City News: Michelle Ahlborg, Federal Hill Commerce Association
From the City News interview series...
Six years ago, opening a business on Atwells Avenue was merely a dream for marketing and communications executive, Michelle Ahlborg, who is thrilled to finally be running her firm, A&M Productions, on the street she calls, “the heartbeat of Providence.” But more than just being a business owner, Michelle carries some passion and vision for the neighborhood business district that is also one of the most popular tourist destinations in the City.
A fresh new outlook combined with a true love for her neighborhood might just have won Michelle her newest role on Federal Hill, as the president of the Federal Hill Commerce Association. Even with a well-established popularity among natives and visitors alike, Federal Hill could just be getting a new sense of vitality and community under Michelle’s leadership.
She talks at-length with City News about current beautification projects underway and encourages anyone who visits or lives there to get out of their cars and start strolling along the Atwells Avenue strip. Based on her experiences, you might still find some of the best-kept secrets in town.
As the new president of the Federal Hill Commerce Association, what do you plan to bring to the table?
I have a tremendous amount of goals – both long-term and short-term. In the short term are some of the things you’re seeing out here now: working with the Mayor’s Office and the Neighborhood Markets Program, doing the tree-planting, and we’ll have a total of about eighty hanging baskets by next spring.
We plan on doing large planters on the sidewalks as well. We’re looking to do wrought-iron garbage cans. Those are the surface beautification things but there are many other things that are so much deeper.
Parking is a situation up here. Everyone’s very aware of it and I’m working with Bernard Lebby (City Traffic Engineer) on a site plan to make these streets work better and to better organize the parking situation.
I’m also hoping to work with the Mayor’s office to get compacting dumpsters so we can manage the garbage better. That’s a real important situation for us.
What I’d like to see happen in the long term is to work on storefronts, and to try to keep some kind of historical feel to a lot of the fronts of the buildings up here. This is not to say that we’d keep people from coming in or not coming in but rather to make suggestions on how the storefronts can stay the look of what Federal Hill has been known to be.
Another thing that is very, very important to me is creating a community up here – people working together, people working as a team to better Federal Hill as a whole, to not be individualized but to look at the whole area as an important piece of Providence that we all work together at to maintain what it is, and to keep its reputation as the heartbeat of the City. It’s the heartbeat of Providence and so we all need to put our hearts in to it to make sure that actually happens.
In your opinion, what are some of the facets of Federal Hill that make it so attractive to do business in, to live in, to work in, and to visit?
Federal Hill is an amazing, amazing area. It has such charm and character -- character in individuals as well as visual character. We know we have some of the best restaurants and that’s our thing, but we have some fabulous boutiques and shops and art galleries. I mean there’s so much in this little, tiny space!
It’s easy to access everything. Another goal of mine is to get people on foot up here. Until I really started walking Atwells Ave, I had no idea of these wonderful little hidden shops. What people don’t know is that they’re here unless they get out of their cars and walk.
I’ve always wanted to be in a neighborhood all my life, where you know everybody. You walk in and you can walk into any restaurant and you feel comfortable and you feel safe. As a female going in to any of these spaces by myself – that’s a huge asset to me.
I love the idea that you can buy some of the greatest cheeses in the world, and the best bread – I love on Sundays you can smell it everywhere and people are lining up and they’re sold out of bread by noontime. I mean there’s just so much –and now we’re starting to get music up here.
Where do you see the future of Federal Hill heading?
We really want to bring in more music and art to the district. We want to have it where on Saturdays you’ll see strolling musicians, or saxophone players in the park, artists painting – and then you’ll be able to buy their CDs or buy their artwork. And a lot of these young students or young musicians, these young artists are trying to make a name for themselves. That should be available up here on Saturdays or Sundays, and even during the week, having people up here constantly to decorate the streets with talent.
Again – generating people on foot. We want people to be able to come up here and stroll. There’s nothing better than having good food, hearing good music, and chatting with good people. There’s nothing better than that in a neighborhood and that’s what Federal Hill is but hopefully it’ll have a lot more of it!
Tell us about how the Neighborhood Markets Program worked for you.
The Neighborhood Markets Program is a god-send to us. We were granted $25,000 through them. The hanging baskets, the tree-planting, is all from that. There’s still money left over which we hope to use to buy new garbage cans and to continue to beautify the area. We, on our own, have hired people to water the plants. We’re getting community service people to clean up the streets and we’re buying them t-shirts that say Federal Hill Commerce Association. The Neighborhood Markets program money is so important to us that I couldn’t do any of the things I’m doing right now without it and I look forward to going back when the time comes to get another grant.
