Category Task Force Newsletter for Stakeholders | March/April 2024
Background
The City of Rochester, Destination Medical Center (DMC), Experience Rochester, Mayo Clinic, Rochester Area Economic Development Inc. (RAEDI), Rochester Area Chamber of Commerce, and Rochester Downtown Alliance established the Downtown Rochester Task Force to help accelerate Rochester’s path forward and build a more resilient downtown coming out of the Covid environment. The Task Force has continued its collective work on the stakeholder informed themes including:
Downtown Promotion, Activation, and Programming:
- Strengthen promotion, marketing, and communications.
- Activate downtown in a variety of ways.
Access to Downtown:
- Improve public parking.
- Improve downtown wayfinding and navigation.
- Address safety concerns.
- Mitigate the impact of construction.
Barriers to Doing Business Downtown:
- Simplify–improve and streamline–policies and processes.
Downtown Growth:
- Focus on retention of small businesses.
- Collaborate on recruitment of new businesses.
Key Takeaways: A New Way of Working
- The formation of the task force created an opportunity to collectively listen to community stakeholders and turn concerns into actions.
- The task force has resulted in a new way of working together to find solutions on issues facing Downton from simple to complex challenges.
Downtown Taskforce 6- Month Update | 11/20/2023