Lesson Number 2: A Continuation On My Post About Dead Towns

 

 

So, I see my post about Dead Towns was very popular.

So my family has been in the commercial real estate business and city planning business for a century, so I do have some knowledge about things. My Grandaddy was instrumental in getting Electricity into Tennessee and built an ICONIC Hotel that still stands today.

So Ill share some ideas on how to build up towns that are in the beginning stages of starting to die.

First, hold a town meeting. Tell them the town needs to work together to gather up all the trash, overgrown vegetation, and junk in the town. 

Second, invest some Tax Money into renting 10 big Dumpsters and placing them in a vacant lot and send postcards to all residents to bring all their clean up junk to them. replace them as they fill up. 

Third, Separate out metals and take that to a recyclers for money.

Fourth, After the Dumpsters are finished and gone, invite people to bring all their still usable furniture and junk to that Vacant Lot and put a Lot Sale Ad in all the papers in the area and sell all the stuff the townsfolk bring in. 

What all 4 things do, is make people work together, like Stone Soup, and get rid of Eye Sores and bring back pride.  

Having everyone bring their unwanted stuff to a central location, makes the townsfolk cooperate and have fun. Soon all the farms surrounding the town bring produce to sell and a Farmers Market forms, people start selling Tchotchkis, Funko Pops, used video games etc etc etc. Grandma is now out of the house and away from Judge Judy, selling Whoopie Pies and Tomatoes. She sits and crochets and chit chats and laughs. 

Soon the empty lot is having a large metal Quonset Hut built in the cold months, It has windows and heating and A/C and 4 porta pots. Grandma and Uncle Jim can move inside and start selling other things and restaurants open and an arcade. 

BUT you need to bring people, out of the area, INTO the area... The New Farmers Market and everything youve built, wont work until you create reasons for people to VISIT and bring in Money. 

Fifth, here are some creative ideas to bring tourists and people into your town.

The Mayor and other Govt people meet and brainstorm to decide on the following:

• A Tourist Gimmick
• Local Lore
• Food & Music
• A Reason To Have A Festival
• A Lure For Fitness Junkies.
• A Nature Trail

Ill give examples:

1. Find out everything you can about the town, Examine blueprints, Newspapers.com, Maps, Google Streetview and aerials, Look up everything you can.
2. Find out if anyone was famous. Start Ghost Stories, post online about Unexplained things and  Murders, that happened in the town Etc
3. Leave a house abandoned and plant spooky pics and Fake Urbex online.
4. Plant Bigfoot Pics online or create a new creature, like a Wild Zombie horse thats halfman/halfhorse. BUT make it GOOD LUCK if you see it.
5. Fake a UFO landing. In the woods with convincing evidence,
6. Put No Trespassing signs up to lure URBEX and alien hunters in.
7. Announce a Parade to highlight the “Lore”.
8. Put up B&Bs, with Alien Museums or Bigfoot crap.
9. Plant Ramps near moist land near creeks and rivers and spread exotic mushroom spores and other rare edible plants in strategic places, Plant Mugwort, Sweet Cecily, Angelica, Ferula assa-foetida, Morels, Pine Mushrooms,Fiddleheads, Wild Ginseng, Garlic Mustard, Wild Rice, Plant nut and fruit trees, Pawpaws,  ... Lure foragers in. $$$$
10. Put out invites to cooking contests for Town Recipe
11. Make a claim that an Herb Dip from a hole in the wall restaurant gets womens contractions to start or gets women pregnant or makes sex fantastic. Fix up the upstairs apartments into Honeymoon Suites. 
12. Start offering outside tables at most eateries
13. Ask local artists to paint murals
14. Open a Roller Rink in an empty large building with arcade.
15. Have activities for kids. Turn an empty office on Main St into a childrens Rave and Karaoke club, playing Kids Bop CDs and serving Pizza, Nuggets and Fries and Low sugar beverages in glowing take home cups. Have someone lead the kids in a Line Dance.
16. Create addictive special recipes from the town.
17. Get horticulturists in to design a hiking nature trail.
18. Put a town pool, Tennis, sports, dog park near the trail, Have a field next to it and invite bands in for a free concert.
19. Invite Eccentric artists and crafters in.
20. Put in a mini theater, a few museums.
21. Put up Google Maps pins about it all.
22. Have the carpenters in the town build a giant Google Pin and put it on a hill with concrete letters spelling out "Hilltown"... Explorers will visit just to stand next to it 
23. Post online about the interesting stuff the town has. 
24. I have a super fun idea to get people coming in but it is proprietary. Only serious requests will get it.
25. If you have a deep river or creek that goes thru the town, You have so many choices, its not even funny

Then, once people start coming in

Build worthwhile businesses and Clubs

Build Restaurants and Piers on the River. 

