 Welcome to the Downtown Historic Preservation Conference, celebrating our 20th year. What an amazing thing. Let's hear it for 20 years. Now, we call it 20 years, but there's some subtleties in this 20th anniversary. They were celebrating 20 years since the Downtown Act passed this incredible body and this incredible legislature signed by the governor. We had actually a few years lead time on that, a little known fact, right? The state government created this program before and piloted this program before things really popped. So you need to pick a year and this seems like the right year to pick because it's the year the money showed up. That seems about right. I had the incredible privilege on Monday. Well, perhaps I should introduce myself. I'm Ted Brady. I'm the Deputy Secretary for the Agency of Commerce and Community Development that helps administer the Downtown program. And on Monday, I had this great honor of accompanying my third grader, 9-year-old Patrick, on a field trip to Montpellier. And I feel pretty lucky to be standing at this time and welcoming. But I think everybody that walks through any one of these doors and looks up kind of feels that grandeur and that this room and this building provides. It's an appropriate place to celebrate 20 years, but it's funny to watch a third grader walk in for the first time. And I want to be honest. I just told the governor, I don't know exactly how you introduce a third grader to this building and have them understand what it is. And it was amazing to see them understand just by experiencing it and feeling it and seeing the grandeur and how excited they were that the roof was painted in gold. So I'm really going to share a very quick story. As we celebrate 20 years, just two or three weeks ago, Robert McBride, Gary Fox, Mary Helen Hawthorne invited a group of what I'd call champions to Bellis Falls. In fact, Bellis Falls was one of our first downtowns designated nearly 20 years ago. And it was to celebrate 20 years of investment and the Bellis Falls Downtown Development Alliance, the Great Falls Regional Chamber of Commerce, the Rockingham Arts and Museum Project, led by the incomparable Robert McBride. 75 people are so together and we talked. And we talked about the things that have changed in Bellis Falls, the millions of dollars of investment that happened in Bellis Falls. We heard from greats like Tony Elliott who helped found Sovereignette. We heard from Robert McBride. But what stuck with me, and I think it's a story of our downtowns, was a story that Kathleen Govatsky of Holiday's Harvest Barn told. Anybody ever heard of holidays? Come on, any hands, a few? Tens of thousands of people in the world have heard of holidays because they make a dip. Why is Ted Bailey talking about dip? Well, I'm talking about dip because Kathleen, who currently owns a floor shop, and that day was prepping for the Prime in town, makes dip and sells a lot of dip. But the story of her dip is about her downtown. And years ago, she was selling this dip not out of a floor shop, but she'd go to things like the Big E. She'd go to trade shows and she'd hawk her words. And a few years later, they bought a greenhouse in a business in Bellis Falls. And guess what? The people she sold the dip to started showing up at her greenhouse. She bought a floor shop in downtown Bellis Falls. And when you go into the back of that room now, half of the room, half of the store, is filled with little dips. I'm talking about these. Well, sure enough, people suddenly started showing up at her downtown store because they bought the dip at the Big E. Or they bought the dip online. A few years passed, what did they do? Well, Kathleen's unsatisfied running a floor, an online retail shop, and a greenhouse garden shop, she buys them in. So these people who bought this dip at the Big E, who came to their garden shop, who came to their floor shop, guess what? They might go and experience their full-dip experience and stay at the inn in Rockingham. Sure enough, they stayed in. Well, I think you know where the store ends. People come to her downtown floor shop to buy this dip. They stayed at her inn. And it didn't take long before those people that visited her downtown floor shop to buy that dip and stayed at her inn came in and said, you wouldn't believe this. I moved to Bellis Falls because of the dip. Perhaps an unnecessary story, but I think it embodies what our downtowns are. They're centers for retail. They're places where entrepreneurs make incredible things happen. But they're the reason people visit Vermont, 13 million of them. We're currently at the Department of Tourism featuring our downtowns and downtown stories on all of our social media and interviewing people like Kathleen to tell that story. They're the reason people live in Vermont and clearly they're one of the reasons that people move to Vermont. They define what we are. Today, before we launch into a formal program, I want to thank a few people for making the downtown conference possible. As I think most people know, this is the Downtown and Historic Preservation Conference. It's a partnership between the state and the agency of commerce and the preservation trust of Vermont. And every year we take turns organizing and managing, which really means there's one person that technically is in charge, but everybody still does the same amount of work. So just a real shout out to the preservation trust of Vermont to Paul, Bruce, Alyssa, Ryan for the work they do. But we also have to raise money to make this happen. And we have a lot of sponsors, and I think it's appropriate that I recognize all of them before we start this. AARP, Vermont, VHB, the National Park Service, the National Life Group, such a champion for our downtowns, the Vermont Housing and Conservation Board, the Vermont Integrated Architecture, the folks from Ireland, Skangus Architects, Community National Bank, VNRC, the Arnold Block, CRM Associates, Stevens & Associates, Northern England Chapter of the American Planning Association, the great folks at Housing Vermont, high Nancy, the folks at Accessibility Systems, Efficiency Vermont, Vermont Mutual Insurance Group, the Preservation Trust of Vermont, Montpelier Alive, and of course the greatest state agency, the Vermont Agency of Commerce and Community Development. Yes, let's hear it for those folks. Thank you, Steve McKenzie, for starting that clapping. I noticed. There's also one person who all of us need to thank profusely today is, and this is always awkward if he's not here, is Dan Groberg with us this morning? Dan or Alya? Dan, stand up. There is no man that has done more. The city of Montpelier and Montpelier Alive, there's nobody that's done more than Dan to make this happen, and what's happening tomorrow. The CSCCX, the Creative Economy Exchange, Creative Exchange, you need to just realize what a great guy this is. Finally, there's one man who is more accustomed to being here in this room than I am, sitting up here with me, and that's Governor Scott. The governor's been a great advocate for the downtown program. He's a small business owner, as a legislator, as our governor, as a native Ramonner, as a burly burly. Somebody who understands the value that our sense of place has. As such, this year is fraught for the downtown program, actually year over year to increase the size of it, but also to help our downtowns thrive by making them easier places to develop in. It gives me great pride and honor to introduce the Governor of the State of Ramon, Phil Scott. Thank you very much. It's great to be here this morning to kick off this year's conference with a focus on celebrating the state's two decades of revitalization through the downtown program. It's a great opportunity to reflect on the progress we've made to strengthen our downtowns and how we can build upon it, because we all know how much of an impact our downtowns can have on a community and really how it builds on our own personal foundations. I'm going to get out in memory lane for just a bit. I grew up in the third largest city in the state at the time, Barry. We had a population of 10,000. When I visit some of those, my family up in the Northeast Kingdom, I was always known as the city kid. I grew up within a thousand feet of a dairy farm right there in Barry's city. I think about that. I was born in Barry's city hospital, went to Spalding, graded right across the street, had a paper route with a Times Argus, picked up my papers down underneath lash furniture, and then distributed them. Stopped in at the Masonic Temple on the way and had a great soda and crackers almost every day with some of them there. I think fondly about the Friday nights going through the downtown. It was a weekly event for my family and we would just go to shop. I remember J.J. Newberry's, Fishman's, Perry Ford was there in the downtown. The AMP, remember the AMP there? As well as I was thinking about the AMP and others I was thinking about SNH green stamps. Right? Collecting SNH green stamps. We had Harvard clothes, we had Homer frits, and we had Bellevue's. Now Bellevue's is still there. There's a cobbler in Barry. And I think Mr. Bellevue still goes in to work there on a daily basis. So we have so many fond memories and maybe nostalgic, but I believe it's essential to who we are and who we want to be. But today's isn't just about celebrating our downtowns, it's also about recognizing the people who roll up their sleeves and get things done. I appreciate your passion, your commitment, your