Boston Main Streets Building vibrant commercial districts

On April 29, 2008, Mayor Thomas M. Menino presented appreciation awards to nearly 40 individuals and businesses from across the City at the Boston Main Streets (BMS) 12th Annual Awards Ceremony, in honor of their contributions to the program over the course of the 2007 calendar year. The awards celebration, which took place at the Greater Boston YMCA on Huntington Avenue, was hosted by local media personalities, radio host Ron Della Chiesa of WGBH, and Michelle Relerford from the WHDH Channel 7 NEWS Team. Read more.

On Saturday, April 12, 2008, Mayor Thomas M. Menino and Department of Neighborhood Development Director, Evelyn Friedman, joined East Boston Main Street Board members, corporate sponsors, local business owners, and residents to celebrate the grand opening of the 303 café in East Boston. The Cafe's restoration and renovations were made possible by assistance from DND’s Office of Business Development (OBD), which provided a $7,000.00 façade improvement grant through its ReStore program.  OBD also provided the cafe with technical assistance during the permitting and licensing process.

Boston Community Change rewards you
and your community when you shop locally.
Present your Boston Community Change card for merchant rebates on your every day transactions to generate cash rebates for YOU and donations to local nonprofits. Boston Community Change is changing our communities for the better by changing the way we shop, changing the way we do business, and changing the way we support the causes we care about. See our online directory of the businesses in the Boston Main Streets districts and to order your FREE Boston Community Change card today!

Dining on Main Streets
In its Dining on Main Streets program, Boston Main Streets introduces some of the districts’ newest restaurants and highlights old favorites.

Boston Main Streets Foundation
The Boston Main Streets Foundation is committed to making Boston's neighborhood commercial districts thriving, vibrant centers of commerce and community through its support of the Boston Main Streets program. The Boston Main Streets Foundation seeks to develop long-term strategies to increase the economic power and resources of neighborhood commercial districts while pursuing initiatives that build knowledge and capacity for Main Streets programs and the businesses they serve.
In 1995, Mayor Thomas M. Menino created Boston Main Streets, the first urban, multi-district Main Streets program in the nation. Boston Main Streets provides funding and technical assistance to 19 neighborhood-based Main Streets districts throughout the City of Boston. The Boston Main Streets program focuses its effort on providing merchants and community residents with the tools for their historic commercial districts to compete in today's market. The Main Streets program helps the local districts capitalize on their unique cultural and historical assets while focusing on the community's economic development needs.
The Boston Main Streets program has served as a national model to urban areas seeking to revitalize neighborhood commercial districts including Baltimore, Washington, D.C., Milwaukee, Detroit and New Orleans.

Elder Friendly Business District
Boston Main Streets (BMS), in partnership with the Boston Partnership for Older Adults (BPOA), Mission Hill Main Streets (MHMS) and the Commission on Affairs of the Elderly, has created the city’s first Elder Friendly Business District.
By 2010, one in three Americans will be over the age of 50.  According to the BPOA, many older adults are often isolated and leave their homes only to visit their local shopping area. With these shifting demographics, community commercial districts must be better attuned to the wants and needs of older adults.
In the Elder Friendly pilot program, we identified essential infrastructure improvements, unfilled business niches, and ways businesses can improve their service to older adults. We compiled information about resources for older adults and developed programs for disseminating information through local businesses. Currently the program is being expanded to other districts. For more information, visit the Mission Hill Main Streets web site.

Check out our WiFi web site!
Bringing wireless technology to Boston's communities, the Main Streets WiFi Initiative will create a free entry point for residents to access the Internet, help attract and retain visitors to the districts and educate and inform local residents & businesses on the use and applications of wireless technology.

Boston Main Streets 10th Anniversary Celebration
On June 2, 2005, Boston Main Streets celebrated the 10th anniversary of the program with a celebration at the Boston Center for the Arts – Cyclorama. Over 500 people attended the event, which highlighted food and music from all of the Boston Main Streets districts.

Beyond Baked Beans

Beyond Baked Beans:
Discover Boston on Main Streets

This colorful guidebook contains information about each of the 19 districts, including maps, directions, places of interest, types of restaurants, and other details about the neighborhood commercial districts.

The Boston Main Streets program is a unit of the Office of Business Development (OBD). The Office of Business Development is Boston's Business Resource. OBD provides quality services and resources to entrepreneurs, businesss owners and neighborhood business districts to help businesses expand, redesign storefronts, create jobs and play a vital role in their local community's and the city's economy. OBD is a division of the City of Boston's Department of Neighborhood Development.