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Image Source: City of Woodinville, Washington
The word “suburbia” tends to garner negative connotations. A sprawl of cookie-cutter subdivisions with a who’s who of chain restaurants, car dealerships, and outsized malls surrounding them. Bland, corporate, and without character, a sameness that breeds exclusion and isolation.
While there might be some merit to that long-held reputation, more and more suburban cities are shredding those stereotypes as populations continue to grow outside major metropolitan areas. Over the last decade, and especially since the pandemic, smaller urban and residential communities have instead become their own popular destinations, cultivating their own cultural and economic identities. They are no longer just commuter towns feeding their larger sister cities.
In an increasingly competitive landscape, suburban city leaders have achieved these distinctions in a variety of ways. They’ve fostered local entrepreneurship and small business, invested in education and infrastructure, and learned how to market their unique tourism opportunities, helping transform their cities into economic powerhouses while still maintaining their charm and personality. “The most important thing for communities to take away is to be who you are, celebrate who you are, market who you are, and stick with that,” says Tom West, the economic development director of Covington, Kentucky.
No doubt. This is a strong game plan to follow. But what actions have suburban cities implemented to pull this off ? Here’s a look at how three suburbs have successfully distinguished themselves from their neighbors.
“Spicy Mayberry.” That’s how West describes Covington, which sits just across the Ohio River from Cincinnati. It was recently named one of Money Magazine’s Top 50 Places to Live. The city, which has grown to around 40,000 in population, has preserved many of its historic buildings and traditional spirit (it even covers up to $7,500 in electrical sign restorations for its streetscape), but it also boasts a diverse and inclusive community. The city became the first in Kentucky to ban “conversion therapy” for LGBTQ youth, passed the 2020 Crown Act, which prevents discrimination related to a person’s hair texture or hairstyle, and published a Spanish version of its business guide, earning Covington a perfect score on the Municipal Equity Index from the Human Rights Campaign.
Covington targets four primary sectors for its economic development—micro-manufacturing, life and biosciences (Bexion Pharmaceuticals and Gravity Diagnostics are headquartered there), the tourism and hospitality industry, and office work, a growing sub-niche that includes many creative and remote businesses such as graphic design, video production, and commercial photography. Last year, the city provided $76,116 in incentives for small businesses. In addition to master leasing a woman-owned business accelerator and a facility for Northern Kentucky University’s entrepreneurship programs, Covington also pays for half of a small business’s monthly rent up to $500 for the first year, one of three incentive grants that have helped nearly 150 local businesses in the last eight years. “We want them focused on building their business and marketing their company, rather than trying to make rent,” West says. “We want to give them the best possible start that we can.”
The city is also committed to maximizing its infrastructure and tourism industry. When the IRS’s tax processing facility closed in 2016 due to its obsolescence, it presented Covington with a 23-acre hole in the heart of its riverfront district. To fill that hole and further drive the area’s transformation, the city broke ground on a redevelopment project that’s being called the “$5 billion mile” by West. The project, funded by a combination of private in- vestment, a $16.3 million federal RAISE grant, and $100 million from the city of Covington, will provide space for university law and medical schools, in addition to single-family homes and apartments, retail, and restaurants, “an entire neighborhood with the typical diversity you’d find in any one of our neighborhoods and businesses,” West says.
Image Source: City of Woodinville, Washington
It’s just another spot that should attract tourists who typically come to Covington to experience the B-Line, a stretch of bourbon-centric restaurants, bars, and distilleries that make up the Kentucky Bourbon Trail. “To get to where we are, we really had to nurture a lot of local business owners,” West says. “We had a lot of people who are very committed to the city who worked very, very hard and others have been able to build off of that momentum.”
While Covington has the benefit of being in the heart of bourbon country, Woodinville, a suburb of Seattle, has quickly become a popular wine tasting mecca. As Mayor Mike Millman attests, the “Napa of the Northwest” is the primary location of Chateau Ste. Michelle, one of the most prominent winemakers in the country, which has helped nourish more than 130 surrounding wineries within the city. “They all come together and help each other and collaborate on a level I’ve never seen,” Millman says. “They certainly compete, but they will bounce ideas off each other, they have meetings, and some of it is because of tourism.”