dedication because it shows what's possible when people come together to improve the places that matter to them. Your work makes a difference, often breathing new life into a community, creating new opportunities for people to live, work, and shop. As governor, I'm fortunate to get to visit many, many communities across Vermont. I see firsthand the economic realities that exist across the state in all 251 towns, cities, and villages and the impact our policies have on each one of them. While too many continue to struggle, and I'm reminded of this when I went to visit Reedsboro in the southern part of the state, it was interesting to me to visit Reedsboro. It was my first time there, but there was a sense of community pride, and they were taking us through what the place looked like not that long ago, in some respects. They said they had four car dealerships in Reedsboro. How many people have been to Reedsboro? So they had four car dealerships in Reedsboro. The train came through there. They had a hospital. They had two theaters, one live theater, and it was just interesting to see that. And now it's just a shadow of itself from the physical standpoint. But they have a lot of pride there. They want to be something different, and they're looking to the future. And I thought it was inspiring to me to see that and what we can do, again, when we come together to work together. The downtown program has helped transform many communities and created a renewed sense of pride in our cities, towns, and villages. We've seen it with our own eyes, our investment in towns like St. Albans, and Berry, Hardwick, and more. It's brought more jobs, business, and housing to downtowns and villages across the state. And our public investments generated additional funds from the private sector. In 2019, just over 12 million in public investment in buildings and infrastructure leveraged another 58 million in private investment for our 23 designated downtowns. The investments in more active and attractive communities not only improve our quality of life, but it helps expand the tax base and makes Vermont more affordable. Making it possible for more people to live, work, and play in these areas. That's crucial to keeping young Vermonters here and attracting new families and businesses. This is one of the many reasons downtown and village senate revitalization is a key part of my economic development strategy. As everyone knows, it wasn't that long ago when many of our downtowns suffered from neglect and disinvestment. We boarded up buildings and vacant storefronts. The downtown and village tax credit deserves some credit, so to speak, for this turnaround. Since the program began in 2002, over 350 projects in the 145 communities have received almost $28 million in tax credits to help bring existing buildings up to code and get underused or vacant buildings back into productive use. Of that total, over 5 million in state tax credits have helped spur over 60 million in private investment to rehabilitate historic buildings in our villages. This year, with the spur of the legislature, we'll make investments and policy changes to strengthen the economy, make Vermont more affordable, and protect the most vulnerable. I'm especially pleased that the legislature spurred my proposal to increase the downtown tax credits to 2.6 million annually. While my proposal to modernize Act 250 by directing more growth in jobs to downtowns didn't advance, I'm hopeful next year, we're only in half-time. I believe that next year, the legislature will achieve these goals. I want to thank the Senate leadership, the pro tem, as well as Senators Sorok and Cummings and Clarkson for their work to increase support for additional revitalization efforts. And thanks to the Speaker, as well as Representatives Marcot and Ansel, and Representative Ansel is here today, and all those on the House Commerce and House Ways and Means Committees for their work on these other policy changes. Thank you as well to everyone from the Vermont Preservation Lot, Land Trust, the Vermont Mayors' Coalition, the Vermont Housing and Conservation Board and more for your advocacy in the State House because it makes a difference. Finally, I want to thank my team, Ted here today and many commissioners and former commissioners here today. Katie, nice to see you. Folks at ACCD who know that strong downtowns are one of the most important ingredients to encouraging new investment and supporting economic growth across Vermont. Keeping them strong is not easy and my administration is committed to continuing this hard work. With your help, we'll leave Vermont better than we found it and ensure the quality of life we enjoy is maintained for future generations. Again, I hope you have a wonderful conference and I thank you very much for coming today. Thank you, Governor. We invite Mayor Watson to the podium. Hello, everyone. My name is Anne Watson. I am the Mayor of Montpellier and I am so delighted to welcome you all to Montpellier for this conference, especially for the 20th anniversary of this conference. We in Montpellier are just so proud of our downtown and all the historic buildings that we have here. We are seeing some great preservation work at the end of some transformation happening in our downtown. Just even in the recent years, a former junkyard and parking lot is being transformed into a transit center, which is going up right now and you might have heard of a place called the French Block, which is an old building that hasn't seen residents living there for over 80 years. So we're so excited to see the transformation of that block into welcoming new residents and the preservation of that building. I don't have to tell you that having strong downtowns and historic preservation doesn't happen by accident. It takes a lot of intention and good policy and a lot of investment. And the work of people like you. So I am so thankful that you are all here and thank you for your dedication to the work of strong downtowns and of historic preservation. We have a lot to celebrate in this state but we also have a lot of work left to do and I'm so excited for you to be engaging in these conversations here in Montpelier. So I am delighted to also introduce Dan Goberg, who is the head of Montpelier Alive, our downtown organization. He's going to tell us more about what is happening in Montpelier. So welcome Dan. Thank you Mayor Watson. Good morning. I think you all know my name is Dan Goberg now. I'm the executive director of Montpelier Alive, the organization that celebrates Montpelier and its downtown and we are so honored to have you all here today as the downtown program commemorates its 20th year and what I think is the best downtown, although I'm a little biased. I invite you to take full advantage of being in this special place today. Lunch is on your own. I hope you'll enjoy one of our many great restaurants downtown and this evening we have a very special reception planned. We've taken over Landon Street in the heart of our downtown and we'll have full great musical performances and interactive art projects, food and drink and even a cardboard pinball machine arcade. So I hope you'll join us this evening after the conference and if you're able to stick around we have a ton of events planned tomorrow as well to coincide with the Creative Communities Exchange conference. I want to thank a huge team of more than 20 people who helped me plan all of these arts fest activities that we have going on tonight and tomorrow and I really want to thank Gary Holloway and the agency and the preservation trust for choosing to host this conference in Montpelier. I think it's really relevant that we're having it here in the State House and it's so special to be here. I grew up in the suburbs in central Connecticut. There was a certain comfort in learning to ride a bike in the leafy cul-de-sacs but there was a lot missing. You had to get in a car and drive 10 minutes to get to the nearest strip mall to get groceries. You hardly knew your neighbor. There was a generic sameness to all the houses in the buildings. In other words it was the opposite of why we come together today. I tried it with my life by a sort of personal mission statement. Love generously to build community together and indeed that statement can be used to describe the work that all of us strive towards every day. We each have love and passion for preserving and celebrating what makes our community special. We celebrate the bookstore that has served as a community gathering place in our downtown for 45 years. We celebrate the historic building that finally sees productive use giving homes to community members after sitting empty for 80 years. We celebrate with concerts and parades and festivals to bring people together. We celebrate the art project that enlivens a block. The bike lane that makes it safer for people to get around and the sidewalk sales that support our downtown businesses. I'm pleased to share with you a film that we made that's a love letter to Montpelier. But what makes it extra special is that I know that a similar film could be made about every one of our communities and that's thanks to the work of each and every one of you. I hope you enjoy. This is just a magical place to be surrounded by all these local artisans making butter, making cheese, growing vegetables on their farm. As a chef, I want to get the best possible ingredients I can and really just let them speak for themselves. And every day, it's just like a great adventure. Montpelier