West Reading Avenues Spring 2021 - 4

Letter from the Manager

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The Future

by Mark Ratcliffe, Main Street Manager
urray to 2021 I need to start by thanking everyone for
supporting our businesses over this past year. This
challenging time was made manageable with your help,
and we can't thank you enough.

H

2021 is going to be about positive change. West Reading is
looking to make some of its biggest improvements since the
replacement of our sidewalks and street lights over 20 years
ago. We plan to improve our Business District physically while
attracting diverse businesses to help strengthen West Reading's
arts, entertainment, and wellness-related business district. We
will envision ways to transform aging and underutilized sites and
streets into dynamic places that will include new public spaces
and additional parking. We look to promote infill development
and the redevelopment of aging buildings. We will be working
on creating a more walkable community with mixed-use places
that embrace a new vision for West Reading. We will enhance our
image and develop design standards to ensure our business district
continues to provide quality storefronts, attractive streetscapes and
civic spaces with buildings that reflect both the historic character
and inspired designs that make West Reading an authentic place
to shop, work and live. We will work to enhance our streetscape
and develop bicycle trails and sidewalk connectivity throughout
the borough. We will continue to work with building owners to
help facilitate the adaptive reuse and redevelopment within the
borough with a focus on the Second and Franklin Street area.
West Reading events have always been a highlight for us in the
borough and we are planning even more this year. Lead by our
revitalization foundation and merchants we will see added events
like Galentines Day that we saw in February. We have learned

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Avenues Spring 2021

a lot this past year and have figured
out how to do things virtually. Our
fashion show in February was a mix
of virtual and live modeling at various businesses throughout
the borough and the addition of virtual may be something we
keep doing in the future. That said, we all want to get out and
see our friends. We hope to be able to host our first big event
mid-May with our Craft Pretzel and Beer Fest. In addition, we
will host Art on the Avenue and Plein Air in June. This was the
first event canceled last year due to COVID, and with fingers
crossed it will be the first event we can formally host in 2021.
Either way, this year is going to be a great year in West Reading,
and we look forward to seeing you at one of our 2nd Fridays,
farmers markets, festivals or just on the street shopping or dining
in the very near future.
West Reading Avenues Spring 2021

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