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Boston Main Streets Foundation The Boston Main Streets Foundation is committed to making Boston's neighborhood commercial districts thriving, vibrant centers of commerce and community through its support of the Boston Main Streets program. The Boston Main Streets Foundation seeks to develop long-term strategies to increase the economic power and resources of neighborhood commercial districts while pursuing initiatives that build knowledge and capacity for Main Streets programs and the businesses they serve. In 1995, Mayor Thomas M. Menino created Boston Main Streets, the first urban, multi-district Main Streets program in the nation. Boston Main Streets provides funding and technical assistance to 19 neighborhood-based Main Streets districts throughout the City of Boston. The Boston Main Streets program focuses its effort on providing merchants and community residents with the tools for their historic commercial districts to compete in today's market. The Main Streets program helps the local districts capitalize on their unique cultural and historical assets while focusing on the community's economic development needs. The Boston Main Streets program has served as a national model to urban areas seeking to revitalize neighborhood commercial districts including Baltimore, Washington, D.C., Milwaukee, Detroit and New Orleans.