Main Street is a generic phrase used to denote a primary retail street of a village, town, or small town in many parts of the world. This is typically the focal point for stores and retailers in business district districts, and is most commonly used in reference to retailing and socializing.
The term is commonly used in Ireland, Scotland, the United States, Canada, and more rarely in Australia and New Zealand. In most of England the general description is High Street although "Fore Street" or "Front Street" is commonplace in some areas. In Jamaica the term is Front Street.
In many places, the street names for such roads are actually "Main Street", although even where it is not the term "Main Street" is still used to describe the main street of the central business district. The "Main Street of America" ​​brand was used to promote US Route 66 in its heyday.
Video Main Street
Use of American culture
In a general sense, the term "Main Street" refers to the place of traditional values. The social realist from 1870 to 1930 used the name as a stifling conformity symbol. Sherwood Anderson, for example, writes Winesburg, Ohio: A Group of Ohio Small Town Life Stories in 1919. The 1920s best-selling novel Main Street is a minor critique of urban life, by American writers Sinclair Lewis. The local is "Gopher Prairie," served as an 'ideal type' of the Midwestern city, and heroine Carol Kennicott is a more courteous, 'ideal-typical' Progressive.
In the media of North America decades later, "Main Street" represented the interests of everyday people and small business owners, unlike "Wall Street" (in the United States) or "Bay Street", representing the interests of large national companies. Thus, in the 1949 adaptation film of On The Town , the song "When You Walk Down Main Street With Me" refers to the values ​​of small towns and social lives. Main Street Republican, for example, sees themselves as supporting the values ​​as opposed to urban or "Wall Street" tendencies.
"Main Street" is part of the iconography of American life. For example, the Army and Air Force Exchange Service, clothing that operates PX and BX stores at military bases, selects the name "Main Street USA" for its food court.
Main Street was a popular term during the economic crisis of 2008 and 2009: the proposed bailout of the US financial system, the 2008 US presidential campaign, and the debate. One of the most reviewed books is Bailout: An Inside Account of How Washington's Abandoned Main Street When Saving Wall Street (2012) by Neil Barofsky.
In small towns across the United States, Main Street is not only the main road that crosses the city but also the place of street life, where the townspeople gather and watch the annual parade pass. The term slang popularized in the early 20th century, the "main obstacle", was also used to refer to the main street of the city.
Walt Disney
Two Walt Disney Company entertainment parks, Disneyland in Anaheim, California, and Magic Kingdom at Walt Disney World Resort near Orlando, Florida, both have "Main Street, USA." part immediately in front of them. These areas, designed to look like the main street of a small town, a home gift shop, a restaurant and various services, together with a park office on the second floor. While this "streets" architecture seems to be the turn of the 20th century, it is actually a decorative counterfeit on industrial-style buildings. Main Street, USA is also present at Disneyland Paris and Hong Kong Disneyland. In Tokyo Disneyland this area is named "World Bazaar," but it has the same look as Main Street, although it is placed under a decorative glass roof for protection from unpredictable Japanese weather.
Disney's design mimics the visual elements of a small American town seen in movies by Frank Capra and others, in a deliberate attempt to capture the iconic symbolism of a small American town. Disney wants to instill the values ​​and memories associated with life in small towns into an entertainment experience for tourists.
Preservation and Main Street
Main Street Inc. is the name of a community revitalization program initiated by the National Trust for Historic Preservation in the late 1970s. The essence of the Main Street philosophy is the preservation of a historic built environment by engaging in historic preservation. Main Street focuses on a holistic approach to revitalization based on a 4-point approach to design, promotion, economic restructuring, and organization. Originally targeted at a traditional small town center, the program has been expanded to include cities of various sizes, including district districts in some major urban centers.
In many communities, merchant associations or business-enhanced districts serve promotional roles on behalf of merchants on Main Street in downtown. Individual city governments may also be involved in a revitalization or historic preservation effort to support the city center, whether to make the community look more attractive to tourism or to stop the out-of-town trade flows to the suburbs with shopping malls and large box cutters.
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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