has a really hopping restaurant scene. We have over 30 places to eat. We have so many things right here in our downtown that people want in their community. Today is Mayfest, which is where we come out of hibernation from the long winter and so there's lots of activity down here at the farmers market and it just so happens it's also Greenup Day. It's an annual statewide tradition where across the state over 20,000 people, Greenup are picking a stretch of roadway, park, public space to pick up litter from and basically just to beautify and make our state sparkle. When a place has trash, it's a magnet for more trash. But if there isn't litter, people think twice. Keeping a place clean is contagious. The Trash Trance is a volunteer group of folks that go out once a week to pick up the litter in Montpelier. Montpelier's size being roughly a mile from end to end and 8,000 people. It's impossible to walk from your house into the downtown and not run into at least one person you know. I think knowing your neighbor, it being an easy place to walk and bike in contributes to civic engagement. It's rich work actually. It looks bad and all you do is just pick something up and it changes everything, right? Makes it good again. Hey you guys, we're going to go over to the parking lot behind Bear Pond. Bear Pond Books opened in 1973. It's become an institution in Montpelier. We're involved with schools. We're involved with other nonprofits in the town. So we definitely feel like we're community partners. A lot of businesses in Montpelier are like that. One time during a horrible horrible rainstorm in the summer, we got a flood from upstairs. And water started pouring down here. And everybody in the store rushed and grabbed books and were like tearing them out of the way. You know, so people just like pitched in immediately. People care about the store. They don't just shop here. They care about what happens to it. This is a pretty small town population-wise. It just feels like a very supportive place. We're doing great. We just found Pete the cat doing construction. I worked at this bakery as a teen and the people that would come in really early in the morning were all carpenters. And I was totally fascinated by it. And it was a very romantic kind of fascination when I was a teenager because I had probably used a hammer three times by the time I was 20. After college I'd studied timber framing and ended up moving to Montpelier to work at a company that is just really special to me. Timber Homes Vermont. Timber framing is a very traditional building technique around here. It's a really good use of the natural materials that grow here. All of the timber that we use is from Vermont or New Hampshire. We are a worker owned company. We build a huge range of things from tiny little trailhead kiosks up to like frame to finish homes. Hubbard Park is a big beautiful 200 acre park right in the middle of the city and my husband is the caretaker of the parks. So we get to live in the house in Hubbard Park. We're playing baseball. I wanted to be in a place where I could walk to town and there was like restaurants and cafes and sort of life in a town center. It was important to me. I think the city is defined by its parks. If you think of any great city in the world at least for me maybe I'm biased I think about their parks. What makes the park system and Montpellier special is that the city sort of wraps around all these parks so you go out your back door and it feels like you are living in the country. One of the things I like about living in Central Vermont is that people live here because they want to live here because they want a quality of life. A natural result of that is that you have a lot of people who are really engaged with their community. So that means that people come out on kind of a cold rainy day to plant trees. What's the whole matter? You want to just do football? Football. I grew up here and then left for college and I went to law school in LA. Compared to like LA where I drove 10 miles and then it took me 45 minutes every day. Here in Montpellier I can walk to work because it's about a mile and a half. I have essentially two more hours a day to spend with my kids and my family which is priceless. I work for a national life group a life insurance company selling life insurance and annuities nationwide. It's on a hill on the other side of town surrounded by forest. There's hiking trails and people including me go for a lunch break. So employees work hard and we believe employees are more productive when they come to work happy. Personally I think that's grounded in the company being here in Vermont. My husband and I both grew up in Montpellier you know our whole childhood was running around the neighborhood and walking downtown and we wanted our kids to have the same sort of situation that we had when we were growing up. We hand stamped copper and silver jewelry and most of it is personalized or quotes from books. It is in the shelter of each other that the people live. It's an Irish proverb. I also work at Vermont College of Fine Arts. In Montpellier I always think of it as like a bowl. There's hills and the college is right on the edge of the pool. The Vermont College of Fine Arts they are a wonderful addition to the businesses downtown. They bring so many great writers and poets and just artisans to town. There's just art all over town. Montpellier has a great art walk that happens periodically. We actually just started a public art commission that's going to bring more art into town. I just love the vibe here in Montpellier. I love that people are so engaged and so interested in making Montpellier the best place they can be. There's a lot of love in this town for the town. People love being here and people love being a community. People care about stores but they care about each other. I love it that you can try something creative and new and different that will make the world better. And enjoy these wild spaces. I think is what makes Montpellier the best place. This is a special place for me. I wouldn't want to raise my kids anywhere else. This is home. Hello, that's an upgrade in Montpellier. I think everybody is probably assigned. We all need something. I've got to tell our story because I've never seen a better one. So congrats to Montpellier. Now, I have to ask everybody to stand. Honestly, everybody please stand up. Paul, this is the only way I could get you a standing ovation. Let's welcome Paul Bruns to the stage. A couple of things that I think are true about the downtown revitalization process. One is the work is never done. These towns, these communities need great stewardship over the long term. And then more importantly this is very much a team sport. It takes a lot of people doing a lot of different things all the time to make great places work. And so I'm very appreciative of all the work that you all have done and the work that many, many others in your communities have done over the years. It's really crucial. So thank you very much. Meg Campbell I've been working for us for a long time. Her primary responsibility is managing our easement program. But she doesn't bend any other things. And in the last several years one of the things that she has focused on is storytelling. And not only has she done that work for the preservation trust she's done it for nonprofits statewide to try to help all nonprofits tell their stories better. And Chris Cochran and Gary wanted to do something special to commemorate the 20th to tell the story of trying to tell a bit of the story at least of these past 20 years. And they pressed Meg into service and that's what you're about to see. We're very proud of what you all have accomplished. Thanks very much. For generations Vermont's downtowns have been the gathering spaces for residents and a major economic driver that attracts visitors, businesses and commerce. They embody hundreds of years of public investments in roads sewers, water and buildings. They create the critical mass of communities needed to facilitate business, learning and culture. They represent our shared history tell an important story and make Vermont Vermont. However, it was not too long ago that many of Vermont's downtowns suffered from deteriorating buildings, vacant upper floors and shuttered storefronts. A series of natural disasters pushed many downtowns closer to the brink of failure. In March 1992, ice jams on the Winooski River created one of the worst floods in Montpeliers history. In Randolph a series of calamitous fires destroyed buildings that housed 10 of the 21 businesses leaving a gaping hole in the downtown. The rapid growth of shopping malls and commercial strip development made matters worse. The growing threat of big box development led the National Trust for Historic Preservation in an unprecedented move to add the entire state of Vermont to its list of 11 most endangered places in 1993. Vermont's downtowns were in crisis. In 1998 leaders from around the state gathered to see what could be done on more than a scattered local level. The upshot was House Bill 278 and the creation of sorely needed funding and tools to support all those who are working hard to restore the vibrancy of their downtowns. While the change was slow at the beginning it quickly gathered momentum. The legislation that created the downtown program was implemented in 1999 and that year nine downtowns received downtown designation. Soon others followed. The Village Center program was created in 2002 to help smaller communities. Today Vermont has 23 designated downtowns and over 160 designated village centers. Downtown designation provides communities with financial incentives, training and technical assistance to support local efforts to restore historic buildings, improve housing, design walkable communities and encourage economic development by incentivizing public and private investments. A major tool of downtown rehabilitation is the tax credit program. Established in 2000 these tax credits support new housing, attract new businesses, foster business expansions and create good jobs in downtowns and villages across the state. Thanks to the support of several governors, the legislature and advocates the amount of state funding available for this program has grown from $300,000 per year in 1999 to $2.6 million in 2019. Yet the story of the downtown program is more than designations and tax incentives. It is a story of transformation. 