Invite all young beer brewers to come and build Brew Houses. Have them develop A Hilltown Brew.

River/Creek Ideas:

Allow the docking of certain types of boats 

Build a Pier and a restaurant/motel. Build a Deck that crosses the river, so you can sit and watch the boats underneath. 

Like imagine this road is the river, if you build a deck over the river, itd make it UNIQUE and special. People can eat and drink and watch Gondolas take people on sightseeing trips up and down the river at night on Valentines day

 

String lights on a deck, in the summer, twinkling and shimmering over the running river water and glasses of wine make peoples mind shift. Secrets are whispered over wine when theres riverside deck eating. Its intimate. 

 

After dinner and wine, a nice summertime walk home., A smile and a wave when you pass the Pizza Store as a pizzas being rolled out.

Night life has been established. Romance.

Order in fish stocks. Let people go out fishing.

Send out postcards to towns folk, inviting them to come help cut a walkway/path on one side of the river. Put trashcans out, Encourage dog walking, Put benches out. It invites people to sit, listen to the river, ENJOY the town. 

 

Narrowboat

If your river is wide and deep enough, allow people to dock Narrow Boats. You will have a funky fun River Scene, let the Narrow Boat residents set up a boardwalk and start their own businesses

Heres a free Festival Idea 

 

Assess the River or Creek, Are there lots of overgrown trees hanging over it?, 

Does the river stay this way for a mile?

Does it open up to a clearing at one point? 

In summertime or maybe fall,

Invite people to the town for Summer Dream Fest or Fall Leaf Fest

Invite Food Trucks and other Fair Vendors in.

Tell all the main street businesses to decorate their businesses and offer Outside seating. People will come in to participate and walk down Main Street and eat and drink mostly mixer drinks and eat and chat.

Then string lights in the trees that overhang the river so they sparkle on the water. Have towns people dress as summertime things or Fairies and Gnomes or Pumpkins or Fall Leaves and stand on the sides of the river as music plays as families and tourists go down the river slowly in small boats. It needs to be magical and relaxing. 

When all the boats get to the clearing, then have fireworks. Young lovers snuggled up in a lightly rocking boat, watching the fireworks shimmer off the water.

You sell tickets for the boats. People who dont have tickets can eat and drink and stroll to the fireworks, but not get the magic of the boatride and view

Start a Music Festival

Send a postcard to townsfolk asking for help clearing a field. This is your new Multi Purpose field. Write to all the music stores in the area, asking for young bands to come to perform on the new Field in Spring for Spring Rebirth Fest, for exposure. 

 

Ask attendees to dress in Spring costumes Invite fair games and rides. 

 

Ramps

By now the Ramps are growing out of control and we need a Ramp eating contest. And a cooking contest. The hotels in town will be booked and they will need nightlife. Give it to them. We will need A Ramp Queen and King. On the main road into town, post a billboard with a photo of The Ramp Queen and King and saying Something like:

 

"Hilltown, USA, Home of The Summer Dream Fest, The Spring Rebirth 3 day Music Fest and The Hometown of The Ramp King and Queen, Chance Smith and Nicole Fuller. Get to know us, Look us up on Instagram or pull over and take a shot of this QR code. See Grandma at the Farmers Market for a free Whoopie Pie and homebrewed Birch Beer"

Put other smaller billboards on the main interstate near the town, to entice people to visit and know the town, 

You now have things your town is known for, people visiting. Summer Dream Fest has gone Viral on TikTok. Grandma from the Hilltown Farmers Market now has her own slot in the Farmers Market and ships all 20 flavors of Whoopie Pies all over the country. Grandma sells special Summer Dream Fest flavors in Summer. Her grandson built a Bakery for the Whoopie Pies on a back road, and people have jobs.

All big restaurants in Town should create 4 seasonal menus 

Create one neighborhood with a party atmosphere.  

Now you need to bring more people in to live..

Give away FREE LOTS. Or lots for $1. They did this in Philly years ago. I almost bought a Victorian for $1 when I was 20. 

Give away free lots, all they need to do is demo and haul the house on it away. 

Good Luck!