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The Main Street Center was formed in 1980 as a way of giving communities the tools to revitalize and bring business back to their downtowns. The Downtown Carlisle Association is part of the National Trust for Historic Preservation’s National Main Street Center.
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Will you please tell me a little about what you do as the Main Street Manager? He had read about it in the news in Waynesboro I heard about it in Harrisburg. And again, that was before I moved here, but I remember my dad telling me about. So you don’t know who they were, where they were from. And they have a right to as freedom of speech and everything like that. It was just that they were coming and they were going to stage this rally. BARONE: Of course, the Klan is all hooded so you don’t know who they are. Was it people from Carlisle who formed the Klan or was it members from outside? So you hear a lot of different things like that. Those kinds of problems in the down-you know in Carlisle. So then that perception is out there that there’s a race issue. Let’s have this Unity Rally at Dickinson and be proactive. They staged a hate rally in the square and the community staged a Unity Rally at Dickinson at the same time because they didn’t want people to go to… you know, like don’t feed the flames of the Klan. BARONE: In 2000 and… maybe 2002, somewhere in there. Also, there were a lot of things in the press from a lot of race issues. So I think the people who don’t come the whole way into town think that’s Carlisle. A lot of people see the exit for Carlisle and get there and are like, ‘oh this place is a dump.’ It’s all truck stops, you know?. Other perceptions are that Carlisle is the truck stops out at Middlesex. SIMON: Would you say that that’s the prevailing conception of Carlisle in Central Pennsylvania? In the region Carlisle just has the reputation of having a really cool downtown and being a really great place. You don’t see that in a lot of communities. You can really tell that this is a community that cares very deeply about its downtown. I think you can really see that when you look at now ten years ago the amount of money that has been reinvested into the downtown into rehabbing buildings and things like that. It has a reputation for having one of the nicest downtowns in our area. SIMON: Has it changed a lot over the years?
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BARONE: Yes, I grew up in Waynesboro, which is about an hour south of here, so I was familiar with this area in general. SIMON: Were you familiar with Carlisle before you moved here? BARONE: I have lived in Carlisle for two and a half years now. SIMON: How long have you lived in Carlisle? Barone, we discuss the state of business in downtown Carlisle, Carlisle’s current revitalization efforts, and the impact of traffic in downtown Carlisle. Her experience, insight and knowledge on issues that impact small business communities is remarkable. Karen Barone, Main Street Manager of the Downtown Carlisle Association, works to revitalize and improve business in downtown Carlisle. How America’s Truck Industry Helps and Hurts Carlisle