The new Main Street Lansing program in Lansing, Iowa is kicking into high gear. Now, the search is on for Main Street Lansing's first-ever Executive Director.

If you're a self motivated leader, organized, an excellent communicator with great people skills, capable of being passionate about your job and yearning for a challenge, this opportunity in beautiful and historic Lansing, Iowa could be ideal for you.

Visit our special web feature at www.mainstreetlansing.com to learn more and download the Executive Director Position Profile.

Forbes' just-published list of The Best Small Cities to Raise a Family does Wisconsin proud, with three communities ranked in the top ten (#2 Manitowoc; #5 Marshfield; and #6 Stevens Point). So, aside from sharing a Wisconsin address, what do these three communities share in common? Use the comment link to enter your guess.

Lisa originally created a wholly unscientific, but not entirely arbitrary Main Street Committee Placement Exam as a fun committee training exercise for our work with the Louisiana Economic Development Committee in Louisiana, Missouri.  Turns out, our friends there are still using it as a first step in their volunteer intake process and report great results.

The exam is now online and can be accessed from the new "Tools & Resources" section of our website. Give it a whirl and let us know where you got "plugged in."

Our friend Craig Tebon sent us an email and the link to a Marketplace Magazine story about the tremendous transformation taking place in downtown Ripon, Wisconsin. Click here to check out the article about Boca Grande Capital's plans and investment in downtown Ripon.

Are backhoes and bulldozers on your horizon?

We're preparing to launch our new "Surviving Construction" website. Click on the screenshot for a sneak peek and to take the "Surviving Construction Preparedness Exam."

We just caught up with our friend Kristoper Larson who we got to know during our work on the Hillsborough Street BID Formation project in Raleigh, North Carolina. Kris is now working his magic in sunny Long Beach, California where, among other things, he's managing the Downtown Long Beach Associates' Retail Visioning Process.

Kris says the project has "received some good local and regional press as an inventive planning process." We can see why. Click here to link up to the project website, and be sure to check out this awesome promotional video for Downtown Long Beach.

According to our source, Becky Newton, "The funny story behind the picture is that the driver was the French teacher. Later in the day he's on the telephone with the insurance company trying to explain, in his broken English, that a 'mouse' crushed his car. He finally got the word 'moose' out...but not before his credibility was completely destroyed!"