Tag: Jake Dougherty

Wheeling a National Contender for Revitalization Award

Throughout the U.S., thousands of towns are working to revitalize their downtowns. Some 2,200 of these places were considered this year for a prestigious Great American Main Streets Award, based on revitalization efforts. This year Wheeling is among the top 10 contenders for the award. Executive director of Wheeling Heritage Jake Dougherty spoke about the award and the work his organization is doing to see Wheeling reinvented.

Excerpts from a conversation with Jake Dougherty: 

On Wheeling as a national example of effective revitalization efforts:

We are very clearly committed to creating enabling environments for people of all shapes and sizes, from helping developers be able to more successfully develop our beautiful architecture, to providing small grants to artists, so that they can continue practicing their craft. We’re working in that whole range. It’s our philosophy that the person closest to the problem is probably the best person suited to solve the problem. So how can we continue to get resources as close as possible? 

"And today you're seeing leadership coming in all forms. It's coming in new residents who are just excited to be here and see potential in Wheeling because they have fresh eyes, and you're also seeing it and longtime residents who are reading discovering the city."-Jake Dougherty

And so I think that’s one of the reasons why we’ve been really successful. Just a commitment and a strong effort to continue to figure out what those enabling environments are, and to distribute leadership throughout the community.

On what an evolving community looks like in West Virginia:

We’re seeing community members become more engaged. And I think that’s really exciting, because you’re starting to see leadership happen outside of these particular institutions that are awarded leadership roles. You’ve got these legacy organizations that have been around and have been doing great things. What I say is that a lot of times they’ve steadied the ship through the hardest decades. And right now, the work that we’re doing really builds upon those efforts. And today you’re seeing leadership coming in all forms. It’s coming in new residents who have moved into two neighborhoods and are just excited to be here and see potential in Wheeling because they have fresh eyes, and you’re also seeing it and longtime residents who are reading discovering the city. I think it’s really exciting because it continues to build upon what is best about Wheeling, which is its people and its unique sense of place. It’s my hope, and I think it’s our goal to to continue to engage diverse audiences and our work and continue to reach new people and provide them with resources that will help make them more successful.

What’s next:

I think the question of “what’s next” is a great one. It’s very clear that as you walk down the street in Wheeling that the work isn’t done. We’ve seen a decrease in vacancy rates from 32% to 15%, but 15% is not the goal. So, we’ll continue to work on new and innovative programs that help to solve that problem. And one thing that I always look at is the census tracts that comprise or surround downtown Wheeling has a residence or a population of about 7,700 people. But there’s still a really high unemployment and there’s still really high poverty. So it’s really important for our work, that it is engaging to everybody that lives in Wheeling because a downtown that is that is leaving people behind isn’t really developing. And so we’re focused on that sustainable development that allows our neighborhoods and our downtown to really thrive.

Reflections on the state’s developed historic tax credit:

[Wheeling Heritage was] a leading organization on the advocacy around increasing the state’s historic tax credit, and also preserving it through tax reform at the federal level.

We’re really fortunate that we have legislative leaders in the state and at the federal level who understand the impact that it has on Wheeling. And so the advocacy efforts locally were pretty easy. It’s pretty clear to see how impactful it’s been. There’s already been, you know, $30 to $45 million of investment announced that’s going to be made in historic resources and in downtown Wheeling. That’s an incredible opportunity that just wasn’t there under the former policies. The state tax credit makes it possible for development to occur. 

On the historic tax credit’s potential to effect small projects:

There is protection set aside for small projects. The smaller projects are going to be the future of historic districts, and maintaining context and fabric in our communities. That’s where small businesses come to exist. They move into the small buildings, small historic buildings, and they create new uses for them. And that’s what’s really exciting in Wheeling. We’re seeing dozens of new businesses start up, especially in the Center Market area. The tax credit being able to be used for that is going to be critically important, not just in Wheeling, but throughout the rest of the state.

On future projects in Wheeling and West Virginia:

The Wheeling Pittsburgh Steel Building development, which has been announced softly, is 144,000 square feet of development in the center of our city. It will be converted into a mixed-use building with commercial and market rate housing. It is very, very exciting because it defines a shift in Wheeling. That building used to be made up of workers in a very strong industry here in Wheeling, and that’s just not the case anymore. These buildings that were built for that cause have a new use and a new economy here in the city. And so as we reuse these historic buildings like the Wheeling Pit building, it’s important to think about not only that it’s hitting the tax rolls and that it’s full, but that it defines a clear shift in what the future of Wheeling and what the future West Virginia looks like.

