Creating a Winter City

Jaime Izurieta, from Storefront Mastery, is a self-described “storefront ninja,” is a town planner and urban designer who specializes in storefront design, economic development, and historic preservation. He consults with downtowns on how to boost economic development and placemaking through design.

 With colder weather right around the corner, people are searching to the find the best way to prepare their cities and towns for winter. While heaters may seem like the first go to, what downtowns really need to do is to make residents proud and to inspire the community. When you think of cities that exist in places with extreme weather, they used built solutions to create additional interest and that help people to feel more comfortable outside.

Keeping this in mind, Izurieta says there should be four goals in any strategy to “win winter.”

Goal 1: Set the Stage

To set the stage, downtowns should use architectural features that make sidewalks functional for year-round activities. These features may include freestanding roof elements, arcades, or Italian-style loggias. These features help protect people from different types of weather, including rain, snow, and wind, and thus allow for events to be held despite the cold or inclement weather.

One idea to make this possible, is to set up a “hackathon” hosted by the downtown, with local makers, carpenters, and/or builders to find the safest, most efficient, and most cost-effective solution. The prototypes should be tested and continuously tweaked to create a useable product that can be used every season. As these iterations occur, they need to be evaluated to ensure the finished product is what the downtown wants and needs.

Downtowns should also look at business owners and how their individual efforts can help the entire ecosystem of the town. In doing so, municipalities can leverage the placemaking power of these businesses. This enables grassroots efforts to come to fruition. To aid businesses in this endeavor, municipalities should think about how to expedite permits to let business owners make their space, both indoors and outdoors, as inviting as possible. Municipalities should also produce guidelines for businesses to use, so they know they are not stepping over the line. The goal is to leverage individual actions in a controlled environment.

Goal 2: Build Pride

Creating a brand, like “Made in Winter City, NJ”, is a simple, fun way to build pride and unify the community. To do this, the downtown should initiate a collaborative and municipal-wide process for engagement and “pridemaking” through the brand. Businesses can use the stamp “Made In” on locally produced goods or subsidize locally made winter gear.

The brand should also be promoted through events held throughout the season. Some of these events might start a new tradition in the downtown. An example are polar bear dips that organize jumps into a local water body (normally on New Year’s) in support of a local charity. Establishing an annual event, or even multiple annual events, makes creates excitement and brings people to the downtown.

Municipalities and downtown organizations can also offer direct, one-on-one assistance to retailers and food & beverage establishments to adapt their operations to winter conditions. Assistance could include building menus around the cold, building an outdoor structures, a primer on “inside out” operations, adapting to an outdoor winter market context, or  staging winter village storefronts.

Goal 3: Boost Identity

To boost a downtown identity, create a “Manufactures of Winter” program. Bring all the local makers, particularly those who can make goods to help people survive the winter outside together. Establish a permanent winter market, and don’t take the market down once the holiday season is over. The outdoor market should offer winter gear, locally made goods, and lots of “warming” food and beverage options, such as cider or even gluweihn, which is a type of mulled wine. There can also be moveable carts with pre-warmed gear or hot beverages. This creates an environment where people want to spend time because it does not feel cold. Given current health concerns, these winter markets should also be spaced in such a way that people can remain distanced.

Another way to boost identity is to use drama and local folklore. The town or downtown organization could research local folklore characters and stories, and then hire actors to portray them. The actors could be right out on the street interacting with residents, telling the stories of winters past.

Downtowns can also use “guerilla warming” by painting “warm” murals, such as a flame or fire, and covering leafless trees with warm lights and even yarn, to change people’s perception of the trees. Wherever possible, create the feeling of warmth through displays in public spaces and in storefronts by using warm light rather than cool light. The effect is more psychological than physical, but it can help keep people from wanting to go home.

Goal 4: Offer a Reward

Make the downtown convenient and fun. Accentuate the value of downtown by adding coffee or cider carts and subsidized blanket, scarf, and glove vending. Towns can also create a firewood depot for residents to get their firewood, winter survival clubs for knitters, and other warm-feeling activities. Downtowns can offer promotions for goods from local retailers and vendors that reward customers for shopping.

Giveaways are another way to reward people for spending their time and money downtown. These giveaways can be blankets, scarves, coffee, or anything else that can entice people to spend time outdoors and their money. There should be a close interaction with those who are coming to downtowns to encourage others to come and build the brand of “Winter City, NJ.”

What to do next?

Now that you have goals and strategies, the next question is what do with them. Of course, downtowns and businesses do need heaters, but we also need to have a discussion about how to use public space when it is colder. People need a reason to leave their homes and spend time outside in the winter months, particularly now when patronizing business inside is still undesirable to many. To start the conversation, survey local makers and manufactures, and conduct an assessment of local regulations that can be waived and/or amended so that businesses can implement ideas with ease. These ideas are not exhaustive, but rather are a starting point for downtowns to begin the conversation and begin implementation.