Neighborly News
How MainStreet Districts are Defined
MainStreet districts vary in size and are set in place by community members, businesses, creative spaces, and other partners. Downtown ABQ MainStreet was established in 2008 and Downtown ABQ Arts & Cultural District was established in 2016. You can view these defined districts in the image below. Learn more about establishing a MainStreet organization here.
The funding our organization receives, and promotion we provide serves these two defined districts. However, as most living in Albuquerque know, “Downtown Albuquerque” can often include neighborhoods as far away as Old Town.
The work of MainStreets and Arts and Cultural Districts in New Mexico are directed at engaging people, rebuilding places, and revitalizing communities. We do this through the Main Street Approach, using transformation strategies that intersect these four points: Economic Vitality, Design, Organization, and Promotion.
How Downtown ABQ MainStreet Supports Surrounding Businesses: Neighborly News
When it comes to promotion of Downtown businesses, our focus is on businesses that reside within our districts. We offer promotion through our website (business directory), this newsletter, and our social media pages.
Businesses that reside on the dividing line of our districts should know that we include those who fall on the inside of our district’s side of the dividing line. Those on the other side fall under that neighborhood group or MainStreet. We do share info on happenings across district lines in our social media stories and will occasionally partner with businesses or organizations across district lines if a project aligns. When we share information across our district lines we define it as “Neighborly News”.
Downtown is lucky to have active MainStreets, business associations, and neighborhood associations that are working to promote and partner with businesses in their neighborhood. For businesses in the Downtown area who fall outside our districts and are looking for additional promotion we encourage you to reach out to the organizations in your area and get involved!
The neighborhoods that touch our districts are listed below. We have a dedicated page on our website mapping these neighborhoods and provide more information on the organizations working in each to support the area. Go to the button below.
East Downtown (EDo)
Barelas
Raynolds Addition Neighborhood
Downtown Neighborhoods
Huning Highlands
Santa Barbara - Martineztown
Wells Park
West Downtown
If there are any businesses in our districts that we have missed in our promotion please reach out! Downtown ABQ MainStreet and Downtown ABQ Arts & Cultural Districts are the largest in the state, spanning 80 blocks. Staff work diligently to be inclusive of all businesses in our district, but we do miss things occasionally.
If you’d like to connect email us here: info@abqmainstreet.org