In late 2019, a band of 15 very accomplished professionals in the field of downtown revitalization came together to create The ADRR. Previously, there was no real professional journal for people active in the field. That situation, for decades, was strongly lamented by many of the its best doers and thinkers. To remedy that situation, The ADRR will be a free online publication, appearing four times each year. The target date for the debut issue is now set for the June 1-15, 2020 timeframe, with the second issue aimed for the Sept 7-14, 2020 timeframe. The next two issues will appear in December of 2020 and March of 2021.
The Content We Are Aiming For.
Only manuscripts about major downtown needs, issues and trends will be considered for publication. They will be thought pieces and not just reports about a downtown’s programs and policies that its leaders want to brag about. Articles must have broad salience and their recommendations broad applicability within the field. The “voice” of the ADRR will be anti-puff, and very factual, evidence driven, though not dully academic. Discussions of problems and failures will be considered as relevant as success stories if, as so often is the case, something substantial can be learned from them. The ADRR will not avoid controversial issues. Nor will The ADRR be a proponent of any one “school” for doing downtown revitalization, but a welcoming home for well thought out and ably written articles from all of them.Also, the focus of the ADRR will not be overwhelmingly on our largest most urban downtowns. It also will provide a lot of content and relevant assistance to those in our small and medium sized communities, be they in suburban or rural areas.
How to Subscribe to the ADRR:
Visit the ADRR’s website at www.theadrr.com where on the home page people can sign up to become subscribers. This enrollment places the subscriber on a MailChimp mailing list so that they can receive New Issue Alerts (see below).
How Will It Be Distributed?
New Issue Alerts, containing the Tables of Contents of issues and links to their downloadable pdfs of articles are sent to “readers” via a MailChimp email blast and posted to the ADRR’s website. Each issue’s pdf files initially will be stored in a folder in ND Milder’s Dropbox account from which they will be downloaded. Subscribers can download only those articles they what to read and whenever they want to read them.
Who Will Write the Articles?
Hopefully, they will be from people in a broad range of occupations – downtown managers and leaders, municipal officials, academics, developers, landlords, businesspeople, consultants, etc. -- who have significant downtown related knowledge and experience. Curated Articles and Wildflowers. Initially, the ADRR will solicit articles to prime the content pump. Once the ADRR is up and running some articles will continue to be solicited on topics deemed a high priority by the editorial board members. Each board member can select a topic to curate an article on and seek the author(s) to write them. However, there still will be a continual traditional general call for submissions (wildflowers) focused on subjects selected by their authors. All submissions, curated or wildflower, must demonstrate sufficient merit to warrant publication in the ADRR. All submitted articles will be reviewed by board members.
Publication Schedule:
Published four times per year, with a minimum of 5 articles in each issue. Given that this is an online publication, from a production perspective, the number and length of the articles is not a particular problem. However, from an editorial and content management perspective, the number of articles and their length can quickly become burdensome. Being a startup, the ADRR is intended to be a lean and mean operation, based totally on the availability of free online resources and the time, energy and elan contributed by its authors, advisory and editorial board members, and editor.