The Queen Theater Featured as a success story

Reinvestment Fund is a catalyst for change that integrates data, policy and strategic investments to improve the quality of life in neighborhoods throughout the region. 

The Reinvestment Fund website has just listed Downtown Wilmington's Queen Theater as one of their success stories.

Here's an excerpt:

Wilmington, Delaware is experiencing a period of change mirroring that of numerous cities across the country, where there is renewed interest in spending time downtown after the workday has ended. In Wilmington, revitalization efforts have focused on ten full blocks along Market Street, attempting to breathe new life into the city’s most historic commercial corridor.

The revival of the Queen Theater, in particular, is providing compelling reasons for Wilmington’s large working community to venture out to Market Street.

Click Here to see the full post and enjoy a great video featuring Hal Real, Gable Music Ventures, and Angela Sheik.

I am so proud of the great venues we have in Wilmington for all of our talented performers.

Marty

Black Jobs Matter

Black Jobs Matter is a one-act play that briefly examines the lives of unemployed blacks in the city of Wilmington, from three different perspectives.

The play will be performed on Thursday, February 25 at the Baby Grand on Market Street.

Click Here to RSVP for this FREE performance. 

Here's a description from the website:

#blackjobsmatter…a Wilmington experiment is a movement born out of the desire to employ the over 9000+ unemployed black men in the City of Wilmington. The movement is based on three key areas:

1. The solution to the crime problem is not more cops. It is jobs.

2. The solution to better academic performance of inner city kids is not new schools or different teachers, it is a safe nurturing home so our kids can do their homework and get parental encouragement. Jobs bring the father back into the home and create that atmosphere.

3. The solution to balancing the city's budget is to get people off of welfare and onto the tax-paying rolls. Jobs do that.

 The overall result of these things is to restore respect for parents and for themselves.

I hope you will take advantage of this opportunity to join our neighbors and friends in exploring this important issue.

Marty

Wilmington named one of top 5 cities for locating a coding school

It was just a couple of months ago that Wilmington was named a top city for startups, now we're in the top 5 list for locating a coding school.

Course Report is a site dedicated to offering reviews, insights, and analysis of coding bootcamps around the country. In a recent post, the site listed the five cities that should be considered for coding schools.

Here's an excerpt:

People wanting to learn to code in Wilmington can take advantage of coding bootcamp Zip Code Wilmington which opened its doors in September 2015. And national women’s coding organization Girl Develop It has a chapter in Wilmington, offering short courses and information sessions.

Click Here to read the full post.

I am proud of the great work being done here in Downtown Wilmington.

Marty

A look at Downtown Wilmington's rich history

Downtown Wilmington has a truly impressive history - and our friends at WITN, Channel 22, have put together a great feature on that history.

All of us at Downtown Visions were happy to work with WITN to put this together, I encourage everyone to take a few minutes to see the growth of our great community.

Click Here to watch the video

The next time you're walking through Downtown Wilmington, just think of the men, women, and families who have lived, celebrated, marched, mourned, worked, danced, played, and prayed here - and know that we're in the process of creating more history now.

Marty

New skills lead to changed lives in Wilmington

I have posted about Delaware's premier coding school - ZipCode Wilmington - before. 

All of us who have heard about this school have recognized the potential it has for improving lives and helping companies based in the region.

Now, thanks to a new series on WHYY Radio, we're hearing about how much of a difference this school is making.

Here's an excerpt:

There are about 70 coding boot camps in North America, according to the industry group Course Report. All operate on the same basic premise — that smart, motivated people can become employable developers with a little bit of intense training.

Zip Code Wilmington stands out, though, in a couple ways. First, it’s a nonprofit boot camp, one of just a small handful. Two, it’s one of the very few that teaches Java — a computer language more commonly used in existing businesses, not start-ups. And three, it’s in Wilmington, a city with a lot of big, old financial institutions that rely on languages like Java.

About 60 percent of coding boot camps are in New York, San Francisco, Chicago, Portland, or Seattle. The usual suspects. So when something like this pops up in a place like Wilmington, it comes with equal doses of symbolic heft and civic aspiration.

​I highly recommend clicking here to listen to the first report in the series about ZipCode Wilmington.

Downtown Wilmington is about improving business possibilities and improving lives.

Marty