Good Neighbor Podcast: TN-WNC-SWVA
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Good Neighbor Podcast: TN-WNC-SWVA
EP# 271: Elevating Downtown Elizabethton Through Main Street
What makes Courtney Bean with Main Street Elizabethton a good neighbor?
What makes a downtown district thrive? Courtney Bean, Director of Main Street Elizabethton, pulls back the curtain on the art and science of downtown revitalization in this enlightening conversation about community building, economic development, and creating vibrant public spaces.
Courtney reveals how Main Street programs operate nationwide, with thousands of communities using this proven model to strengthen their downtown corridors. She prefers terms like "elevate" and "grow" rather than "revitalize" when describing Elizabethton's approach, emphasizing that their downtown has always maintained its heartbeat - it simply needs strategic enhancement to reach its full potential.
The conversation explores how Main Street Elizabethton serves as a crucial connection point between merchants, city leadership, and community members through their hybrid organizational structure. Courtney shares impressive accomplishments, including four public art installations completed in just two years, while candidly discussing the patience required for meaningful community development. As she notes, "Good things take time" - a valuable reminder for anyone engaged in community work.
We dive into common misconceptions about small-town downtowns, with Courtney addressing outdated perceptions about Elizabethton's business mix. With 150 active businesses and just 9% vacancy, downtown offers far more variety than many realize. The discussion highlights the importance of regional thinking, as communities like Johnson City and Elizabethton - just 15 minutes apart - benefit from connecting their "micro local communities" to strengthen the entire region's appeal.
Whether you're passionate about your own downtown district or simply curious about community development, this conversation offers valuable insights into how structured programs with community engagement at their core drive meaningful, sustainable growth. Ready to discover or rediscover your downtown? This episode will inspire you to see these vital spaces with fresh eyes.
To learn more about Main Street Elizabethton go to:
https://mainstreetelizabethton.com/
Main Street Elizabethton
423-213-0090
This is the Good Neighbor Podcast, the place where local businesses and neighbors come together. Here's your host, Skip Monty.
Speaker 2:Well, hello everyone and welcome to the Good Neighbor Podcast of the Tri-Cities. So I hope everybody had a great Fourth of July. I know I did and I'm happy to be back in the studio and really excited about a special guest we have in the studio with us, and I'm sure you'll be just as excited to learn all about them and what they do, because today I have the pleasure of introducing your good neighbor, miss Courtney Bean, who is the director of Main Street. Elizabetha Courtney, welcome to the show.
Speaker 3:Thanks for having me, skip, happy to be here.
Speaker 2:Well, we're thrilled to have you, like I said, excited to learn all about you and what you do. So if you don't mind, why don't you kick us off by telling us about your job?
Speaker 3:Yeah, absolutely so. Main Street is a national program. A lot of people don't know that but there's thousands of programs across the country. Here in Tennessee we have like 40 or 50 programs. So regionally there's a lot of Main Street programs around Jonesboro, johnson City, kingsport, bristol, greenville, rogersville that's kind of our Northeast Tennessee neighbors and Elizabethton. So we became a Main Street program about five and a half years ago and it's all about revitalizing your downtown.
Speaker 3:I actually really don't use the word revitalize a whole lot, because our downtown district in Elizabethton was never dead. You know, revitalizing is like coming back. So I use the word elevate and grow a lot. So we're elevating downtown, we're growing, we're filling in those holes that we need to fill in. So I work for the city and we have a separate nonprofit board of directors. So it's very community oriented, very rooted in our local community, and whether you are a downtown business, or you live downtown, or you have a business outside of downtown or you live anywhere in Carter County, really anywhere in the region, you can be a part of our Main Street program.