While much of Woodinville consists of woodlands and agrarian land, the city still has plots of industrial parks and strip malls from its previous manufacturing days. Many winemakers took advantage of these neglected areas and moved into the “Warehouse district” because of its affordable prices, and have since opened tasting rooms that are part of tour packages. To accommodate for its more vibrant tourism industry and growing population (14,000 and expected to increase by 38 percent over the next two decades), the city has begun development plans to keep people in the city for more than just a day. According to Millman, Woodinville is planning development of new hotels, building another concert venue in its main park, and utilizing a $5 million RAISE grant from the federal government to build a sustainable bike and pedestrian path that stripes through the center of the city and connects the Seattle suburbs, providing more commuting opportunities.
With its population influx and growing brand as a tourist destination, Woodinville’s city government has spent recent years aiming to transform its downtown district with a variety of housing, commercial spaces, and other retail amenities. A large part of this plan has rested on razing and replacing old business park buildings along with portions of Molbak’s Garden & Home (a 20-acre garden center site) and long-time open lots that have already created more sidewalks and parking, and facilitated road infrastructure repairs. It’s a crucial plan, considering Woodinville’s general fund brings in more than half of its revenue from retail sales tax, over 20 percent more than its neighboring towns.
However, while growth is positive, some city officials, according to The Urbanist, are wary of Woodinville losing its small town character in the process. There are concerns about the city’s concentration of growth, specifically “in a dense downtown with tourist-attracting businesses.”
Additionally, Woodinville, located in the Sammamish Valley, boasts a verdant tree canopy, something Millman is adamant about preserving—the city requires new development to replace any trees that get cut down. “It’s a little different vibe and feel and we’re proud of that and we’re trying to maintain that as best we can,” Millman says. “Development and growth putting strains on that (vibe) is a challenge, but I think we’re doing a really good job.”
Image Source: City of Woodinville, Washington
Another mainstay on Money Magazine’s Best Places to Live, Franklin has also experienced tremendous growth in recent years (the population has increased from 84,000 to 90,000 since 2020). The city is a hub for major companies but has maintained its diverse small business population and historic downtown.
A lot of that foundation has come through Williamson County’s investment in education and the Franklin school district, which has earned numerous awards over the last several years. According to Franklin city administrator Eric Stuckey, the county has invested about two-thirds of its budget “into [school] facilities, developing the right [school] administration and staffing plans, and operational needs,” he says.
“It pays off in many ways.”
One of those ways is in Franklin’s place as a hotspot for national company head- quarters and offices, attracting Mars Petcare, Mitsubishi, Nissan, CKE Restaurant Holdings, as well as a variety of healthcare systems. Stuckey credits this corporate confluence to the city’s attractive school offerings and family-based community, which cultivate conversation between business leaders as they consider expansion or relocation. “It used to be that people followed jobs. Now, jobs follow people,” Stuckey says. “The quality of life, the livability and amenities in a community, the public education, those really drive the attracting, retaining, and building of your population—and if the talent is there, the businesses will follow.”
Despite Nashville being a 20 minute drive north, Franklin has forged its own cultural identity, too. In September, the city will host the 10th Pilgrimage Music and Cultural Festival, a weekend-long celebration headlined by well-known artists that provides economic impact by garnering sponsorship opportunities and donating proceeds to local nonprofits. “It has continued to grow and been steady in providing a great event that has invested back in the community,” Stuckey says. The city also has a year-round tourist attraction: The Factory, a historic building that was transformed in 2012 into a bustling shopping, dining, and events space with a focus on arts and entertainment. In many ways, it channels Franklin’s ethos.
“It preserves that area, but also makes it something that connects to the needs of today and beyond,” Stuckey says. “We can use our historic resources to provide something that’s relevant and is a cool space that you can’t recreate.”
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