Main street Wanganui where I live almost died some years ago when a large mall opened up at the far end of town. Some local businesses and the city decided to revamp our mainstreet with new sidewalks,raised crosswalks,trees and rebuilt shop frontages and now we have a really beautifull mainstreet with new cafes etc.
The result being the most people prefere to mainstreet shops owned by mostly locals and not the mall who's shops are big multi nationals.
Check out this
http://www.mainstreetwanganui.co.nz...=2&year=2010&month=02&day=10
