Revitalizing Downtown Biloxi

Caillavet Street is once again a popular place to be, and that’s thanks to one big attraction: baseball.

Travel a little further east and the heart of downtown Biloxi could use a little sprucing up…according to Mississippi’s Main Street Association coordinator, Stacy Pair. She says the first step is letting tourists know exactly where the area is located.

Biloxi’s Main Street district, was one of ten districts in the country chosen as the site for a *refresh* program. Kathy La Plante, senior program officer with the National Main Street Center based in New Hampshire, traveled to the coast to tour downtown Biloxi. Her first impression was similar to Pair’s. “The initial thoughts were, it’s hard to find…from the highway into the district itself. It’s not on a grid system like most communities are. There’s a few vacancies that people would like to deal with.”

After the tour, local leaders joined in on planning sessions to discuss concrete improvements to plan and execute. Better lighting, sidewalks, beautification and more businesses were all other immediate needs community leaders agree on. It’s now a matter of finding funding for these projects so downtown Biloxi will once again revive and thrive.