20 years ago, downtown St. Albans was struggling. There were few thriving businesses. Only one or two restaurants remained open and important buildings like the St. Albans house were run down and dilapidated. Following downtown designation a community visioning process paved the way for the 2009 master plan. With this blueprint in hand new funding sources opened up and revitalization began. Today, thousands of new visitors plus area residents bring renewed vitality to St. Albans. Infrastructure includes a new state office building, an 88 room hotel, storefronts are occupied and food, fun and families fill the streets. St. Albans shows how concerted planning can create tangible transformative results. When the Winooski Mills shuttered in the 1950s the city struggled for decades to reinvent itself. In the 1970s urban renewal efforts demolished several downtown city blocks. In the 1980s economic development efforts centered on conversion of the Champlain Mill into a shopping destination and offices. By the early 2000s the building was largely vacant. After receiving state downtown designation in 2003 Winooski worked with local officials and the community to write an ambitious action plan to create a place where people could walk to and enjoy vibrant street life. The Winooski Downtown redevelopment project aimed to infill and revitalize the fragmented downtown area with new multi-story mixed-used buildings and a 1200 vehicle parking structure. The work to make it happen kicked off with financing offered by the state and the creation of a tax increment financing district to support building construction and major structure improvements including new water, sewer, parking, sidewalks and streets. A new downtown in Winooski emerged and its work won the city national recognition and a smart growth award in 2006. Today Winooski bustles with excitement and activity with hundreds of new housing units and downtown jobs a popular farmers market and thriving nightlife demonstrating that thoughtful participatory planning plus local and state financing can truly turn a community around. Successful revitalization is not just limited to downtowns. In the early 2000s several buildings along Hardwick's Main Street were run down underused or even condemned. In 2005 a tragic fire got at a prominent building in the heart of the village. Rather than tearing it down to create a parking lot the owner chose reconstruction and created space for new businesses and housing within the historic building. Since 2005 multiple buildings in Hardwick have been rehabilitated with the help of tax credits jump-starting new businesses and creating jobs developing quality housing and bringing new vitality to the commercial district. Hardwick demonstrates that saving one historic building and the combination of determined property owners and downtown tax credits can spur redevelopment of an entire community. In 2011 Wilmington was struggling economically with declining population and slowing tax revenue. The damage from tropical storm Irene was among the worst in the state 80% of the structures were damaged and every business was forced to close. In response, a number of energetic organizations were formed to lead the downtown's revival. Working alongside municipal staff, organization leaders worked to foster economic development via a new partnership between the public and private sector. The downtown designation and the tax credit program along with special flood provisions enacted by the legislature played a critical role bridging the financial gap and attracting investors needed to restore the downtown to its former glory. Wilmington shows what can happen when people unite around a shared goal to rebuild a devastated downtown economy. Thanks to the hard work of municipal leaders, residents a dedicated group of second homeowners, local foundations businesses, private investors and state policymakers Wilmington's future is on solid ground. In other parts of the state successful state supported transformation is happening every day one project at a time. Celebrating the 20th anniversary of the downtown program means celebrating not only the transformations of downtown's but also the deeply committed people who roll up their sleeves and get things done. In addition to the statewide leaders and downtown managers who have grown the programs, there are thousands of Vermonters who serve on a town board, volunteer for the community potluck, grab a shovel to install a park bench or pull off spectacular public events of all kinds. To all of these leaders and citizens, we are incredibly grateful. Vermont as we know it today would not exist were it not for the hard work of all over the past 20 years. As the downtown program looks to its future, we are thankful for all of you who show what is possible when people come together to improve the places that matter to them. With your help, we will continue to do the hard work to ensure our downtowns are well prepared to thrive for generations to come. Meg, you have a Korean race over. That was fantastic. Thank you to the Preservation Trust and to Meg, that was really a great history and I love that picture of me with hair. So before we celebrate the people of the past and amendment, I want to just celebrate the people of today. The conference takes a lot of work and a lot of time and a lot of time. So I thank the Preservation Trust and the ACCD team that there is a group of people specifically ACCD that I just asked to stand quickly. Chris Cochran and stay standing Chris director of the community planning and legislation office. Richard Amore and Richard Warraia. We are up top. Nice Richard. Stay standing. Jacob Hemmick. Jacob, thank you. Gary, the Gary and the Aaron Ballard. Thank you. Thank you. Can I write up with Richard? No? Okay. And then the Caitlin Corkins. Let's hear it for the planning community. So at moments in history there is something magical that happens. A spark, a group of people unite to Earth, come to a state, come to a state and there's really no explanation how it happens. Whether it's the founding of a country, the founding of a state, the founding of the organizations like VHCB, Housing Vermont, you looked at what happened 30 years ago in this state and the creative energy and the great people that happened to be in this state collaborating. And then there's the downtown program. This thing did not happen, but for a leadership program. Today, I want to specifically recognize those people. And as I recognize you and ask that you come to the front of the house chamber and stand to my right, don't fight over who gets to be closest to me. And Governor Scott, I could ask you to join me at the classroom. That would be great. So there was back in the mid to late 90s when we were talking about the source of sparks, the happenstance that they all came together and talked to one another and communicated and made something magical happen. One of the first I want to invite up here is Greg Brown, the commissioner of the agency at the time. Come on down, Greg. We all know Greg so well as a fierce advocate for southern Vermont today, but in his time as commissioner, chair of so many boards, he was a leader that made this happen when he was in charge of this agency. A person I have only heard of until last night, as I believe our state's first state historic preservation officer, the first law of the land that says history matters, history is economic development, history defines the state of Vermont, history. Come on down. You can clap for each other. There are people we all meet when we start in this line of community economic development who you think are in charge of this program because they have knowledge, substance and passion. For the longest time, two of those people, I want to introduce each individually, they're the people that I'm going to introduce to you today. I'm going to introduce to you V. Jane Wembley. Jane, come on down. Perhaps a man who looks like he's enjoying retirement more than anybody I've ever met who is staying sure there's above the rest of us downtown advocates. I think you're even as tall as me. Josh Bessie, the co-director of this program. Chris, you haven't done as good a job as him. Just kidding. So, you have these incredible people who are doing wonderful things. The Executive Director of the Forum on Sprawl at the time, Beth Humstone. Beth, come on down. The president of the Preservation Trust of Vermont, the legendary Paul Bessie, I think we're going to get too far down there. Is that okay? Thanks, Paul. So, our founders of the program needed