State of Manayunk Focuses on—Numerous—Main Street Positives

Hours before President Obama laid down the gauntlet to Congress, Jane Lipton addressed Main Street merchants, residents and interested parties on the state of Manayunk.

The 's executive director, Lipton laid out all that transpired in 2011—including all festivals, marketing initiatives, government actions and capital projects. To those versed in Manayunk, nothing individually new was shared, but rather the speech looked at the entire body of work put out by the MDC.

"We do more events and promotion than the largest districts in Philadelphia that have budgets three and four times our size... It's quite impressive and a lot of people work really hard on this," Lipton said to the crowd at .

Sure, Lipton focused on the positives and glossed over the quality of life issues neighbors near Main Street endure, but the night's intent was to remind people and reinforce the idea that Manayunk is a great place to live for many reasons.

In capital projects, Lipton highlighted: $53 million going to the Manayunk Performing Arts Center on Venice Island; $2.8 million on the bridge; and $3 million earmarked on the canal sluices, which will bring freshwater in.

Manayunk's big festivals drew attention from Lipton, but the smaller, everyday arts installation were noteworthy, as well, like mural arts projects throughout the district's building, walkways and streets—coming up, art on the bridge. In the summer, during the Arts Festival and beyond, an interactive water installation will come in 2012 to the Manayunk Canal.

"Who knows what's next? But we do know that we want to keep Manayunk a destination for public art," Lipton said.

Some other accomplishments Lipton spotlighted were:

• The establishment of the bike race committee with residents
• Numerous press conferences on flood conditions—giving factual status updates when most businesses were open
• Marketing Main Street through Manayunk.com, Twitter and Facebook pages, and the new Manayunk Magazine.
• An interactive welcome center display at the MDC office
• Lighting the "Welcome to Manayunk" sign in both directions 

For more information, visit Manayunk.com.