News & Updates

Reaping Dividends from Historic Assets

Reaping Dividends from Historic Assets

Over one million buildings, sites and objects in the United States are on the National Register of Historic Places, the Department of the Interior’s official inventory of historic resources. Among these, over 90 percent are located in one of 13,000...

Finding Renewal in Soil and Seed

Finding Renewal in Soil and Seed

As Jamestown makes the jarring transition from polar vortex to vernal equinox, subtle signs of spring are popping up around the city. Some of these signs remind us how green and colorful Jamestown will be in just a month or two, and about the close connection between...

Throwback Thursday: Celebrating New Life at the Winter Garden

Throwback Thursday: Celebrating New Life at the Winter Garden

Four years ago this week, the Jamestown Renaissance Corporation and its partners began a project that has changed the face of North Main Street: the demolition of Winter Garden Theater and the construction of Winter Garden Plaza. After years as a great movie house,...

Moving Beyond the Magic Bullet

Moving Beyond the Magic Bullet

[Editor's Note: This editorial is a follow-up discussion to a story published on March 2, 2014, about the National Comedy Center.] Cities frequently fall prey to the seduction of the "magic bullet," the project that promises to solve a slew of civic ailments in one...

In Upstate Cities, Recognizing the Power of Peers

In Upstate Cities, Recognizing the Power of Peers

In 2012, a group of citizens in Oswego, NY, decided to do something about the disinvestment that was steadily eroding stable neighborhoods in that city of 18,000 on Lake Ontario. As they explored their options, they came across some information about Jamestown. They...

Time to Re-think Free Parking

Time to Re-think Free Parking

How can downtowns compete with suburban shopping centers and their acres of free parking? Provide the same. Just remove parking meters and make way for an influx of retailers and customers. At least that was the conventional wisdom for many years. But it hasn’t...

Movies Go Digital, Downtown Moves Forward

Movies Go Digital, Downtown Moves Forward

Next month, almost 91 years to the day after opening as Jamestown's grandest movie house, the Reg Lenna Center for the Arts will be showing its last film. Not its last movie, but its last movie on actual film, as it makes the conversion to the Digital Age. Over the...

Finding Room for Flexible Retail in Jamestown

Finding Room for Flexible Retail in Jamestown

The Downtown Jamestown Farmers Market represents a type of "flexible" retail space that JRC and others are trying to cultivate in Jamestown---spaces where entrepreneurs can test new products and services in a low-risk, low-overhead environment. You can read more about...

Christmas Parade Winners Announced, Crowd Favorite Voting Now Open

Christmas Parade Winners Announced, Crowd Favorite Voting Now Open

The Jamestown Renaissance Corporation (JRC) is proud to announce the winners from Jamestown’s Snowball Express Christmas Parade and Holiday Celebration that was held on Friday, December 6 in downtown Jamestown. There were approximately 120 groups who participated,...

What’s your Riverwalk wish list?

What’s your Riverwalk wish list?

Jamestown's Riverwalk has been expanding over the past few years, and plans are in the works to add new paths and amenities to make the city's Chadakoin riverfront a recreational destination for area residents and visitors. Click here to take a brief survey about how...