Speaker 3:So we are a member based program program and that just means that people are supporting the program, but then they're able to have a voice and a say in things. So some of the projects that we've done recently again, we partner with the city a lot but we've been able to work with the city to be able to add a lot of public art to our downtown. I think we're at four official public art projects in the last two years, which is really exciting. We, you know, we work with our city council. We work just like with our city leaders in order to talk about, like, the vision of downtown or have a voice for the merchants. But a lot of what I do as the director is a connection or a conduit point. So connecting the merchants with the city if they have questions about things, connecting the city with the merchants, but also just connecting the community and our downtown together.
Speaker 2:Very cool, so you don't have to necessarily have a facility in on Main Street or in downtown.
Speaker 3:You don't not to be involved. You know, downtowns are really known as kind of like the heart of the community and so we have a lot of different members who are located outside the district but that they are involved in downtown and so for that membership, we have them come out to events like our First Friday, which is our summer, our monthly summer series, if you will. There's other benefits to being a member, again, like we have these active committees that look at these different areas of focus that Main Street America has shown, like these are like the proven areas to focus on to revitalize or elevate and grow your downtown. So by being a member, again, whether you're a business or resident, whoever you are, there's different price points but you can be involved in those committees so that you have a voice. You know everyone has an opinion, right, everyone has an opinion, everyone wants to share their opinion and that's what we're here for at Main Street is that we want to work together with the community to improve our downtown.
Speaker 2:Awesome.
Speaker 3:Well, I like that elevate, I prefer that I use it all the time, but it's a good word.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's a good word. So, Courtney, how did you get into the Main Street business?
Speaker 3:You know, I actually I started volunteering. I live in Johnson City, but Elizabethan has adopted me as their own, so that is so nice, but it's only 15 minutes away from downtown to downtown is only 15 minutes, and that's what I just love about this region and this area is that regionalism is so important and I feel like we have these micro local communities that we focus on. Like that's like the Elizabethton community. You know it has its own personality and heart and soul, but also we have this regional relationship and so I digress, but I just love that about this area. So I actually started volunteering with the Johnson City Main Street Program in like 2015, 2016, 2017, around there.
Speaker 3:I moved to this area in 2014. And so, yeah, I was working in higher ed for a while but I was really kind of focused on that marketing communication side, and so I got my master's in strategic communication, which is very buzzwordy, but I knew that I wanted to continue that work in marketing communications, but I wanted to do it a little bit more community oriented. So having volunteered with the johnson city main street program really showed me that this was, this was a really neat avenue to combine all these things that I love and feel passionate about um, and so it was really exciting when this opportunity came up and obviously it's been a good fit up in here five and a half years since the start well congratulations, father.
Speaker 2:nothing to sneeze at five and a half years since the start of the program. Well congratulations, Father. Nothing to sneeze at Five and a half years.
Speaker 3:Something's working, something's working. We have a good team behind us. We have a good team.
Speaker 2:Absolutely Sounds like it Well in the Main Street business and, like you said, there's a Main Street program in just a lot of small towns. What are some myths or misconceptions about Main Street programs?
Speaker 3:Ooh, that's a really good question, because every Main Street program is a little bit different. Oh my gosh, you might have stumped me.
Speaker 2:Well, that's a misconception. There you go.
Speaker 3:No, that's interesting. So well, one is like so our program? Because I work for the city, we have a great relationship with the city, but I don't do any enforcement, which is really nice. So we have our building department and our codes and our planning that do that. So my job is not enforcement, I do not write the codes, I do. You know, really, our code enforcement doesn't do that. That's the city council, you know, voted upon. Those are decisions made by our council.
Speaker 3:But some Main Street programs are actually just nonprofits and so then they're developing a relationship with the city. So every program looks a little bit different. But, you know, probably the biggest misconception I would say is that, um, things happen quickly. That is, you know thing. Good things take time and, um, I mean, sometimes I get impatient, you know, with just, there's always red tape. But a perfect example of this is with our public art program. So we applied, we work with the Tennessee Arts Commission. They've been really great to the city and to Main Street and we've received four. Actually we just received our fifth grant from them, which is really incredible because it helps us to provide this high quality public art in our downtown district. And we applied for a postcard mural in January of 24 for this public art. We received it in July. I could go through. We had a whole application. You know there's a whole thing, but we dedicated that mural April of 2025.
