Small garden signs will be popping up across Jamestown this month. You’ll see them nestled in flower beds and planter boxes from Hotchkiss Street to Hallock Street and from West Virginia Boulevard to West 18^th Street.

The signs will be distributed as part of the GROW Jamestown Front Garden Recognition Program, now in its fourth year. Over 60 volunteers will be working with the Jamestown Renaissance Corporation through the end of July to survey every city street and deliver signs to gardens that are colorful, well-tended, and set a high standard for their corner of Jamestown. Continue reading →

The City of Jamestown will be hosting a Complete Streets Policy Implementation presentation on Monday July 7^th from 7:00 PM to 8:00 PM in the Lillian V. Ney Renaissance Center located at 119 West Third Street. Complete Streets are road systems that provide safe, convenient access for all users including, motorists, bicyclists, public transportation operators and users, and pedestrians of all ages and abilities. National experts John LaPlante and Kristin Bennett from the National Complete Streets Coalition will lead this presentation and will help determine how the City of Jamestown can better balance transportation projects to ensure streets are safe and inviting for everyone using the right-of-way.

This presentation sponsored by the New York State Department of Transportation and Jamestown Renaissance Corporation is the first in New York State and will be open to the public. The City of Jamestown encourages your attendance in identifying how to more effectively complete the streets in Jamestown.

One of the hallmarks of successful downtowns is that they are destinations for great food and have lots of fun places to eat. Think of any downtown that you enjoy visiting and there’s a good chance that a restaurant, public market, or street-side food vendor plays a prominent role in making it a favorite place.

Several projects in downtown Jamestown, including events, business expansions, and recent openings all signal that downtown Jamestown is moving up in the ranks as a regional food destination. Continue reading →

Great streets feel good.

Walk or drive down the stretch of Third Street between Hallock and Hall in Jamestown now that the oak trees are in full leaf and try not to be inspired. It’s hard. The soaring trees, the interesting buildings, and the view of downtown on the other side of the bridge all combine to make a trip along Third a real treat.

That beautiful street is also a safer place this summer after a 2013 repaving project that included striping to clearly mark travel lanes and parking lanes. What had been an ambiguous and awkward street for motorists, cyclists, and pedestrians is now more calm and comfortable. Continue reading →

Landscaping, porch repairs, painting, sidewalk replacement and many other projects will soon be underway in Jamestown’s neighborhoods as part of the Jamestown Renaissance Corporation’s fourth annual Renaissance Block Challenge.

Seven clusters of neighbors are participating in the program this year, with properties located on Dearborn St., Durant Ave., Ellis Ave., Lakeview Ave., Newton Ave., W. 18th St., and in the Forest Heights neighborhood. The seven groups, which include 97 property owners and a mixture of owner-occupants and landlords, applied to the program earlier this year and were selected from among 12 competing groups. Continue reading →

Here are the cleaning assignments organized by group for Hands On Jamestown. If you have any questions you can ask someone at the registration table tomorrow morning. Over 700 volunteers have signed up! See you tomorrow.

http://jamestownrenaissance.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/2014-PRE-REGISTRATION-LIST-FOR-BOOKS-5.17.2014-ALPHA-BY-ORGANIZATION.pdf

Click here to register for Hands-On Jamestown

It’s a vicious cycle that begins small. Litter begets litter. Then graffiti appears. And before long, apathy and despair are knocking at the door.

But the reverse cycle also starts out small. A sidewalk is swept. A flower is planted. And pretty soon, a sense of pride and community takes root.

The renaissance underway in many parts of Jamestown today is spurred, more than anything else, by this second cycle. Simple acts of improvement, with broad community participation, are changing mindsets and making waves. Continue reading →

Over one million buildings, sites and objects in the United States are on the National Register of Historic Places, the Department of the Interior’s official inventory of historic resources. Among these, over 90 percent are located in one of 13,000 federally-recognized historic districts, including the downtown areas of Fredonia, Westfield, and Warren. Over 600 buildings, alone, are included in the Chautauqua Institution Historic District.

How many does Jamestown have? Not many. Only six buildings in the city are on the National Register. And, for now, the city has no federally-recognized historic districts. Continue reading →