Case:

Business High Point Chamber of Commerce

Reinvesting in Washington Street as a pathway to inclusive economic growth

Known as the Furniture Capital of the World and home to one of the fastest-growing universities in the South, High Point, North Carolina has experienced significant economic growth in recent years. However, it has occurred unevenly throughout the city, contributing to socio-economic divides that can make High Point feel like two different cities in terms of amenities, quality of infrastructure, and ability to access economic opportunities. These gaps are especially evident in the historic corridor of Washington Street, which lies between two busy downtown destinations but has not experienced the same growth.

Project Overview

The Washington Street neighborhood has been a cultural and economic hub for High Point’s African American community since the 1800s and was once known as High Point’s “Black Wall Street” because of its concentration of black-owned businesses and cultural institutions, including hotels, pharmacies, and legal offices. Yet Washington Street’s bustling activity has declined in recent decades due to disruptive highway construction, the closure of an important educational institution, and broader disinvestment. Business High Point, the City’s Chamber of Commerce, has been working to increase investment in the area to develop new commercial spaces and bring more activity to the neighborhood from all across the city.

A team from Business High Point and Change Often, a social innovation firm, worked with EDDIT to ensure that the Washington Street corridor benefits from the city’s overall economic growth, reflecting both its historic role in the economic success of Black residents and the modern day diversity of the city itself. Washington Street can also provide a space for new homegrown commercial activity, as the eventual brick-and-mortar site of some of the businesses being supported and mentored through Thrive High Point, the chamber’s women and minority business ownership program.

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Data Insights

Washington Street is located less than a mile from both the Furniture Market District and the core of downtown, which has been undergoing revitalization and investment efforts for the past seven years. It is also close to High Point University, which has experienced significant growth over the last two decades. This map highlights the proximity of the three areas, overlayed with the number of visits per day to different parts of the city, produced using cell phone data. This map can be used as a tracking metric to measure success as the work to revitalize Washington Street continues.

The Business High Point team uses this map to show how activity and development momentum in the highlighted zones can draw in a new wave of diverse business owners to the area, increasing prosperity throughout. They link a revitalized Washington Street with the success of the city overall, arguing that redeveloping and reinvesting in this corridor can make it a catalyst for even broader equitable economic growth.

There is great potential for the revitalization of Washington Street to be part of High Point’s economic development success story and a model of equitable development for historic neighborhoods across the country. The work produced by Business High Point and Change Often dovetails with the city’s current efforts to update their long-range comprehensive plan, which calls for denser development, a focus on downtown vibrancy, and improving walkability, bikeability, and transit connectivity across the city.

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As planners we are often aware of what the problem is, and what our data is telling us, yet that doesn't always get us anywhere. EDDIT helped open our minds to try and un-learn some of what we have been doing and try a different way of doing things, based in the belief that we have the capacity to make positive change today so that we can get to a better future tomorrow.

Isela Contreras-Dogbe

Regional Municipality of Wood Buffalo

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A memorable insight from our time with EDDIT was when they [the EDDIT team] visited our community. It gave me a chance to tag along and visit the community assets we have in our neighborhoods, listen to conversations with stakeholders, and learn the passion and zeal these stakeholders have for their community. That was an "aha" moment for us -- to build our community engagement and engage every single aspect of our community stakeholders as we make decisions.

Martin Byaruhanga

Regional Municipality of Wood Buffalo

Program Manager, Community Partnership and Initiatives

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The team brought a dynamic way of looking at existing resources from different perspectives, including figuring out how to apply an equity lens to the data that we have.

Martin Byaruhanga

Regional Municipality of Wood Buffalo

Program Manager, Community Partnership and Initiatives

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Being part of the EDDIT cohort, I have learned more about how I can visualize and tell a story with the data that we have, and how we can reframe it to answer objective questions. I would say I'm confident in continuing to leverage the resources that we were provided through EDDIT.

Martin Byaruhanga

Regional Municipality of Wood Buffalo

Program Manager, Community Partnership and Initiatives

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My key takeaway from this training was to shift from a problem-based perspective to a solution-based one.

Martin Byaruhanga

Regional Municipality of Wood Buffalo

Program Manager, Community Partnership and Initiatives

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You really learn so much more about your project than you thought you were going to. EDDIT really gives you those tools necessary to make those big asks in the future and get the community involved in the future. And I would just absolutely recommend it to everybody.

Sarah Supple

City of Albuquerque