somebody to actually found a program and write it into law. And we have two of the co-sponsors of this legislation with us today, and I assume that at the time they knew exactly what they were doing and how big this was. But we're really lucky to be joined by the former Hardwick and Walden representative, Paul Sillo. Paul, come on up. And another co-sponsor of the Downtown Development Act from Brattleboro, former representative Ginny Mielke, representative Mielke. There's more, believe it or not, because we all know it takes leadership and collaboration, and we advocate. These people are responsible for designing and going to the legislature and selling this. You need somebody to whisper in the ears of people and say, it's a good idea, trust me. And there are people that hold positions of authority outside of legislative and government, the legislature and government and the administration. And I think we all know one of them who's better at twisting the executive director of living my house in conservation. The long arc of moral justice, did they get there? They helped me close. The arc of moral art of the universe is long, but it bends toward justice. I think you could hear that. We've all heard guests say that before. It bent towards justice over 20 years. Another great leadership organization was Housing and Housing. We all do board work. Raise your hand if you sit on one board. There's one man here who was set on the downtown board for 20 years. Giving us historical knowledge, expertise and a passionate commitment for this program. Lastly, Michael McDonough. Board members since 1999. I'm going to make you wait one moment here while we present to each of these incredible founding members a commemorative pen that I don't need to open it. You know what a pen looks like. It's very special. So, Governor, would you mind I'll join you? How do you want to do that? Oh, that's a great idea. That's what a 20-year board member knows. Let's class here. Let's just go to this side. Doesn't he look happy? Let's hear it to your feet for the reason you're all here. It gives me great pleasure to say you're welcome to stay or go to your seats, founders. That's your choice. Paul's going to read them. It gives me great pleasure now to introduce our acting commissioner for the Department of Housing and Community Development, Mr. Josh Hanford. Josh, good luck getting up here against the current. What an amazing crowd. Yeah, so much work to still be done. I'm here to introduce the keynote speaker, Ethan Kent. Before I do that, I just want to give another round of thank yous to everyone involved in pulling this conference off. I know specific groups and organizations have been called out, but it takes a lot of work seeing a buzz activity around the office just buzzing for weeks to pull this off. It's just been amazing and I think we all look forward to the rest of the day. Our keynote speaker, Ethan Kent, met him last night. We had a good chat. He's the Senior Vice President of Projects for Public Spaces. Ethan works to support placemaking organizations, projects and leadership around the world, building a global placemaking movement, making systematic change towards place-led urbanization. He's been to over 900 cities, 60 countries. You must have some good flyer miles. Advancing the cause of placemaking in public spaces. I think we've seen some of that in our slides here, but we're really interested in hearing Ethan's thoughts. He's been a leader in the development of this movement, which is a transformative approach to economic development, transportation planning, governance, resiliency, equity and design. Thanks for coming and sharing your experiences with us. Thank you. Wow. It is such an honor to be here with all of you. I've always thought of Vermont as the place that has the deepest connection to place. I've also always thought of Vermonters as the people that are most to be shaped by their place. Of course, that's because you also best shape places. So placemaking is the process through which we shape our shared places. The process through which we give purpose and meaning to space. Now, you all have been doing this for generations and you've been leading placemaking for generations. Around the world, around the country we all have an idea of the special sense of place of Vermont. The way you've led and it really does come down to specific policy ideas, the way you've collaborated it comes down to these ideas that have gone viral around the world, the way you've led on preservation on tax credits, on preventing big box stores and preserving the historic character leading on farmers markets and connections between local agriculture. It's very specific ideas but cumulatively this has led an example of what place means in the world and how increasingly we're seeing people want to connect deeper to place. They want to connect to and they want to connect to each other through place. We see the core of many crises around the world from equity to health to environmentalism is a crisis of disconnection of disconnection to each other and disconnection to place and we see a focus on place as Vermont has led the way on as the means to heal and reinvent these relationships. Now what you do here matters a lot what you all have done built together and it goes viral. Everywhere you go people hold up Vermont as an example. We all want to have a connection to Vermont. We all talk about our trips here whether we've ever been here or whether people have ever come here they know that sense of place. On a personal level I've gotten to come here about once a year my whole life for various reasons for pleasure for work and I proudly feel connected to Vermont through my ancestry. I'm not sure if I can prove it but I was actually named after Ethan Allen because my family thought I was related to him. I think I am. And as born a centennial year and I definitely am descended from Morgan not the horse but Justin Morgan I've always felt deeper connections that way but there's many ways we all want to feel connected to Vermont and its history and the culture of Vermont is a welcoming culture and allows us to feel connected to it even if we don't live here or come here. But I also want to talk about how to challenge you guys to continue to lead on this and how place making can continue to invite people to come here to be a tourist to add to Vermont to move here to your terms in ways that add to this continued legacy and shared value and shared places. So Vermont is much more than the rural landscape. There's a lot of purpose and meaning in the rural landscape as well that has been created by your agricultural systems and how you've done that well. But of course it's your downtowns. It's the way you've preserved them historically in a unique way that leads the country that is where you've added the most of purpose and meaning for many different people and how you've done that recently and how you've done markets and fairs and art walks and all these programs that you're leading on again allows so many different people to have layered experiences layered connections to the place and to each other that is so powerful. But my train right up here I didn't from the train I didn't get to see that many downtowns but I was getting that downtown experience and this was the first downtown I saw. I think it's Randolph, New York and of course the first image that I see from the train is an advertisement for how it's more like New York where I just come from. So we need to keep challenging to lead with place, the authentic definition of place to find locally. One of our first place making, early place making efforts with the federal government here in Montpelier about 25 years ago I think we did a demonstration project in front of your post office and did this place evaluation game that will train you all in to have people listen to each other talk about how this place can better serve their needs and I think as I understand if they remove the reflective glass from the windows put some seating out front and people slow down and have conversations in. So obviously you've gone Montpelier is now leading the way on so many levels and Wade has recently done these amazing projects that are leading models of temporary place making of parklets of these small pocket parks and so forth so creative and so reflective of the community through which they came and these small parklets that love this one in particular it's so wonderful to take parking lots are drains on the shared value, this sense of place of a community but just taking out one parking spot and making that into a place really changes that dynamic but this is also place making people sitting on porches and lower income parts of the state of the city we had a wonderful conversation with this mother daughter and granddaughter who've been sitting on this porch for 20 years they say some people think they're they said that some people think they're strange for sitting there but they're the social hub, they're the social glue the social capital of this community they watch everything, they know what happens they're the hub of a network of many families that support each other and watch each other's children this is a downberry street so place making is allowing informality it's allowing people to take ownership over the house of their home to the front of their home to be stewards of their world the environmental crisis is how we've actually receded our responsibility into our homes, into our cars in place making is