{"id":149038,"date":"2026-03-26T13:03:09","date_gmt":"2026-03-26T13:03:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/149038\/"},"modified":"2026-03-26T13:03:09","modified_gmt":"2026-03-26T13:03:09","slug":"huge-source-of-community-pride-bethlehems-main-street-nominated-for-best-in-america-for-2nd-time-by-usa-today-bethelehm-area","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/149038\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Huge source of community pride’: Bethlehem’s Main Street nominated for best in America for 2nd time by USA Today | Bethelehm Area"},"content":{"rendered":"

BETHLEHEM, Pa. – The home of Historic Hotel Bethlehem, Musikfest, and many businesses is getting national attention.<\/p>\n

USA Today nominated Bethlehem’s Main Street as the best in America for the second time.<\/p>\n

People have until April 6 to vote.<\/a> People can vote every day on every device.<\/p>\n

Salem, Massachusetts and Lake Placid, New York are among the other nominees.<\/p>\n

Main Street won the special recognition last year.<\/p>\n

What makes\u00a0Main Street so special? Historic Hotel Bethlehem General Manager Kelly Ronalds said she thinks it is the blend of restaurants and boutique shops.<\/p>\n

“You can find anything for anyone right here on Main Street,” she said.<\/p>\n

Ronalds said a new international marketing campaign was launched promoting\u00a0Bethlehem’s Main Street as an all year-round destination, even though it can be typically seen as a Christmas destination.<\/p>\n

In addition to shops, Main Street also has a UNESCO World Heritage Site: The Brethren’s House at Moravian University.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Rachael Bell, HBMS Manager of Visitor Experience, at Shrop Dry Goods, said the city saw an uptick in visitation this past year due to it being in the\u00a0USA Today contest.<\/p>\n

Evelyn Caron, Assistant Manager with the Downtown Bethlehem Association, said Main Street being in the contest is a “huge source of community pride,” and it gives small local businesses the recognition they deserve.<\/p>\n

Caron said Bethlehem abides by the “Live Work, Play” motto, meaning you don’t just come once; you want to return and have a family or start a business in the city.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"BETHLEHEM, Pa. – The home of Historic Hotel Bethlehem, Musikfest, and many businesses is getting national attention. USA…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":149039,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[214,153,155,154,1391,60,3705],"class_list":["post-149038","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-bethlehem","tag-_homepage_top_stories","tag-bethlehem","tag-bethlehem-headlines","tag-bethlehem-news","tag-bethlehem-area","tag-business","tag-sunrise"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/149038","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=149038"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/149038\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/149039"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=149038"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=149038"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=149038"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}