Madisonville Designated As Tennessee Main Street Community
43 Tennessee communities are part of the downtown revitalization program
Image Credit: Brian Stansberry / CC
Press Release –
Tennessee Department of Economic and Community Development Commissioner Stuart McWhorter has announced that Madisonville has achieved Tennessee Main Street accreditation.
Madisonville, the county seat of Monroe County in Southeast Tennessee, joins 42 other Tennessee Main Street communities that are accredited through the state program and Main Street America, a program of the National Trust for Historic Preservation.
“At the heart of every vibrant Tennessee city is a thriving downtown district,” Commissioner McWhorter said. “The Tennessee Main Street program is an integral part of our rural and community development efforts, and we are eager to partner with Madisonville community leaders as they develop sustainable revitalization efforts in their downtown.”
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The Main Street Program provides training, support and grant opportunities to assist in downtown revitalization efforts. The program will focus on adaptive reuse of historic commercial buildings for community events and economic vitality.
“TNECD is excited to welcome Madisonville to the Main Street America network,” Tennessee Main Street Program Director Nancy Williams said. “They successfully completed the Tennessee Downtowns program with a new downtown food truck park and have already secured some grant funding to address a long-vacant downtown building.”
The Tennessee Main Street Program requires communities to illustrate a commitment from local government and other local organizations, an adequate organizational budget, a strong historic preservation ethic, a collection of historic commercial buildings and a walkable district.
Accredited Tennessee Main Street communities are spread across the state and include Athens, Bolivar, Bristol, Brownsville, Centerville, Cleveland, Clifton, Clinton, Collierville, Columbia, Cookeville, Dayton, Dyersburg, Elizabethton, Fayetteville, Franklin, Gallatin, Greeneville, Humboldt, Jackson, Johnson City, Jonesborough, Kingsport, Lawrenceburg, Lebanon, Livingston, Maryville, McKenzie, McMinnville, Morristown, Mount Pleasant, Murfreesboro, Paris, Pulaski, Ripley, Rogersville, Savannah, Sevierville, Sweetwater, Tiptonville, Union City and Winchester.
Oh NO! Not ANOTHER town swallowing the bait! A town has to be “accredited” by the state to receive state grant money so they can revitalize downtown and reuse historic buildings adaptively. They use UrbanMain, an organization that seeks “sustainable transformation” of small towns into “walkable communities”. These are buzz words used by Agenda 21.
Tennessee Main Street is part of Main Street America, whose website states:
“More than 300 grants of $5,000 each will be awarded in four cycles over 12 months to small businesses located in older or historic commercial districts across the country, with priority given to businesses that have been disproportionately impacted by the pandemic and preference given to businesses owned by underrepresented groups, including members of the LGBTQ+ community, people with disabilities, Veterans, women and people of color. Applications for the fourth grant cycle are now open to eligible small business owners who identify as Native or Indigenous, Hispanic or Latinx, LGBTQ+ or as immigrants, refugees or forcibly displaced.”
Interesting because Sustainable Development is a political philosophy that is built upon three pillars: Ecological Integrity, Economic Prosperity, and Social Equity.
Communities are being drawn down the path of Sustainable Development by the lure of numerous monetary grants and incentives from state and federal government agencies as well as non-governmental organizations (NGOs). Where and how we build our homes, what products we use, which foods we eat, what and how much we consume, and which methods of transportation we choose, are just a few examples of American life that United Nations Sustainable Development seeks to bring under its controlling grasp.
Anytime an organization is created that is NOT elected BY THE PEOPLE but seeks to control the use of public and private spaces (‘community planning’) is centralized planning (aka centralized gov’t that is not accountable directly to the people). These boards seek to change the way people live and use spaces. They promote high density, urban, pedestrian oriented, low carbon, walkable communities and discourages traditional American automobile usage, suburban lifestyles and development. It creates beautiful, revitalized downtowns for sure, but the end goal is control of which businesses, buildings, and vehicles are allowed there for the sake of “equity”, “inclusivity”, and “environment”.