Let’s start with a simple truth: Lake Street is an incredible place to be. From the unique small businesses and nonprofits to multicultural art and events to people of all different backgrounds, there is nowhere quite like it.

We know that Lake Street’s future is bright, and we are excited to continue supporting and advocating for this valuable community.

That’s why we developed our new, four-year strategic vision.

Over the past few years, we have solicited input from more than 250 Lake Street leaders who represent local businesses, nonprofits, partner organizations and local government. They gave us incredible ideas to shape our work in the coming years.

During this strategic planning process, we also updated our vision and mission. These changes were vital to showcasing our renewed belief in Lake Street and its future. 

We envision Lake Street as a vibrant, inclusive corridor with a mosaic of flourishing businesses and nonprofits, a diversity of cultures, and a spirit of innovation – a place where businesses, visitors, and residents feel a deep sense of belonging, ownership and pride.

Our mission as an organization is to foster economic vitality and amplify Lake Street’s vibrancy to create a thriving and livable commercial corridor.

To help accomplish this, we have set the following goals for the next four years:

1. Encourage investment on Lake Street. We’ll share Lake Street’s story with more government entities, foundations and corporate funders and work to unlock additional investments in the community. 

2. Promote safety and livability along the corridor. We’re working with the City of Minneapolis to help onboard their new safety program director and will develop an organization-specific safety and livability work plan.

3. Foster a welcoming cultural corridor known as a destination location to support businesses. We’ll continue to fund public art and marketing campaigns promoting Lake Street, plus find new ways to activate more public spaces with events, activities or art.

4. Offer a goal-oriented business support program that provides value to businesses. We’ll boost our business support program by listening to business owners to identify where gaps exist and work to fill them, either internally or by working with partner organizations.

These four goals complement and extend our core functions: celebrate, navigate, and advocate. Read our 2023 Annual Report to learn more about the work we do every day.

Thank you for being a vital part of Lake Street. We are excited for what the next four years will bring to our community. Keep an eye out for more new programs and initiatives designed to support you!