Specialist has high praise for treasure of old buildings, architecture

A rural development specialist with more than 20 years experience helping communities throughout the West believes Butte’s future will be bright if it can continue promoting and improving its unique Uptown district.

By Roberta Forsell Stauffer of The Montana Standard – 02/25/2004

http://www.mtstandard.com/articles/2004/02/25/newsbutte/hjjfjhhejcfgib.txt

"Butte is now one of America’s best kept secrets, but judging from the enthusiasm in this room, it’s not going to be a secret for long," Dave Conine told the 100-plus people gathered at The Garden Tuesday night for Mainstreet Uptown Butte’s fifth annual dinner.

Conine works out of Draper, Utah, for the Rural Community Assistance Corp., but he’s traveled to Butte about a dozen times over the past year to help Bob Corbett and Barbara Miller of the National Affordable Housing Network set up their Mutual Self-Help Housing Program.

He said it’s been exciting to see Butte taking steps such as facade and sidewalk improvements to make Uptown more visually appealing, and he urged more of the same. Making the most of the Uptown’s architectural heritage and affordable buildings will help the community gain a competitive edge in the future.

"Butte has the best collection of incredible old buildings and historic architecture that I’ve seen anywhere," Conine said. "It’s a diamond in the rough."

He spoke of how warehouse districts around the country and former copper mining

communities in Arizona have been transformed into artists’ communities whose studios and

galleries have become destinations for tourists and shoppers.

Butte should encourage any type of development along those lines, he said, and it should also work to promote special events to help make the Uptown an entertaining place for people to walk and shop.

The bulk of Conine’s presentation was about how the presence of big-box stores can threaten the stability of local business districts.

Profits generated from stores such as Wal-Mart leave the local economy, he said, robbing communities of the multiplier effect benefit. Box stores also typically don’t support local businesses, since many services such as architectural, accounting, and legal needs are handled by corporate staff.

The chains have also been known to sell items at below their acquisition cost, driving local competitors out of business. Once the competition closes, prices go up, Conine said.

His advice to Butte was to approach these developments with caution.

"The benefits of locally owned businesses far outweigh that of the chains," he said. "By holding their feet to the fire, these large national box stores will be forced to become more responsive to the local communities that support them."

Although Conine is based in Utah, the nonprofit Rural Community Assistance Corp. headquarters is in West Sacramento, Calif. The organization provides training and technical assistance and also helps rural community organizations find funding to achieve their goals. The group’s focus areas are housing, the environment, and finance.