Speaker 2:Wow.
Speaker 3:So good things just take time. And so I think that you know there's a lot of people will say, well, why isn't this happening? Well, what's going on with this? Well, no one cares about this. And a lot of times, behind the scenes especially, again I get defensive over the city because, well, one, I'm an employee, but, two, I see how hard everyone's working behind the scenes, but it just takes a long time for those good things to happen. So that's a great way to to get involved with Main Street, because then you can be a part of those conversations and know what's going on. And again it can get a little, you know. You're like all right, come on, we want to, we're ready to make this happen, but good things take time.
Speaker 2:That's right. Good things do take time.
Speaker 3:They do.
Speaker 2:They do so, courtney, who are your target customers and how do you attract?
Speaker 3:them. That's, you know, that's. That's. That's a great question.
Speaker 3:We talk about our micro local community a lot. I mentioned that earlier. You know I think there's a lot of people just even in Elizabethton and Carter County that haven't been downtown in a while. We see that sometimes in our Facebook comments of you know. Well, why are there?
Speaker 3:Someone recently said, why are there nine antique stores downtown? It's like, well, we don't have nine antique stores, we have five antique stores. We have five boutiques. We just got a new children's boutique. We have, you know, multiple. We have two different a Boomtown.
Speaker 3:Boomtown is regional. They have multiple shops throughout the region, but we also have Brummets and they both do t-shirt printing. Brummets is more like for the high schools and they do a lot of printing around there, but we have so many variety of businesses. So I feel like that's one of our target audiences is really showcasing what we have here in Elizabethton, because there's a lot of misconceptions about that. We love our antique source, but they're not for everybody, and so that's why it's important to have that variety.
Speaker 3:We also, again, I think that that regionalism it's about tapping into people feeling welcome to come to Elizabethton. We have a lot of tourists that come, that will stay in the cabins and you know they're here like Thursday through Monday. We see a lot of that. We see a lot of visitors, which is really wonderful, and but we're starting to see more of our regional neighbors, which I think is really exciting. So I would say that they're a target audience as well of introducing Elizabethan to them. What, what is downtown Elizabethan? What can you get, what can you see? You know, what can you feel? The vibes, all that stuff.
Speaker 2:Very cool, very cool.
Speaker 3:Everybody. The short answer is everybody's, our target audience.
Speaker 2:Everybody's your target audience. So outside of work, Courtney, what do you like to do for fun?
Speaker 3:Oh gosh, we love the outdoors, which is why we love this area. We have a camper, a 29-foot drivable camper. It says Jesus is Lord, really big on the back. We inherited it that way, so it's called the Jesus mobile. So we love to take the Jesus mobile out into our state parks. We love camping in our state parks. Fun fact, we have two state parks here in Carter County Maroon Mountain and Sycamore Shoals. You can't camp at Sycamore Shoals, it's more of a historical, educational, but we love both of our Carter County parks. But yeah, we love to camp, we love to hike. We have a 15-year-old nephew who's staying with us for a few weeks this summer and we have been getting into pickleball. I know that it's the big fad and everyone loves it and we're late to the game, but I get why. It's a trend. So yeah, but really we love spending time outside.
Speaker 2:So well, that's the same, and you live in a wonderful place for that.
Speaker 3:We do, we do.
Speaker 2:And you're not late to the game of pickleball, you know it kind of started out with just old people like me, and then it's kind of grown. I've got kids that are in their early 30s and they absolutely love pickleball. It's so fun.
Speaker 3:We were on the courts yesterday in Johnson City and, like I mean, they were almost full and Elizabeth Afton has an indoor pickleball court now.
Speaker 2:Oh nice, Very nice.
Speaker 3:And yeah, which is really cool because it's air conditioned. You know, it's pretty hot out there. And then our Parks and Recreation Department has been I can't remember if they've already done it they're talking about converting some tennis courts into pickleball, because it is quite the craze, but I don't think it's going anywhere, you know.
