MAIN STREET PROGRAM HAS GOOD POTENTIAL

Shopping malls have changed the face of retail areas of small towns and large cities alike. Once upon a time in Cape Girardeau, virtually all of the city's retail businesses were located in an area generally known as Downtown. Now there is a renewed effort to re-energize that Downtown under the umbrella of a Main Street Program.

The Main Street Program, which is a not-for-profit organization in Washington, D.C., has quite a track record. Many towns across America already have seen the fruits of a Main Street Program. Paducah, Ky., is one nearby success story. Time after time, towns and cities have followed the Main Street Program path to renewal of retail areas.

"Downtown" is a slippery word. What area of Cape Girardeau, exactly, is Downtown? Some of the more recent efforts to create a business draw have been concentrated in the commercial area at the foot of the hill beneath the old Common Pleas Courthouse. At the same level of the Mississippi River, this Downtown area has seen a good deal of revitalization success.

But there is much more that can be done -- and over a much wider area too. In particular, Broadway, Independence, Good Hope and Morgan Oak and the intersecting streets as far out as West End Boulevard or even Kingshighway can lay claim to being part of Cape Girardeau's downtown. Contrast this area with the thriving retail area that has developed on either side of I-55 between William Street and Bloomfield Road, including West Park Mall.

This new effort for Downtown through the Main Street Program will cover an area likely to be determined by interest and participation. Right now, the impetus is coming from the Downtown Merchants Association, which tends to concentrate on below-the-hill businesses. But there isn't any reason folks in the Good Hope area or along Broadway couldn't become enthusiastic about a cohesive plan.

Someone who is already excited about the Main Street Program is Judith Ann Lang, owner of Judith Anne's on Main Street and president of the Downtown Merchants Association. When talking, either to other business owners or civic clubs, about the potential of a united effort for Downtown, Lang's enthusiasm is infectious and compelling.

Let's hope there are others out there who share Lang's vision for Downtown that very possibly could be accomplished with something like the Main Street Program.