There are so many fabulous programs that come out of the Mayor’s Office and the City – people aren’t aware of it and I think it’s important that that message gets out there. That’s why I have that (Neighborhood Markets sticker) on my front door is because I want people to know that there are places for us to go. We can go and ask for help. City Hall can’t manage every little street corner, but you can do it as a neighborhood if you go and say, ‘if you can help get the funds, we’ll do that job.’ That’s all we care about and that’s what the Neighborhood Markets Program does for us.
Federal Hill is one of the more established neighborhood business districts in our City. We all know that there are other similar areas in Providence that are trying to achieve that same vitality in their neighborhoods as well. How does your work extend itself to other neighborhoods or business areas in Providence?
It comes down to one simple ingredient – power in numbers, people working together. If you can work together and really envision your area – whatever it is – as a whole, and not individuals. I think a downfall with many areas is people being too individualized and not seeing the big picture. It’s crucial because the way it works is when everyone works together, comes together – comes to meetings, participates, have an opinion.
It should never be one group running a whole area. It should be one group implementing the thoughts of many. That’s how it has to work. If you don’t form that early on as a foundation, you’re not going anywhere because you have people separated and butting heads and not making those decisions as a group. Once you get them to that point, and you get them on the same page so to speak, it’s endless.
When you have so many merchants in such a condensed area, it takes very little financially from everybody to really make a huge difference. It’s also extremely important for associations to have someone that’s really good at grant writing.
People working together in spite of the differences in business character or offering?
Right. People need to see past that. It’s an issue in every single business district because people are competitive and it’s good to be competitive. Competition is healthy but they have to say, ‘if the area does well, we all do well.’ That’s the key. I know that if we pack this place, we’re all going to be packed but if we start thinking that ‘it’s just about me,’ nobody wins.
Well let’s talk about you. Your business seems to be a unique one in this area, among rows of restaurants and boutiques, here you are, a film/video/interactive media company. Tell us what you do and how you think your business contributes to the character of Federal Hill.
It is an unusual business to have on Atwells Ave. But again, my heart of hearts is on Federal Hill and personally that’s why I want to be here.
A&M Productions has been a part of Federal Hill for five and a half years. We were on West Exchange and my dream was to be on Atwells Avenue. I was so excited when I came in here.
My business is an internal-external communication and marketing firm. If you have a message, we relay it to whatever form of media that is – whether it’s a television commercial, radio, through internet, through website, DVD sales, video – whatever they are – we take that message that you have and we distribute it to the audience that you’re looking to distribute it to.
Me being up here, for the association, the asset is that I’ve created a new website for the Federal Hill Commerce Association, which is going to be fabulous. We’re doing that pro bono, we’re just giving that to the association. And I think that I can help market Federal Hill so that’s what I’ll give back to the community is marketing the community as a gift to them, so to speak.
I hope that it really comes back ten-fold and that people really see a lot more of Federal Hill and how great it really is. If I can reach an audience that we haven’t touched before, I’d be real tickled about that.
People do tend to see Atwells Avenue as Federal Hill.
Exactly and it’s not. Federal Hill is a large area. Broadway is a part of us, even though most of the businesses are professional offices for doctors and lawyers but we’d like to see a few more shops over there. There are some great restaurants over there as well, but we really want to start encompassing Broadway to be more of a part of Federal Hill, even though it is Federal Hill, it sometimes gets separated and we want to pull it back in.
And another thing that is important to me is involving the residents. I want to see residents get involved. We’re trying to form garden clubs, like for people who want to come out and help plant. If we purchase the plants for them, would they come out and plant? And neighborhood clean-ups, getting the neighborhood to take pride in their areas, which many people do – we have phenomenal residents – but we want to see that spread a little more. We’re hoping that everyone kinda’ catches that and wants to really clean up the area. Stop the graffiti, stop the junk that goes on, and just make for Broadway to Atwells, which are the gateways to this area, to make the whole place just be gorgeous.
Even as the interview wraps up, Michelle’s enthusiasm for Federal Hill continues to spill out of her. This passion could just be a testament to how much you can really get done and see while you’re strolling along Atwells Avenue. To learn more, visit www.federalhillri.org.
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