We asked Eric Doden, former director of the Indiana Economic Development Corporation, and Bill Taft, former executive director of the Local Initiatives Support Corp. in Indianapolis, about the work they are doing with Sagamore to revive and strengthen small towns and cities across Indiana. Doden is leading the Renewing Cities initiative, which plans to restore thousands of historic buildings in Indiana communities to jumpstart local economies, revive business districts, and reverse population decline in our state’s small towns. This year, Taft partnered with Sagamore to launch Interurban, which works with local organizations to assess their community’s strengths, needs, and opportunities and to leverage investments that help improve quality of life.
Q: Eric, what is the vision behind the Renewing Cities initiative?
Eric Doden: Our vision is to restore vibrancy to our small towns and to help foster a high quality of life that will be attractive to our kids and grandkids. As we restore thousands of buildings in communities across Indiana, we will see the population of our small towns begin to rebound and local economies start to grow.
We see that people are often attracted to smaller towns because they want to be part of a community where they feel loved and respected. They also want the vibrancy of shops, restaurants, and other community assets that they’ve experienced in bigger cities. We see a great opportunity to restore the business districts in our small towns so that our children and grandchildren want to live in those communities.
Q: Bill, what is the vision for Interurban?
Bill Taft: Our vision is to equip people who live in underinvested communities to forge a shared vision, then to work together to carry out that vision with the right tools and skills to create effective change. Interurban draws from the worlds of both community development and economic development, blending them together in a way that is effective in each community.
Q: Bill, you have identified an initial project for Interurban. What can you tell us about that work?
Bill Taft: We are working with the Unity Foundation in LaPorte County, focused on the cities of La Porte and Michigan City, helping them implement an affordable housing initiative. We’re also helping them build the systems they need to accelerate housing development in their communities.
Q: Eric, what can you tell us about the initial work of Renewing Cities?
Eric Doden: We are working in several communities in Indiana now, including Bluffton, Richmond, Huntington, and Auburn. About two million people in Indiana live in small towns – that’s almost one-third of the entire state. They want a small town that not only offers the opportunity to build strong relationships with their neighbors but also has the infrastructure needed to create a good quality of life. We are working with communities that are dedicated to revitalization and to restoring their quality of life.
Q: What does revitalization look like in small-town Indiana in 2025?
Eric Doden: We have about 85 distressed communities in our state. We define a community as distressed when 50 to 80 percent of the building stock is uninhabitable or underutilized. We want to restore those buildings – to bring back businesses, restaurants, and housing – as the means to create vibrancy, elevate the quality of life, and return pride in the community. Our goal over the next 20 years is to restore 4,500 historic buildings throughout the state.
Q: Bill, you’re working on bringing vibrancy back to communities in Indiana as well. How is Interurban approaching that work?
Bill Taft: One way to say it is that Eric’s Renewing Cities initiative is working on the hardware in our communities, and at Interurban, we’re working on the software. That means helping people develop the skills they need to restore vibrancy and to carry forward a vision for their community. Those skills include building the ongoing support their community will need, staying focused, measuring the impact of their work, and effectively telling their story so they can retain buy-in from their community.
Q: What do you hope the communities where you’re working will look like in five years?
Eric Doden: We will have at least 20 to 30 buildings restored in each community where Renewing Cities is at work. We will see new housing, new restaurants, and new retail. We will see fresh vibrancy and be well on the way to restoring other parts of the community over the next five years beyond 2030.
What we really want to see is population growth. What we see now across the United States, and specifically in Indiana, is population decline in our rural communities. That is happening in part because of a lack of housing and infrastructure. We want to see 1 percent population growth in our small towns. In a community of 10,000, that means adding 100 people a year. That growth rate won’t change the culture of their community, but it will improve their economy and will help them add and sustain the amenities they want and need. As I tell people, it’s really about your kids and grandkids, either staying or returning home. Those are the people who are most likely to help grow your community.
In addition to population growth, we want to see fresh vibrancy and renewed community pride. As people have more community pride, they have more hope. And when they have more hope, they live a better life.
Q: Bill, what does Interurban’s work look like in 2030?
Bill Taft: I would envision a network of people doing the work of restoring their communities around the state. They will be connected to each other and increasing their capacity to do the work effectively. They also will be fostering new leaders in each community.
We also will see professionals, whether as property managers or in local government, working in the key roles needed to build and retain healthy downtowns and core neighborhoods along with the other amenities needed to make people want to live in those communities.
The other aspect of success is for our community leaders to understand that their downtown and the older neighborhoods surrounding this area are their most distinctive assets. Their future really depends on the vitality of their downtown and core neighborhoods. We want them to know how to attract reinvestment in those assets and to make them the center of efforts to improve the quality of life in their community.
Header image: Franklin, IN commercial district | Sarah Stierch via Flickr