a means to reinvent our relationship to the environment, to take responsibility for the world beyond our home to sit on our porches again and so with these how we sit, where we choose to spend time to just be slow to connect with each other is the heart of our connection to place and these benches in Zurich this artist designed benches spawned many public art programs around the world including the cows on parade program and others but we took pictures of these benches because we thought they were cool benches but afterwards we realized that they reveal something much more they reveal that the people choose to sit on the bench that matches their personality their culture, their identity so this guy looks like a pharmacist they start to take on the culture and life of that bench these sort of fancy guys wouldn't have sat on any other bench those, that couple wore the silver pants that matched that bench this family they didn't realize the likenesses of them was actually painted on the bench behind them so each group became part of the bench that they sat in so that goes for very discerning about where we choose to be where we choose to sit but even more so we're discerning about where we choose to live the city we live in the community we live in and we take on the personality of that place so the place creates us we create the place you all have created your communities, Vermont the state house came from the culture of collaboration of place making that Vermont is so powerful about and this room has continually created that place making collaboration, great legislation that's gone viral around the world around the country but you also, we have to remember that if we don't create places we attract behavior that isn't is constructive it doesn't create stronger people stronger connections to place so in an era now where people can move where they like where people can invest where they like more than ever their place matters more than ever and that's a major competitive factor for Vermont so but it's the ways that it's not just making communities livable that makes them competitive because a lot of cities are livable a lot of cities have the same amenities quality of life a lot of cities are affordable now but you can take advantage of your affordability to allow people to come and shape your community people that have lived here forever or people that are coming from afar but challenge them and support them to help shape your place to make the places more special more welcoming more unique those are the communities that are going to thrive most in the future so we think we need to move where there's a development paradigm around the world we're trying to shift people to from what we call project led to place led project led is good let's build facilities build the roads the parks the buildings discipline led is let's get the best experts to build better facilities aesthetic more creative facilities place sensitive as legislators as experts as downtown managers let's be responsive to communities let's be collaborative in our solutions the way we have to start moving to is what we call place led where place the shared value of place place capital we call it drives all of our goals and building the capacity of a community to shape place is the goal so not just delivering places to communities delivering the projects better but building capacity of communities to work together in a way that you know the great communities of Vermont emerged because of this more local civic infrastructure this local community driven informal placemaking we need to learn how to do that again in many parts of the world you're still doing it very well you still have that volunteerism that that civic ethic where every business is competing to contribute to the shared value of the place where the way people behave as they walk down the street they want to add to the experience of everybody else they make eye contact they smile they're not just doing it for the sake of conservation it's giving love to the street these buildings preserve the love that people have given to the street in the past and continue to build on that so the placemaking movement is global and I'll talk more about that later but you might say it's these dots are centered around Vermont so we have this a placemaking leadership council the people leading the placemaking movement from all parts of the world we've been working with UN Habitat in the series of conferences to make place in public space central to the new urban agenda to the way we shape cities when the UN Habitat was started the UN was more focused on just housing units but they figured out that just building housing units doesn't build communities just building good planning, good urban development doesn't build communities we really need to turn upside down the way we shape communities to start with public spaces and to start with public spaces that are places so Cecilia Martinez who's on our board who's with the UN Habitat says we're creating a global movement to shape spaces into places to give purpose and meaning to space but I think that's done best in a rural area it's done best in a small town that's where it's modeled and that's where the models for place led governance and development can best be developed and scaled that's where we can reconnect a place and reinvent these models globally people know how to behave in a rural community as part of a place making conversation so we've actually been lucky to get to work in a lot of rural communities at Projects for Public Spaces because of people in Vermont because of Rebecca Sandborn Stone who I hope is here and she wrote this proposal for Projects for Public Spaces and Orton to run the Citizens Institute on Rural Design which is a resource for rural communities to do community based planning it's one of the only federal programs to support that we held in the previous administration we held a rural place making summit with many people from Vermont and all over the country celebrating the leadership that we're seeing but bringing it further and we worked with National Main Street to help set up the National Main Street program and I've continued to work with them to use place making to expand their impact, their partners and so forth so there's how but the new models for Main Street governance for management are really the heart of this conversation and where we're working to have to build and draw on this impact so the Citizens Institute on Rural Design is a partnership of the National Endowment for the Arts USDA as well as Orton and Projects for Public Spaces and that's where the program has worked we actually just handed this program over to another partner but it's this momentum is still building so but wherever we go in place making people come to it from different causes people come to it from a preservation cause or as an environmentalist or as a food systems advocate or as a health advocate or as a transportation advocate and we're finding how a focus on place can facilitate more fundamentally addressing their goals drawing demand for their solutions and most importantly creating collaboration amongst other advocates other solutions we're simply not accomplishing the goals we need to accomplish to save the world for people we need new systems new means of participation and we think a focus on place is going to enable that innovation that collaboration but I think it's actually happening informally on many scales here but we need to understand it we need to tell your stories scale your impact and help other parts of the world apply this as well so how do you do that we like to ground the conversation in small places in shared conversations around what makes places great we have an exercise we call the place evaluation game as people going out and evaluating it based on these criteria are there things to do in the space these simple questions help people take off their expert hat or their hat as their advocate for this one issue and listen to each other sort of connect to their own common sense about what they know about space making are there excuses to spend time in this space uses and activities do I have a reason to stop in front of the store to feel like I'm not loitering there is it comfortable does it have an inviting image the unique to this community one that I can relate to that reflects my personality is it connected safe to walk along can you cross the street isn't it sociable are there women children elderly people in groups there so it turns out that these same criteria are the criteria that lead people to be attached to a place now love ability place attachment are increasingly their increasingly focuses for development for economic development and they move the conversation away from just live ability which is key we want live ability for more but we're finding that a focus on love ability and place attachment actually can achieve live ability more affordably more inclusively and sometimes more quickly and so this study by the night foundation found that it wanted to figure out what led people to be attached to their community and it thought it was going to be live ability criteria like schools and healthcare ability and jobs and there was very little correlation between attachment and those criteria but a very high correlation between three things that are reflected in that previous diagram opportunities for social engagement, sociability openness to all kinds of people how welcoming a place is and then aesthetics it had to be