and spacious Dufresne Plaza just across the street adding to the mix of restaurants, professional services and retail shopping. And, sometimes, when bands appear at the plaza, there is dancing in the street.
The renovated green space on Lincoln Street makes a nice entrance to Simard-Payne Memorial Park, where the amphitheater there opened this week.
These improvements didn’t happen in a vacuum. They’re part of a long-term planning process and are connected to a greater vision to improve Lewiston.
That’s the city of the future. An urban center — which also happens to be the safest large city in Maine — where people want to live, work and play. A place others see as “cool.”
That’s Lewiston.
jmeyer@sunjournal.com
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