Wheeling Local Movement Gets National Assistance

Momentum continues to mount behind local food and local economic development efforts in the Northern panhandle. Wheeling was one of the top picks in a national Local Foods, Local Places Competition. As a result, local organizations are receiving technical assistance from multiple state and federal agencies to help capitalize on the growing demand for local foods.  Meetings with federal agency representatives began last week.

Local Places Protecting the Environment?

The Environmental Protection Agency initiated the national Local Food, Local Places program. The idea is to bring federal, regional, and state agencies together to help find and support existing local food and economic development efforts. Why would the EPA get in on the local movement?

EPA policy analyst Melissa Kramer explains that one reason is to promote lifestyles that rely less heavily on automobiles and all their emissions. She says the local life could go a long way toward that end.

“When you have a downtown that’s vibrant, that people want to live in, that has all the services that people need, ” Kramer said, “people have options for getting around that don’t involve driving. You find that there are a lot of people who want to walk, who want to bike.”

Kramer says that is healthier for community members, healthier for the environment, and healthier for the economy because dollar wind up staying with local businesses.

Federal, Regional, State, and Local Converge

Folks came in to Wheeling last week from Charleston, West Virginia, Durham, North Carolina, and Washington D.C. representing EPA, the US Department of Agriculture, the Appalachian Regional Commission, the State Department of Highways, and US Department of Transportation. These partners met with local Wheeling groups to talk about how to promote a local food system and grow the local economy in general.

It all started with a city tour from one of Wheeling’s trolley busses …

One of the tour guides was the director of the nonprofit Reinvent Wheeling, Jake Dougherty. He heads up one of three organizations that joined together to apply for the federal Local Foods, Local Places Grant. Others organizations include Grow Ohio Valley and the Wheeling National Heritage Area Foundation.

“Of the over 90 applications just in the Appalachian region, Wheeling stood out among all of them,” said Wilson Paine, a program analyst from the Appalachian Regional Commission who was involved in reviewing applications for the Local Foods Local Places Grant.

“Wheeling is emblematic of what a lot of Appalachian towns are going through right now which is searching for what their identity is going to be in the 21st century and how they can focus on the local aspects of building an identity,” Paine said.

“Wheeling is emblematic of what a lot of Appalachian towns are going through right now which is searching for what their identity is going to be in the 21st century and how they can focus on the local aspects of building an identity,” Paine said.

A Perfect Storm

Paine says there’s a perfect storm in Wheeling, combining youthful leadership, local food and area revitalization efforts, and ongoing region-wide partnerships. He says the existing infrastructure in Wheeling, combined with an engaged community, made Wheeling an ideal candidate for technical assistance.

Growing the Ohio Valley’s Local Food System

Executive director of Grow Ohio Valley, Ken Peralta, took a lot of questions during the tour of Wheeling. GrowOV is already deeply engaged in laying groundwork for a local food system in the region. In addition to the greenhouse, GrowOV has built multiple community gardens and a small organic farm inside the city. They’ve also got wheels in motion, so to speak, for a mobile vegetable market that will serve several counties in the region starting in June.

In addition to visiting some local food initiatives that are well on their way, federal and local partners visited a few areas of town that have been abandoned because they’re too steep to develop residentially or commercially. One hillside is slated to be planted with fruit trees and berries. Another, that overlooks all of downtown Wheeling and the Ohio Valley, will be a green, public space of some kind.  Action plans that detail what, when and how are being developed.

Peralta is hoping for help testing water as well as engineering ideas or resources to help manage stormwater that flows off of these steep hillsides. He and his colleagues are enthusiastic about the raw resources that seem abundant in Wheeling.

And the Enthusiasm is Contagious

Jake Dougherty of Reinvent Wheeling says there’s now a critical mass of people in and around Wheeling who are dedicated to turning their “dying city” into a thriving Appalachian town. He also admits that new industrial development in the region could be playing a role in bolstering the economy over the last five years, perhaps adding to that growing sense of hopefulness.

“But what I think is great, and what I think we have learned most about our economy from the past,” Dougherty said, “the conversations we are having are not centered around a single industry; it’s centered around the diversification of our economy.”

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