beautiful too but the study found that being beautiful alone never led to place attachment you don't just fall in love with a person or a place just because it's beautiful you fall in love with it because you feel welcome there you want to engage with people there you feel connected so the same study found that when people are more attached to a place there's higher economic growth and there's higher entrepreneurship you're more likely to invest in the long term if you're more attached to a place to take risks and to invest in ways that contribute back to place to start businesses that give love to the street to build buildings that really respect and reflect the culture of the place what is place making it's really it's just an ongoing process of how we best work together to shape our shared value to shape our places and it's place is always locally defined it's not someone else telling you what your place is it's how you define the value that shared value that purpose and meaning but we're also finding there was an MIT study that found that the biggest benefit of place isn't the improved place and the improved capacity that's created through the place making process so place making is about strengthening the connection between people and the places they share it's also now a global movement and I'll talk about how we're actually tomorrow launching a new organization to support place making as a global movement it's a movement to reimagine and reinvent public spaces is the heart of every community to really turn upside down the shaping of cities but a framework to make this practical pragmatic doable to structure the conversation in a creative fun way is something we call the power of 10 and we're going to do an exercise on Barry Street later this afternoon on this that invite you to join us on but we think any community whatever size it is most effectively, most quickly if it reinvent itself around its public destinations so we think New York where I'm from has reinvented itself around its public destinations and really it's the story though we would never ask any part of the world to copy any of these destinations but we do think any part of the world should learn a lot from the stories of transformation just as it's the stories, it's the people behind the places that are most important and we found that in every case of a great public space or a great place making transformation we know there's someone who we would consider a zealous nut behind that someone who's very passionate, a little bit crazy doesn't take no for an answer and I'm sure there's I know for a fact that there's a higher quotient of zealous nuts in Vermont than anywhere but supporting placemaking is about drawing up the zealous nut and everybody supporting that challenging people that sometimes zealous nuts start off as being against something and for a good reason all these projects started off because someone was opposed to some demolition a new development but they became effective when they started to argue for what they want to have a vision for what they want and they became even more effective when they became facilitators of other people coming into that vision and then most importantly we're now helping to program and manage the spaces the management of downtowns of public spaces is the most important part of it each of those destinations work at the place scale, at the human scale the scale at which you make eye contact with people you connect with each other a great destination has at least 10 places so a great Main Street or even a great waterfront or square or farmer's market has at least 10 places to do in it and it's the things you do there that allow it to be welcoming to all that it's not just for kids or not just for older people that you can watch your kids playing in a fountain while you have a coffee or a beer the idea of a children's reading room next to a library in a library next to a bus stop with a coffee cart out front with something kids can play on it's the triangulation of these uses in these magical places in our downtowns a storefront can do it this is the slowest place in my neighborhood but my neighborhood is all three-story buildings with the same mix of retail in Brooklyn that you have here that's the scale at which cities of all scales work little to New Hampshire we did a planning process there a long time ago we did this power of 10 exercise but they realized that the downtown even though it was at the same population in all ways that the roads had been designed and the buildings had been suburbanized the walkable parts of downtown had receded to those two small areas and they everyone expected to need to park right in front of those two small areas we realized though 100 years ago the population wasn't necessarily bigger but the walkable area felt a lot larger because of the simple ways the small buildings and the streets had been designed in small places these power of 10 places along the space so the goal is essentially to reclaim these spaces the parking lots on the waterfront similar to Montpelier here to create that walkable area and that's actually how you solve the parking problem you need first of all all the best places in the world have huge parking problems you're not a good downtown unless you have a parking problem and you just outcompete other parts of the world because there are more suburban areas because they're places you go to for many reasons for reasons you don't even know that might happen there so you want to park right on the edge the parking all of a sudden there's a lot more parking in this area if you park on the edge you can have some high turnover parking areas in front or for handicapped people and so forth but we need to look at building the walkable areas of downtown as part of making more parking available essentially and getting more street life and making retail viable because more people are walking by your businesses so a place making is at the small scale this is in Bellingham Washington they wanted to do a huge streetscape redesign we said let's just start with small places in front of a bakery and a shoe repair store they created this bulb out took out two parking spots but it's driven by the uses and activities for those spaces I'm going to go a little faster but the biggest obstacle for downtown is transportation is often parking but it's planning for cars and traffic this is the experience people have crossing many downtowns this is in Sydney, Australia and you don't go downtown after that you want to drive to the mall that's a fear inducing experience it really disconnects your attachment to place and for children even more importantly the radius around the home the children have been allowed to go at 9 years old I have a 9 year old son he's just been allowed to start crossing streets on his own in Brooklyn but if you go back generations in most parts of the world the radius around beyond the home that 9 year old children have been allowed to go has shrunk in 90% each generation so again that's the heart of the environmental crisis if people don't feel safe and connected to the world beyond their home we're not going to solve it we need to turn that back around and it's the way we design our streets to be unsafe to be violent very dangerous for children for everyone it's a big crisis but the way to turn that around is not to be against cars it's to be for people in places and I'm actually very excited about how we can utilize the prospect of autonomous vehicles to leverage this future whether or not they are a good thing or a bad thing it's very debatable and how soon they get come into play is very debatable but the idea that they actually can thrive around going to downtowns not through them because they don't need to park and they actually won't do well in a pedestrian rich environment because people can walk in front of them they we can start to envision a future of downtowns that are destination streets this is a downtown plan, master plan we did we went to college and we're talking about how do we need a full hierarchy a typology of streets in our transportation systems to anchor it around destination streets streets you go to not through if you do drive on them you have to basically walk your car through these streets but you need a full hierarchy and you need the outcomes the safety outcomes the comfort outcomes that will be determined by the people that live near them and support them we need networks we need some throughput but increasingly especially with the potential of autonomous vehicles people will be able to go wherever they like even more so and they'll go to the places the best places the places they love the most the places that other people love the most that's where they'll invest and they'll come here from New York whether you like it or not they're going to come here from New York overnight in an autonomous vehicle to come to the coolest towns in Vermont so it's better that you to prevent your communities from changing because of New Yorkers like me you need to have a really strong vision of define locally to get people to respect those culture invest in ways that add to it and so forth so just as disciplines traffic engineers other disciplines are in silos so are community institutions we have at a local level state level nationally we plan all these institutions in isolation and in a way often they're competing to take shared value even though they all have placemaking goals they suck place value from their communities in many