Increasing diversity is a continual and intentional goal for Athens Main Street, and this remains at the forefront of Executive Director Tere Richardson’s mind when coordinating community efforts.

“If you desire to be relevant to diverse groups, it’s got to be at the top of your mind — in your photos, in your posts, in celebrating heroes, booking musicians and recruiting volunteers. You know, we want to reflect all our community and that has to be an ongoing strategy and not just a one time effort,” Richardson said.

Main Street America Approach Athens Main Street uses a four point approach to downtown revitalization that keeps diversity at the forefront.

“If you look at downtown revitalization, the main street approach is promotions, design, economic vitality and organization,” Richardson said.

Promotions

Fridays After Five, Sippin’ Cider, the Chocolate Walk, and the Athens Farmers Market are all examples of the promotion aspect of the approach.

“We increase foot traffic into downtown, and that brings more shoppers and more restaurant patrons and more dollars into our economy,” Richardson explained.

“Surprisingly, Sippin’ Cider has become as important as the Christmas Open House. They both have become two of our bigger days of the year. Last, but not least, the Chocolate Walk is another huge event for us. Its benefits are seen well after the event has taken place. The event helps establish and grow UG White’s Chocolate Counter clientele, and we have several customers that discovered us through this exceptional event,” said Shannon Bryant, Manager at UG White.

These events make Athens a place to come back to for those outside of the community “that has been a real benefit.”

“We’ve seen, with the things we’ve done with Fridays After Five, a real increase in the diversity of our groups that come into downtown for those events,” Richardson said. “Old and young, families to young professionals, and our minority community have really shown up in force and that is exactly what we were hoping for.”

“That was a real goal for us in 2022, to be a welcoming downtown to all of our community, and we did a concerted effort to do that through our social media and through the bands that we invited and the events that we held,” Richardson said.

Design

The Merchants Alley renovation projects offers an example of the design aspect of the approach.

“It’s become a hugely popular spot for wedding proposals and prom pictures, and I’ve seen business meetings out there and receptions, but most importantly it serves as a place making spot, just a place to come and sit with friends or to enjoy art and the music we play over our sound system,” Richardson said.

Prior to the renovation, the Square did not have a gathering spot of that kind.

“So, in doing that, our design component really attracted people into downtown,” Richardson said.

In another effort to boost design, Athens Main Street offers a signage and facade grant program.

They offer this to “not only attract more people into their establishments with the improved signage, but also to keep a desirable look and historic feel to our downtown.”

Main Street also worked with the city to improve ease of finding public parking.

“We also worked with the city to design public parking way-finding signs and where to place them so that the individuals can be directed into our public parking,” Richardson said.

Economic Vitality

“I probably speak two to three times a month with people that want to have a business on the Square, whether that’s a restaurant, a professional services firm, a personal service, salon, or a retail shop. So people are seeking out downtown for their businesses,” Richardson said. “A lot of the building owners may be open to hearing about leasing or selling their buildings. We have a good problem to have, which is we have no available properties, meaning there are none publicly for sale.”

This puts Athens in a unique position compared to other downtowns that are undergoing revitalization.

“We have building owners that may consider it, but they haven’t put it on the market yet,” Richardson said.

That is part of the economic vitality aspect. Athens Main Street works with potential business owners and current property owners to get more businesses into buildings downtown.

Organization

“I’m the only person that’s employed by Athens Main Street. So what we have is an army of volunteers that help me do what we do. It really truly does take a village and I have great volunteers that work on our committees and that move us forward in all four of these directions. I couldn’t do that without them,” Richardson explained. “So that’s the fourth component [of this approach].”

Athens Amplified

Fridays After Five will be the last Friday of the month in April, May, June, and July.

“[We] made a conscious decision to move to the last Friday of the month so that folks can always count on when it’s going to be,” Richardson said.

This allows them not to compete with the Friday night music offered in other nearby downtown areas.

“We’re not competing for the food trucks and the patrons,” Richardson said.

“We estimate we had probably over over 3,000 people at each Fridays after Five [in 2022],” Richardson said.

Merchants Alley Happy Hour will be every Friday beginning April 14 going through June 24.

“We will be taking July and August off, because that alley is a hot place in July and August,” Richardson said.

Happy Hour will start back the first Friday in September and will go through the Christmas Open House in November.

“So every Friday, with the exception of July and August, you’ll be able to hear local music, local musicians in Merchants Alley,” Richardson said.

These events have had a tangible impact on downtown businesses.

“Fridays After Five has grown our business significantly. We have had to hire additional people just to accommodate our customers on Friday nights due to the FAF events and the Merchants Alley Happy Hour events,” Bryant said.

New this year will be the Thursday Night Tailgate.

“That’s all the fun of Fridays after Five except in better weather. That’ll be in late August, September, and October, and that will be the last Thursday, and it’s going to be very similar to Fridays after Five,” Richardson said. “We’re going to have big bands. We’re going to have lots of food trucks.”

Some might wonder why Athens Main Street would choose Thursday nights for this event.

“Everybody loves their football in the in the fall, and we’ve had so many people ask ‘Why don’t you do something when the weather’s nicer in the fall?’ and that’s because there’s such a great exodus from our community to Auburn or to Tuscaloosa and then also to our local football games,” Richardson explained.

With this in mind, Main Street decided to see how Thursdays work out.

“We’re thinking it’s gonna be a really fun time,” Richardson said.

Music at the Market will host local musicians every Saturday at the Farmers Market from June 4 through Sept. 30.

“What we did is we branded those four musical components as Athens amplified,” Richardson said. “So that we can market all of our musical offerings, kind of under one umbrella,” Richardson said.

“We want to be known as a community that embraces our local musicians and provides lots of different avenues to come and listen to music,” Richardson said.

The city recognizes the impact Athens Amplified and other Athens Main Street events has on the community.

“To my recollection, there has never been an initiative that has done more to promote Athens than Athens Main Street. Because of their work, we have more people visiting Athens and specifically the Square than ever before. Those people are boosting our local businesses and economy,” City Councilwoman Dana Henry said. “They have toiled diligently to create an engaging and welcoming atmosphere and have really drilled deep to tap into what the public at large wants to see and what they are going to potentially enjoy and want to attend. Tere Richardson and her dedicated crew work tirelessly to determine what’s going to get people up here. They work social media to create buzz and they deliver. Their ROI is astronomical. Awesome job, Athens Main Street!”