Decatur, IL

Great Streets Great Neighborhoods is a City-led initiative that focuses in on underutilized corridors and uses community ideas to transform them into welcoming, safe, and vibrant areas. The “Great Streets, Great Neighborhoods” projects drive community-based economic development and quality of life improvements, by focusing on opportunities to drive neighborhood beautification, infill development, and non-motorized transportation options on major road corridors, where the historic emphasis on providing a high level-service to automobile traffic has proved to have a negative impact of neighborhood-scale access, mobility, aesthetics, livability, and economic health.   The City of Decatur is embarking on a revitalization process aimed at fully capturing the potential of this overlooked area of the city. The Jasper Street Commercial Corridor have a poverty rate above 35% and over 51% of the residents are African-American.  KSU TAB services include developing an inventory of brownfield sites along the Jasper Street Corridor (Delta Institute, LLC—KSU TAB Partner) with next steps of prioritizing sites and guiding residents in the development of reuse scenarios.