cases sometimes the least public buildings in downtowns are often public buildings but we need to turn that inside out and we find that the biggest benefit of placemaking is often just convening these partners around a small intersection in a rural area a downtown main street connecting the librarians with the businesses with the city hall the churches transit agencies theaters arts people they all need to come out of their boxes and listen to each other and encourage coerce each other to compete to shared value to compete to give love to their shared spaces so placemaking is turning the inside out so quick example and I'll start to wrap up but this is in main congress square park a very well intended new square in the 80s started off to a good start but it wasn't managed and programmed about from 20 years ago till about 15 years ago it was very unsafe and not a friendly place it was a net negative for downtown Portland main just a few benches a lot of homeless people in the space that were considered threatening and the city came up with a plan to sell the lot and sell it to a hotel an out of state hotel owner next door and put an event center on the space community was very opposed to this became very became a very negative discussion I got to come there and we talked about how actually the best way to oppose it is to have a vision of what they want and to start doing things to start doing small, light or quick or cheaper ideas short term low cost events so they put some chairs out there a food truck it was just resourceful through the space and there started to be lots of positive activity in the space adding more amenities creating the power of 10 lots of reasons to be there to manage or maintain this it became a big political so successful it became actually a big political issue where they passed a referendum to prevent the city from being able to sell this park the mayor actually lost his job because of this issue because he had supported this became the heart of a political conversation citywide around public spaces and place making and it's become the heart of this sort of revitalization effort for the city led in a very grassroots community driven way always trying different things we've gotten to work with them at several different phases and so forth but it's the stories it's the people behind this there's a video of this that's also wonderful of the people behind it, the elderly people that go out and maintain it every day that have their social connections because of it but this is one of these many stories that proves that it takes a place to create a community and a community to create a place so how that place builds community is key to how it reinvents government governance as well the participation of many different departments statewide yesterday we had an amazing meeting that we could never have in any other state of leaders from many different agencies here and advocates in other parts of the other sectors about how to support your existing statewide place making campaign how to celebrate that, tell the stories and how to go to new levels I've worked a lot in Australia where they're developing metrics called place capital metrics to make sure that all the agencies are working towards shared goals and collaborating across different disciplines so to accelerate this to amplify this movement to tell the stories I'm really excited to say that tomorrow we're actually launching a new organization a website will be up and then next week in Europe we'll have a more official launch as well for this organization called Place Making X which is really to tell the stories of the local place making leadership the statewide efforts national efforts around the world the great projects, the great leaders to help create sort of a backbone organization for a place making movement my father founded Project for Public Spaces in 1975 just retired from PPS last year he organized the first Earth Day in New York and a lot of his friends a lot of the people I grew up around were the founders of the environmental movement we see place and place making as a way to bring new partners to environmentalism to reinvigorate it to allow everyone to see themselves as a place maker, as an environmentalist to come from many different causes and I can think of no better place to have this conversation really be launched actually than here in the strength of what you all have brought the strength of your communities so it's really meaningful for me to get to be here to have this conversation and to learn from you so my father said that everyone is the right to live in a great place more importantly everyone has the right to contribute to making the place where they live where they already live great so the right to contribute the right to participate we can't just be consumers of solutions of good ideas we all have to be co-creators of our community, of our planet the vision of place making access to make the spaces we live into places we love to create a thriving equitable and sustainable world through the convergence of values passion and action around public spaces and we're creating, as I said before Cecilia Martinez said we're creating a global movement to shape spaces into places it's a global network of leaders who together will accelerate place making as a way to create healthy, inclusive and beloved communities so we have conferences that are going on over the world this is a network of some of the leaders my father actually one of his mentors was Margaret Mead who said that never doubt that a small group of thoughtful citizens can change the world indeed it's the only thing that ever has he also his mentors were also William White and Jane Jacobs and our organization, our first grant was actually by the Rockefeller Family Foundation and by someone who grew up or whose mother I knew who grew up at the Marsh Billings Farm and Woodstock and has a deep connection to Vermont as well these are some of the senior advisors you'll see the website tomorrow but the approach is to connect efforts to advocate for systemic change as you all are doing this group you have or tomorrow is doing to amplify the stories the leadership the great campaigns that are happening and to accelerate impact to figure out ways to accelerate place making grant programs that are models that you all are leading from AARP from many different groups here to use the power of 10 as a framework for accelerating impact telling the stories getting different states we want Vermont to be the first place making ex state that has 10 cities 10 towns each have 10 destinations each with 10 places and so forth to define we want to show how all these different causes are converging around place all the different movements are converging around place next week in Europe we're launching it there's conferences all over the world that are gathering the place making leadership groups but you know this is really effectively I should put this on the map too because this event is gathering place making leaders from around Vermont to continue the that you've led for generations and building a strong foundation on which you'll continue to lead you know what is a global movement with global examples so I hope to see you at these conferences around the world as well I hope to keep learning from you coming back here being connected to this I'll be around all day I'd love to connect further with all of you and have conversations and we'll do this power of 10 workshop for Berry Street which will be very fascinating but I understand there's not time for questions now but I hope to talk to you individually later so thank you so much for allowing me to be part of this it was a huge pleasure thank you Ethan that was great place based projects power of 10 things that I think folks can take and put into practice back in all of our communities that we love value I have a few housekeeping items to go over but first I want to Mr. Brady forgot so on Paul you said last night he was the perfect deputy secretary don't mess up or something along those he messed up a little I think we forgot a founder Bob Grimes she was the commissioner of the department of housing and community affairs and so I just want to recognize her as well so a few housekeeping items before folks break up into their selected workshops they're four sessions they're located around Montpelier they're primarily at Bethany church Kellogg Hubbard Library Monthistory Museum and Los Nation Theatre they're all in your program guides there's maps there's also a tour of the state house back here later in the afternoon lunch is on your own there's a ton of restaurants around town network have fun, explore the downtown there's also a whole bunch of things to do on your own and the insert in the program there's a tour of the French block apartments which is recently opened there's art at the garage cultural center there's presentations available so please take a detailed look at your program and remember there's the creativity thrives downtown reception at five to nine tonight on Langdon Street the street will be closed, there'll be food trucks there'll be art, music drinks, activities it's a great public place to enjoy your ticket is in your name badge on the back for your drink so don't forget that and everyone have fun if you have any questions find someone that has a red on the bottom staff that can help with any of your detailed questions about today's agenda and once again thank you all for coming and have fun and learn a lot thanks