"The mission of the MSA is to promote public and government awareness of the concerns of Main Street businesses; to foster increases and enhance business along Main Street, to help avoid any actions that will deter business to the Main Street businesses and collectively support local Non for Profit organizations.".http://msa-bn.com

The Main Street Association meets monthly and the head of this committee are business owners on Main Street. It is located right off of Highway 55! Their major goals are to educate, defend private property, protect your property, make sure voices are heard throughout Bloomington-Normal, to help save Main Street, and for most, keep the public informed on what is happening on Main Street.

About

The Main Street Association is dedicated to helping not only the businesses along Main, but to also promote the bettering of Main Street. There are a lot of things that they want to do. The real reason for all of this is to help others in the community. They want to give a better understanding on what is going on and make the people more aware of what they want to do. They want to help better the relationships of all the people who have business' on Main Street. They conduct meetings every month to discuss what needs to change, what they want to stay the same, and all things that they want to better. Most meetings are held at Denny's Doughnuts and Bakery. They are every third Thursday of the month. Many of the topics that are discussed currently are that the Normal Town Council is still discussing the form-base code and what they want to do with it. The town of Normal has had a lot of people look down upon there ideas due to the fact that they want to do so much in so little time, and not letting the public know. The Main Street Association wants to make sure it is clear to everyone what they do, want to do, and how they are going to go about changing things along Main Street.

The Real Issues

The many things that are being done on Main Street are kept within the committee until they are confident in what they are going to do. They do not want to say they are going to do something and then not go through with it. No one can determine the way anything is going to go and what the town of Bloomington-Normal will make of it. They have done a lot of tip-toeing around and keeping a lot of things hushed. Part of the job of the Main Street Association is to keep the community informed, and as of right now they are keeping them informed as possible. The biggest problem… money. A huge part of trying to better Main Street is that they want to help make it more modern, make sure the buildings are stable and can be living able or be sold for businesses. The people of the Town of Normal believe that if they are going to redo or “beautify” Main Street, why not Market, or the poorer sides of the west side. When in reality all of those places or being worked on. This comes to the next issue, time. If you do not have the time or the money, why do it?! That is the big question on everyone’s minds and the council’s minds as well.

Pros and Cons

The way things are looked upon on the form base code is that it is a negative and long process. Everything has to be approved through the Normal council and the people of the Main Street Association want to make it clear what needs to be done and what they want to do. A huge pro to all that is going on is that something is being done to better Main Street. They have gone years and years not solving these issues and trying to decide what to do. Having everyone sit down in a non-political environment and discussing what needs to be is a huge step into getting things moved along in an orderly fashion. A major con to all of this is the long process that comes with trying to better Main Street. Everything has to be approved and everything that is discussed must be told to the council. It is already pre-determined that the conflict will be resolved, it is a matter of how long the process is going to take.

The People

When walking down Main Street you can see the hundreds of buildings, business, and housing there are. Many of those businesses are all local and are only in Bloomington-Normal. With that, many of the people who run the Main Street Association and conduct the meeting own those businesses. For example, the President of the association is Phil Boulds who owns Mugsy's Pub down South Main Street. These people are familiar with a lot of Main Street and have seen what it has become, and what is to come from the changes. The people who own the houses, buildings, and business do not fully comprehend what is going on and what is going down. Other people who are members of the association include;

Vice-President: Denny Marquardt of Denny’s Doughnuts and Bakery. Treasurer: Dale Nafziger of Growing Grounds. Secretary: Theresa Capodice Board of directors: Rich Zeller; Avanti’s, Tom Restivo; Gailey Eye Clinic, Moe Davis; Tobin’s Pizza, and the 2010 Officers.

Places of Business

There are so many places of business located on Main Street. Some of which that have been there for over thirty years. A lot of people do not see that these places of business are not going anywhere and the people of the Main Street Association are making sure of that. Many places include the popular Gene’s Ice Cream, All of down town Bloomington, and the many restaurants and pubs. A lot of college students go down town to drink and have a good time. There are also many exhibits as well. They have a museum of old artifacts and belong from historical people around Illinois. Main Street is the one place where everyone goes and knows that they will have a good time. All you have to do is drive all the way down Highway 55 and you will see for yourself what Main Street is all about. Main Street is the one place where if you start at the beginning of it and go all the way to the end, you will be well fed, thirst-quenched, and if all fails, and then Bromenn hospital is there to provide its services.