 The Little Falls Convention and Visitors Bureau is bringing a new flair to their downtown through community initiatives. Arlogan Gay has more. The city of Little Falls downtown was going through a period of decline. On the outside downtown didn't look you know I like it it didn't look too bad but there was a lot of empty shops and kind of like windows that were dark all the time. Until community members teamed up to bring new life to their downtown. And we received a grant from the initiative foundation the city of Little Falls did and it was for community projects to revitalize downtown and all of a sudden I thought it's coming together. Part of the new revitalization initiative includes beautifying the city and using strategically placed historical pictures. We have window clings and it's like a form of an old black and white photograph of Little Falls in some way and then I put it on windows so you can see out when you're inside the restaurant but you can't see in. And to further drive tourism and create a memorable shopping experience local businesses teamed up to create a pop-up shop called shops of Little Falls. We're a downtown revitalization project and what that means in a nutshell is that our 40 plus vendors here are all local artists and craftspeople and our goal is to help them be successful in growing their own business and to eventually hopefully move some of them into some of our other empty storefronts. So far Little Falls has seen one of the most successful summers it's had in years. The month of August was bigger than it has ever been since we started in 1999 and I was amazed and I say to myself all of our lodging places were full our bed and breakfast was full all of our even our motels were full and Little Falls Logan Gay Lakeland News. The Little Falls Convention and Visitors Bureau will be hosting a walking tour for people interested in exploring new business opportunities in the 12 empty downtown locations. If you've enjoyed this segment of Lakeland News please consider making a tax deductible contribution to Lakeland Public Television.