The city of Dallas, Georgia has officially named Shannon Gordon the Main Street Manager. Gordon is responsible for the development, execution, and documentation of the City of Dallas Main Street Program. The Main Street Manager position is one of the several recent positions that has been added to the Business Development office to better serve the community. The city of Dallas started the process of becoming a designated Main Street in 2020 in hopes to become a designated affiliate program next year.
“Becoming the first Main Street Manager in the city of Dallas is an answered prayer and a dream. Since joining the world of Main Street in 2018, there hasn’t been anything that makes my heart beat like working with the community and the small businesses in downtowns. There is nothing like helping share the stories of the small businesses that make up the heart of the community – the historic downtown.”
Shannon mentions that working with downtown merchants is one of her favorite parts of the job. She plans to bring many shop-small incentives to downtown, including Downtown Dollars and downtown loyalty cards to encourage the community to shop local. The merchant meetings in Carrollton, known as First Fridays, was the best day of the month during her time in Carrollton, if you ask Shannon. She enjoyed the feeling of community during those merchant mornings and hopes to bring a similar program to Dallas.
She is most excited to help implement the LCI (Livable Centers Initiative) plan to areas located within the Main Street Program area, bringing a town green and an amphitheater to downtown Dallas. “The office of Business Development has a lot of events planned for the town green and amphitheater when they come to fruition.”
Shannon began her career in downtown development in 2018 in Carrollton as the Main Street Coordinator, then moved to the city of Villa Rica’s Main Street Department. Working for previous municipalities has equipped her with invaluable experience and a network of other downtown development professionals, therefore, she feels she has a lot to bring to the city of Dallas. Her most notable contributions were Market Days in Carrollton and the Community Farmers Market in Villa Rica, both of which brought the entire community together to support local businesses and vendors.
Dallas, Georgia is Shannon’s hometown and she is excited to give back to the community that gave her so many memories growing up.
The Georgia Main Street Program began in 1980 and is an initiative created to help build strong and vibrant downtowns.
