Get serious about Johnstown

Editorial
Tribune-Democrat

Chapter one of the story of Johnstown's turnaround concluded Monday evening with the final "visioning" meeting sponsored by Discover Downtown Johnstown Partnership.

But how will this story proceed?

Much momentum has been generated through four sessions, at which community members brainstormed about the city they'd like to see in five and 10 years, and beyond.

The effort is likely headed toward a Main Street program in downtown Johnstown.

Already, volunteers are targeting potential improvements that can be made, programs that can be initiated, others who should be included in the process. Led by Discover Downtown Johnstown Partnership, those volunteers are developing answers to four critical questions:

  • How should this effort be funded and organized going forward?
  • What economic factors - businesses, property owners, taxpayers, government agencies, consumers - should fuel the project?
  • What upgrades must be accomplished to make the plan successful?
  • How should the effort be promoted - both locally and to those outside the Johnstown region?

Those four tenets come straight from the Main Street Program's road map for success.

According to its Web site, Main Street offers "a comprehensive approach that rural and urban communities alike can use to revitalize their traditional commercial areas through historic preservation and grassroots-based economic development."

That's a fancy way of saying that we need to take our current attributes - history, culture, good people - and make them the cornerstones for bringing economic revitalization to Johnstown.

Suzanne Gagliardo, western regional program services coordinator with Pennsylvania Downtown Center, told Monday's gathering: "You've got great potential. The question is: How do you take all these ideas and put them to work?"

It will take hard work and commitment. That much is clear.

But those qualities already have been evident as the push to improve downtown Johnstown has moved to this point.

We applaud those who have put this program together - experts at Pennsylvania Downtown Center, board members with the Partnership and local civic leaders.

We also applaud those who have attended the "visioning" sessions and made them fruitful. Much has been accomplished, and that is because so many people - on average 100 each month - have given their time, their energy and their ideas to the effort.

And now the real work starts.

If Johnstown is to enlist with the more than 80 Pennsylvania communities in the Main Street program, the momentum built through the visioning process must be maintained and expanded.

Others must join the parade, contributing their skills and experience.

And we must all look to the future with open minds.

If we do, we just might make a difference.

And that is something we can all get pumped up about.

"It doesn't have to look like it looks. It doesn't have to be what it is," said Partnership president Jeff Philibin. "It can be something different."