Speaker 2:No, I agree. I don't think it's going to fade out anytime soon.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:Well, if, Courtney, if you could think of one thing that you would like our listeners to remember about Main Street Elizabethan, what would that be to remember about?
Speaker 3:Main Street Elizabethan. What would that be? Yeah, I would say. I mean, I think that it's all about. It's all about community and it's all about, again, that there's an opportunity to get involved.
Speaker 3:Obviously, we want, we would love people to get involved in Main Street Elizabethan.
Speaker 3:Our individual membership is only $50 a, or you can just pay $5 a month, so we try to make it really affordable for everybody, um, but I think that community and getting involved and sharing your voice is so important because then you're able to, um, you know, get a lot of those misconceptions, you can learn the real process.
Speaker 3:Um, but also, I would just challenge again maybe you live in Kingsport and the Downtown Kingsport Association is your local Main Street, or Believe in Bristol, is the Bristol Main Street and Main Street Jonesboro, or the Downtown Connect in Johnson City. So obviously we'd love for people to come to Elizabethton, but everyone lives in their own communities and so there's ways to get involved with their local Main Streets and I would just challenge them to do that, because there's a lot of great things that are happening behind the scenes. But being able to have that community support and also that input you know the Main Street directors, we all chat all the time and it's like we want to know what the community wants, you know. I mean we have ideas and we do surveys and data collections and things, but it's important to have those especially like community leaders and people that want to be involved.
Speaker 3:We welcome them. I'm speaking for everybody. Yeah, I'll message them after this and give them a heads up. I'll say people are coming your way, yeah there you go, very good.
Speaker 2:Well, for those of us who, would you know, are intrigued and would like to come check out, see how we could support downtown or Elizabethan and Main Street, how can we do that?
Speaker 3:Yeah Well, first you can just come downtown anytime, you know. I think that that's. We have 150 active businesses in our downtown district. We have only a 9% vacancy rate. A lot of the vacant buildings are the old big department stores. So sometimes everybody's like, well, all these vacant buildings, but we really only have a 9% vacancy rate. So, come downtown, discover something new. Support our small businesses. 60 cents of every dollar stays local here in the community when you shop local. And it's so important because our small businesses are the ones giving back to the bar ball teams, giving back to our schools. Um, so that's really important. Also, um, you can go to mainstreetelizabethancom or downtownelizabethancom. We try to provide that easy shortcut, Um, and you can.
Speaker 3:There's a whole we have a whole calendar of events to see how you can get involved or you know what you can do. Like, we have a business, Fletcher's Homemade, who does sewing classes all the time and on a variety of levels. And then we also have a business, Made on Elk, as well as Crossroad Craftworks. They're actually in the same location and they both have different classes. Like, Crossroads will have a stained glass class to learn how to make a stained glass item, but and Made on Elk will have a pottery class. So lots of different ways. If you're learning, if you want to do something new, if you want to get out there do something fun. We have an events calendar, but there's also membership information and ways to get involved and, again, like, we have events like our first Friday Awesome. Yeah, We'll look forward to that Absolutely.
Speaker 3:Yeah Well, courtney.
Speaker 2:I can't tell you how much we appreciate you taking the time out of your busy schedule to talk to us about Main Street and what you do, and we wish you and Main Street Elizabethan, all the best moving forward.
Speaker 3:Thank you so much, Skip. Appreciate you having me on. Shout out to Matt at Hellbender Outfitters for making this connection for us.
Speaker 2:Absolutely, he did a great job too, very cool, all right. Well, thank you so much. Maybe we can have you back sometime.
Speaker 3:All right, I would love that Thank you Thanks so much.
Speaker 1:Bye-bye. Thank you for listening to the Good Neighbor Podcast. To nominate your favorite local businesses to be featured on the show, go to gnptry-citiescom. That's gnptry-citiescom, or call 423-719-5873.