main street research project - Academic Technology Center ...

elevant information for the project. Reaching out to more than just Main Street business owners
allowed the team to gain an overall understanding of the relationship between the City and its
counterparts. Additionally, questions branched into their personal opinions of the positive and
negative aspects of being located on U.S. Route 20, as well as any marketing strategy they have
used to help drive business. The surveys were distributed in mid-October and collected through
November. The on-site interviews were conducted to receive a face-to-face interaction between
the research team and its Waltham counterparts, encountering both helpful and unwilling
participants along the way. Many individuals were willing to assist the team further in the
exploration and research process. Appendix A contains a copy of the business survey.
CONSUMER SURVEY
The purpose of the consumer survey was to gather information from Main Street‘s current and
potential customers. Questions ranged from the topic of a free shuttle, what they would like to
see on the street, what draws them to the area, and what was their frequency of visitation. In
order to reach a variety of individuals to compare perceptions, a campus wide survey was
distributed at Bentley University. A total of 348 surveys were collected online. Consumer
responses reflected many of the teams concerns during the research process. Appendix B
contains a copy of the college survey.
INTERVIEWS
Interviews were conducted with several City officials and community members, ranging from
the mayor to participants in various downtown Waltham organizations to business owners and
city councilors. Landlords, realtors, and a handful of business owners were interviewed as well.
The participants were asked questions with regard to the three key areas of focus, as well as
business-to-city relations within Waltham. As the team quickly discovered, the relationship
between individuals in the downtown greatly affect the overall business climate and well-being
of the Main Street scape. The purposes of the interviews were to gain insight from the multiple
levels of the Waltham city hierarchy, seeing each of their perspectives and how they compared.
These interviews gave the team more detailed responses and ideas than the survey could, with
the ability to go more in-depth with pressing issues the City faces.
OBSERVATIONS AND OTHER FIELD RESEARCH
To make accurate and effective recommendations to the city, it was imperative that the team
become familiarized with the entirety of Main Street. Observing specific elements of the street as
well as viewing photographs allowed the team to analyze the aesthetics of the street more
closely. Interviews with the City officials, landlords, business owners, and realtors revealed
insights for improvements on the street itself as well as on the interactions among different
constituencies. The street was also catalogued in order to analyze the current business mix,
recording the name and type of each business. Through observation of Main Street and other
related research, information was gathered on the current status of the area to develop
recommendations for areas of potential growth.
10