Archive for the ‘Economic Development’ Category

NDDC Conducts Annual Planning for 2011

Friday, December 17th, 2010

Last month, the NDDC conducted its annual planning session for the 2011 Work Plan.  As is the organization’s general approach, the group included board members, committee members, and other downtown stakeholders; we’ve been “crowd-sourcing” community economic development for ten years.

About three dozen people participated in at least part of the session.  A good time was had by all.

The group reviewed the NDDC’s major accomplishments for 2010 and proposed work plans for 2011.  Although a draft Work Plan exists, it awaits formal approval by the NDDC Board.  For now, we’ll share our list of accomplishments for 2010.  As always, our accomplishments (and plans) are organized by the National Trust’s Main Street Program. (more…)

Property Tax Fix at the State Level?

Thursday, December 2nd, 2010

As regular readers of the NDDC blog are aware, commercial property taxes are a big issue for the downtown.  Since 2000, these taxes have increased approximately 30% each year.  In fact, ever-increasing commercial property taxes threaten the economic vitality of Northfield’s business community. (more…)

Welcome Students!

Wednesday, September 8th, 2010

Every September, Northfield welcomes 5,000 college students to town.  Many are returning to a familiar place, however, about 1,200 of these college students are new to Northfield. (more…)

Shop Local, Be Local, Love Local…You Get the Idea

Thursday, November 5th, 2009

NDDC-Nov-09I was recently asked how long the NDDC had been running the “Be Local” campaign and, futhermore, how long we’d been doing some kind of “Shop Local” theme.  Well, the first question was easy, we’ve been doing the “Be Local” ads for about two years, they came out of last year’s Abby Erickson and Ally Beyer-led Events and Marketing Committee.  These ads are designed through By All Means and published monthly in the Northfield Entertainment Guide. (more…)

Draft of a New Idea

Wednesday, October 7th, 2009

QuarterlyNEG4TheRegionA couple of weeks ago, I posted on one result of the U of M Extension Service’s MAP work, the “Top Ten Reasons to Make It a Weekend in Northfield“.  I hinted that there was more to come.

The so-called “Doughnut Group” had another meeting, this time over muffins.  Hayes Scriven of the Historical Society, Rob Schanilec of By All Means and I met to follow up on some ideas we had raised about a month ago. (more…)