Bristol Borough won a national contest to revitalize Mill Street. Eight years later, business is booming.
The company also provided $500,000 to install a waterfront sound system for events, two information kiosks for the center of town, and poles and other infrastructure for display banners across Mill Street.“Deluxe gave the town and me a spotlight that drew attention,” said Velez, 44, a lifelong borough resident who started cutting hair in 1999.
Unlike many older communities that plunged into ambitious “urban renewal” programs when customers and residents started to head for the suburban frontier, Bristol Borough still has most of its pre-war commercial streetscapes. Downtown is intact, compact, and walkable, encompassing about 11 blocks, eight of them on Mill and Market Streets, and offering views of a scenic stretch of the river.