Eastern Kentucky downtowns have revitalized, due in part to natives coming home to support small communities

Dusk falls in Hazard (Photo by Ryan C. Hermens, Lexington Herald-Leader)

Philanthropic and government help, and "can-do" attitudes of residents and business owners, have helped some rural Eastern Kentucky towns rebound from years of decline, reports Bill Estep of the Lexington Herald-Leader. Hazard, pop. 5,100, is one of those places. "On a short walk through downtown Hazard, you can buy a T-shirt celebrating Appalachia and a three-wick candle, browse at a book store and a record store, get a latte at a coffee shop. . . The Eastern Kentucky city has seen a resurgence of downtown retail businesses in the last four years. . . . more than 40 businesses have opened on or near Main Street. Nearly all are still afloat, outlasting the worst health pandemic in a century and devastating flooding in the region last summer."

Hazard's flourishing business community has been a long-term project that addressed population and retail losses as coal jobs declined. "Local leaders and business stakeholders set out several years ago to try to reverse that. . . . The city created an incentive program — initially with money from the Foundation for Appalachian Kentucky, then with taxpayer money — to provide grants of up to $5,000 for signs, store fixtures and other needs," Estep writes. "The city and county pooled resources to hire Bailey Richards as downtown coordinator, a position that hadn't existed before." Mandi Fugate Sheffel, who owns the Read Spotted Newt bookstore, told Estep, "I think her position is probably one of the most important parts of what's happening downtown. That was some action put into what they were trying to do."

To the south, "Pineville, Kentucky, was an early leader in using incentives to boost downtown development, including grants and a five-year moratorium on an increase in the property tax even if the value of a renovated property goes up," Estep notes. "Even though Bell County lost population between 2010 and 2020, the downtown area went from 80% vacant eight years ago to 100% occupancy by February 2020, said Jacob Roan, director of the city's Main Street program."

Up the Cumberland River in Harlan, pop. 1,220, a downtown brewery opened, "The Harlan Beer Co., a taproom and restaurant located in a renovated century-old building," Estep reports. "Valerie Long Hinkle has seen the same thing at her business, Hill & Holler, which sells T-shirts and other gifts with an Appalachian theme in Cumberland, a town of about 1,900 people in Harlan County. Hinkle studied architecture at the University of Kentucky and stayed afterward, living in Lexington for 13 years before moving home to Harlan County in 2015 to be closer to family."

Estep adds, "Hinkle said there was once an idea in Appalachia that young people had to leave to be successful, but that is changing." Hinkle told Estep, "I think people are hungry to support their local community. . . They are hungry to be able to shop in downtown. . . . I think that Appalachia is on the cusp of something big."