Main Street Radically Rural sessions to explore green ways to beat the heat

Building more resilient communities, with an eye on cooling and green infrastructure to combat a rising heat index, will be a core focus of the Main Street track at this year's Radically Rural summit in October. "Heat is a big challenge with climate change that has really broad public health implications," says Chloe Gross, a planner with the Southwest Region Planning Commission in Keene and co-leader of the Main Street track. "We want to get the thought flowing and say, 'It might be worth looking at your rural Main Street. Is there a green infrastructure? Could there be more?'" The track will address the issue during two subsessions on Wednesday, Oct. 7, which, in addition to discussing cooling and green infrastructure, will also look at the broader Main Street track focus: how rural community members can build commercial and economic development in their small towns. Gross says she and track co-leader Graci Zeiger, an education program manager with the Iowa Public Employees' Retirement System, decided to make combating rising heat a focus for this track in order to draw attention to an increasingly pressing issue. "If you're not living in the desert … it might not be on the forefront of your mind," she says, adding that it's one of the biggest issues facing small towns today, regardless of whether they're desert or forest-based. Topics like municipal funding and how to use existing housing stock, especially in denser communities, are other issues currently facing many rural communities. "Overall," Gross says, "it's just about thinking, 'How does this all work together, and what's the throughline of heat resiliency?''" The focus of this year's Main Street track pairs well with the summit's larger theme of reckoning and reorienting, Gross says. "We're reckoning with this new reality: that heat is something we're going to have to deal with. It is here, and it will continue to be here with human-caused climate change," she says, adding that it impacts many people in many different situations across rural communities. The reorienting aspect comes in with the question of how to approach the heat issue now. "This wasn't really a challenge in the past," Gross says. "How do we help make our communities more resilient and safer for overall community well-being? And how can we bring in many different players, such as municipalities, residents and small businesses? We really want to pull everyone together, think about where we are, and chart a path looking at how we can adapt to this new challenge for many different communities." Subsessions Those questions will be addressed during two subsessions Oct. 7, both of which will be held at the Hannah Grimes Center at 25 Roxbury St. The first, called "From Streetscapes to Foodscapes: Building Healthier, More Resilient Communities," starts at 9 a.m. and will be a collaborative session with both the Main Street and the Land and Community tracks. The session involves a discussion on climate change and its effects on rural communities, as well as a look at what kinds of infrastructure either intensify or help combat the effects. Participants will also go on a guided tour around local areas to see how green infrastructure can transform public spaces for the better. For the Main Street track, this will be a chance to see the specific infrastructure that can be beneficial to reducing the effects of heat on small communities. "We'll look at how green infrastructure, and infrastructure in general, can contribute to cooling effects," Gross says. After lunch, the Main Street track will meet up with the Entrepreneurship track for a session at 1 p.m. called "Beyond the Shop Door: Mutual Aid on Main Street." The subsession will look at the benefits of local meeting spaces (like cafes, shops and storefronts) and how they can promote connection among community members. Discussions will revolve around how local businesses can support community members, especially in times of climate challenges. Once again, this will be paired with a field trip to Keene, so participants can get a firsthand look at those ideas in action. Gross says that this subsession will continue with the Main Street track's larger theme of reducing the impact of heat by looking at how communities and local businesses can help provide cooling resources in times of heat crises. "We're hoping people will come away from these sessions with an idea of how their local businesses and community members and residents can all come together to create Main Street spaces that are more conducive to cooling and better supporting people when it gets really hot using green infrastructure," she says. Visit radicallyrural.org for more information or to register for the summit.