Main Street Highland Park was among the downtown organizations in New Jersey honored last week at Downtown New Jersey’s annual conference at the end of January, 2021. Downtown New Jersey (DNJ) celebrated placemaking projects and initiatives intended to help New Jersey small businesses and downtowns survive and thrive during the shutdown and capacity limitations associated with the COVID-19 pandemic. The awards were presented at a virtual ceremony during the New Jersey Downtown Conference last week.
“Keep feet on the street” has always been the motto of Main StreetHighland Park, which won in the category of Early Action/Small Organization. In March, when the pandemic got serious, the organization’s staff and volunteers, in partnership with local businesses and the Borough of Highland Park, got to work to make sure people could keep coming downtown in a way that made them feel safe.
Main Street Highland Park nimbly adapted events and created new ones, that followed public health regulations, including the weekly Farmers Market, downtown planting days, community mural projects, outdoor movies, a downtown window art tour, outdoor music, downtown trick-or-treating, an outdoor dance performance, outdoor fitness classes, outdoor art exhibits, window literary walking tours, and holiday artisan markets. The organization also worked with the town and police department to close off two streets and a parking lot to auto traffic and purchased outdoor picnic tables, cafe tables and chairs, signage, advertising, hand sanitizer and masks, umbrellas, tents, and heat lamps to use at these “Town Tables” locations, as well as to give to businesses for use at their shops.
Main Street HP Executive Director Rebecca Hersh thanked her “amazing” staff, volunteers and the borough administration and police department for not just their support and hard work, but also their creativity and problem-solving ability that helped bring life to the downtown during these extremely challenging times. “We came up with initiatives that will serve the town’s residents now and post pandemic,” she said.
Nominations for the Downtown New Jersey Placemaking Awards were accepted in two categories – early action and winning winter. Nominee categories also acknowledged the varying capacity of downtown districts, from all-volunteer led groups to BIDs with more significant staff and budgetary resources.
“This is the first ever Downtown New Jersey Placemaking Awards. In a normal year, we would gather in-person to celebrate projects, programs, and leaders at the Downtown Excellence Awards,” DNJ’s Executive Director, Courtenay Mercer said. “Since we could not do a larger program this year, we wanted to recognize excellent placemaking projects and initiatives helping small business cope with the economic strain of COVID-19.”
Joining Downtown New Jersey in recognizing excellence in placemaking was AARP New Jersey, who sponsored the event because these community efforts align with their own Livable Communities initiative.
Neighboring New Brunswick also won an award in the category of Winning Winter/Medium-Sized Organization. Walking in a socially distanced Winter Wonderland, New Brunswick City Center developed unique experiences for the holiday season for businesses and patrons alike. Restaurants hosted outdoor, heated tent dining experiences and festive boutique shops transformed into a pedestrian plaza with upbeat activities throughout the week both virtually and live. With George Street opened exclusively to foot traffic, there was a lot of room for imagination, including expanding on annual favorites such as the annual tree lighting ceremony, which offered 19 different locations, live entertainment while downtown patrons shopped and dined, and hosting the New Brunswick’s City-Wide Game Watch, to support Rutgers Football. Ice sculptors, stilt walkers, jugglers, and more kept families entertained during the day. New Brunswick’s City Center truly lit up the season and kept the magic of winter alive during these difficult times.
DNJ is a non-profit membership organization of individuals, businesses, developers, government agencies, and local and regional entities that are passionate about downtowns. Downtowns reflect our communities’ unique identities, provide a focal point, a convenient local place of commerce, and offer a sense of place where people can gather and truly be a community. DNJ provides advocacy, education, and technical assistance resources dedicated to ensuring the vitality of our downtowns. For more information, visit www.downtownnj.com.
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For more information on Downtown New Jersey, visit www.downtownnj.com.