A myriad of officials from across the state came to the Rocky Mount this week for two different causes, both highlighting the area’s assets.
The larger of the two groups represented 13 of the 18 cities in the large cities sector of the N.C. Downtown Development Association, which kicked off the annual meeting Thursday with a cocktail reception at the Rocky Mount Brewmill, a bus tour of downtown then dinner at Prime Smokehouse on the Douglas Block. The group of downtown experts gathered again Friday to share ideas and hear from subject-matter experts discussing the best practices of revitalizing the state’s downtown areas.
“The meeting is really to provide an informal venue for downtown managers to share ideas and kind of recharge the battery, if you will,” said David Diaz, the director of the large cities group and president and CEO of the Downtown Raleigh Alliance. “The work of downtown revitalization is complex and, often times, people in our roles have a lot of responsibilities but not all the authority to make things happen, so we’ve got to be collaborative and use our powers of persuasion with officials, property owners or developers to do the right thing for the area.”
This week’s meeting was the first chance many of the participants had to check out the Twin Counties, but Diaz said Rocky Mount’s Downtown Development Manager John Jesso made a strong case for having the meeting in Eastern North Carolina.
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