A 10 mile long downtown

I was in Belleville, IL today doing a talk to their Chamber leaders along with some Chamber execs from nearby Swansea and O’Fallon. We had some great conversation about taking a more regional approach, which all of the professionals seemed to be in favor of. I wish that it was that easy, but there are too many people wanting to stay in their “silos”, resulting in less progress and wasted opportunities for many areas.

Belleville has a 10 ½ mile downtown that stretches from the east to west side of town. That has to present unique problems of promotion and logistics. First one that I’ve seen that long!