Deb Brown and SaveYour.Town highlight five opportunities for local residents and businesses to help create change and share a new mindset on how to think about community.

“Our communities could use more empathy. Doing business with each other can help us build empathy.” Becky McCray and SaveYour.Town see potential in visiting the corner store.

You may never reflect on the question of why your city centre is important, but there is reason to think about it. You are involved in influencing which city centre you want in the future, through your choices. What is it worth to you – for business, for the environment, for social sustainability, for the visitor, for the investor, and the tax revenues? How is your city centre controlled? Who decides whether it should be nice or ugly and boring?

“The city center is in fact a result of all the changes throughout history and will survive through adaptation. We decide together what it will look like and what role it will play in the future, by engaging in collaboration, harnessing our consumer power, and influencing politically.” Björn Bergman, CEO at The Swedish Association of Towns and Cities, asks an essential question: What kind of city center - and future - do we want?

“The most common reply was that people intended to dine out in the city, the second was to meet with friends/family, and the third was to have a drink with friends, while the fourth most common reply was to shop for clothes/accessories. While these uses of the city are not unprecedented what they showed was the increasing association of the city centre with socialising and meeting. The thing that most people missed when in lockdown was human interaction.” Richard Guiney, CEO of DublinTown, reflects on the importance of trust and meetings in community building post-Covid.

In Bruges, Belgium, investments in the physical development of the city are followed by investments in social infrastructure and new partnerships. Ilse Snick tells the story as it happens.

Meet Eric Thirion who runs a Belgian delicatessen in Copenhagen. Like so many local shops all over the world, it fills out an essential role as a community anchor.

Does your city encourage independent retailers and shop owners with a community spirit?

Empty shops are usually bad news. But in Norway a research project shows that new potential is waiting to be unfolded for those who dare to do something else than just put up a “For Rent”-sign.

Digitization has long been a buzz word for retailers. According to Doug Stephens, one of the world’s foremost retail futurists, many owners of (physical) shops seem to believe that digitization is what will save them in the future and they see (almost any kind of) digital development as a ‘strategic investment’. But the fact is, says Stephens, “that no one needs a digital experience at all”.

Why are some shops and streets more alive than others? Can a book shop be about love and community? What role can a school play in a shopping street? How can imagination play a bigger role?

If we were aware of the true cost, value, and (possible) beauty of the stuff we buy, would our towns, cities, and world look any different?