Slideshow: Clawson Joins Main Street Communities

Clawson business owners, city and county officials and other members of the community gathered Wednesday morning at to celebrate the city joining the Main Street Oakland County communities.

After being in the MSOC mentoring program for two years, Clawson is the 12th community added to the roster. The program helps develop downtown areas through consulting in various areas such as architecture and new businesses. 

"Main Street Oakland County is about helping our downtown communities succeed,” Oakland County Executive L. Brooks Patterson said. "Our Main Street staff will help Clawson connect to all of our Main Street technical services and introduce the community to Oakland County’s resources available through Economic Development & Community Affairs."

Since 2009, 10 new businesses have settled in downtown Clawson, the city installed a new streetcape and added on-street parking, streetlights, sidewalks and other features, a county press release said.

While in the mentoring program, downtown leaders learned about all the services provided through MSOC.

The event also included food tasting from the , , and other local restaurants. The band performed.

"It was terrific," said Joan Horton, director of the .

Other communities that are already a part of the MSOC program are Ferndale, Franklin, Holly, Highland, Lake Orion, Rochester, Farmington, Ortonville, Walled Lake, Oxford and Pontiac.