There is a baker.  There is a salon or two or three; and a barber.  There are restaurants.  There is a gift shop and a consignment shop.  There is a bank or two or three.  There is a hospital and a marina and a florist and a post office.   There are doctors and attorneys and architects and engineers and insurance agents.  There is a funeral home and there are flooring specialists.  There are appliances and a pharmacy.  There is a gas station or two.  According to the 2006 Wareham Village Strategy prepared by Cecil Group and FXM Associates and sourced from Claritas Inc.,  in 2006, there were approximately 210 businesses on Main Street; 37 of which were retail businesses.   While this number has ebbed and flowed a bit since that report, the larger issues facing Wareham's downtown remain the same.  Based on my personal and professional experience, Main Street, does not necessarily suffer from a diversity of businesses, nor, contrary to popular belief, does it suffer from a shortage of parking.  The same report counted 842 parking spaces in downtown.   I believe most would agree that the lack of vitality and vibrancy that is seen and experienced in other communities is missing; however, we must also acknowledge that by no stretch of the imagination is our Main Street different from many small communities throughout the United States.  
Main Street would benefit from more businesses, more amenities, more residents, and more events; having participated in Main Street in various roles, I know this tends to translate to a need for more private and public funding, more customers and more volunteers.   What Main Street lacks in physical vibrancy it makes up for tenfold in natural vibrancy; this paradigm has perplexed me since having volunteered my time in Swan Festivals.  There are many individuals, both past and present, who have devoted many hours to improving the quality of Main Street's character, and I commend all of their efforts. The work, however, is never done.  The need for Main Street to redefine itself is now more imperative than ever, and for those who have contributed in some manner, they realize how much time and effort it entails.  It is an evolutionary process that involves cooperation, tolerance, and perseverance.  It is a process that involves one storefront at a time, supporting the individual business and  giving your time to attend events, or volunteer at events, hosted by non-profit organizations such as the Wareham Village Association and the Wareham Historical Society.
Please indulge me and consider a question in your mind before continuing.      Do you stop at a particular destination(s) on Main Street or do you use it as a means to get from one point to another?  This has the makings of a chicken and an egg dilemma; some might say, I don't stop because there is nothing to make me stop, while others might say I don't have a Main Street business because no one stops.
This discussion accepts the premise that big box stores (formula based) are not going to disappear from our society and culture overnight; however, the discussion embraces the down-shift I have seen in the size and design of stores as well as the down-shift I have seen in the size and design of homes.    Having experience in designing retail & hospitality environments, I attend various seminars on the subject throughout the year.  While some of the seminars focus on the technical aspects of creating such successful environments, others focus on aesthetic solutions that are simple, cost effective, and often overlooked; for instance, a storefront that is lit at night promotes the store's goods, whether it is open or closed.  In addition to promoting its own goods, it creates an inviting ambience to the overall streetscape.   To cite a local example, I will select the Gallery Consignment Shoppe at 241 Main Street.  The shop's proprietress has a storefront that utilizes a thematic selection of goods and lighting; you may have already noticed this while driving on Main Street.  From a personal shopping perspective, I must admit that her storefront has lured me into the store on occasions when I have been on Main Street solely for business purposes.  From a technical perspective, a changing lit storefront is an essential component of a more vibrant Main Street.
I am an urbanist at heart and not only enjoy retail experiences such as the one I just described, but thoroughly enjoy the larger realm of public spaces such as parks, sidewalks and streets, as an extension of retail environments.  There are public spaces on Main Street with tremendous potential.  To cite another local example, I will select a public space created by two adjacent buildings, and utilized by Minerva Pizza at 257 Main Street.  In fair weather, this space is used as outdoor seating for the pizza parlor.  A simple wooden deck has been installed and it is adorned with café tables and occasionally a potted plant or two.  From a technical perspective, the wooden deck also provides handicapped accessibility to the pizza parlor and creates activity on Main Street.  A second, local and similar, example is in the neighboring village of Onset.  In the summertime, the space between the Post Office and the adjacent building is utilized by an open air market, Front Yard Gallery.  A simple enclosure has been created with a tent, a wooden fence and a gate.  I have thoroughly enjoyed watching its growth and development, admittedly, having been lured into the space on occasion while on errands.

Whether it is inside or outside of a building, we all contribute to the vitality and vibrancy of Main Street by supporting individual businesses and by supporting the organizations that promote our historic downtowns and waterfront uses.  Please take an active part.

Anthi Frangiadis is the founding principal of Archit8 Studio LLC, an architecture and planning firm in Wareham, and Drawing for a Cause, a community-giving campaign.  She is a longtime resident of Wareham.