In the hustle and bustle of today's society, having a central location where residents can shop, eat, cash a paycheck and get a book from the library is becoming a trend in local communities.

But it's not just about convenience. It's also about creating a sense of community.

"People are trying to go back to basics," said Audrey Guskey, a Duquesne University professor of marketing, who has studied consumer trends for the last 20 years.

"Everyone is so busy in life -- there's so many things to do -- that people just want to have that community, that place to go, somewhere like Cheers, where everyone knows your name."

Town centers or "Main Streets" that resemble the nostalgic scenes of Mayberry -- with mom-and-pop shops, inviting storefronts, a town hall, a bank, a library and cozy restaurants -- are making a comeback in the eastern suburbs.

"A trend like this is perfect for Pitts-burgh. Pittsburgh's like a small town, and people in this area like the feeling of being a part of a community," Guskey said.

"It's a fun trend. It's a great trend."

In Irwin, the idea has turned into the Main Street Program, which is part of the Irwin Project and is working to create an inviting center of activity for the borough.

About three years ago, a group formed and came up with the idea of establishing a town center, Irwin Main Street Project manager Donn Henderson said.

The effort includes working to fix the facades of many buildings in the borough's business district, along with streetscape improvements and finding funding, such as grants, to help the borough achieve its goals.

In his seventh year working as a manager of projects like the one in Irwin, Henderson said the biggest part of creating a town center often is building upon what already exists and working with what's there.

"The goal is to enhance what we already have and to make it better," he said.

"We have a lot of traditional retail and specialty shops, and the idea is tapping into that and making the town a better place where more people want to come out and be a part of it."

In Irwin, the plan is to revitalize and modernize the borough's business district.

"One thing we look at is how we get our small businesses to be competitive in the 21st century," Henderson said.

A big part of town-center development is the streetscape design, in which communities plan how they want the area to look, Henderson said.

"There's a lot that's involved. You have to decide what you want, if you want to bury the wires underground or if you want cars only parking on one side of the street, where you want to plant your trees.

"And all of this costs money, so you have to make a choice which ones you want the most for your community," he said.

Henderson and Guskey said that the focus on town centers is coming about because the younger generation is realizing the value of the traditional shopping district, compared with the indoor shopping malls they grew up in.

"Years ago, there were town centers, but then people moved to malls, and now, they're finally going back to that town-center-type area," Guskey said.

Communities aren't expected to do this alone. The Pennsylvania Downtown Center, a nonprofit organization based in Harrisburg, wants to help.

The center, according to its Web site, www.padowntown.org [1], works to create "vibrant downtowns that serve to enhance and encourage community spirit."

The site discusses ways to revitalize downtowns and the grants that are available.

As for Plum, there is no town center on which to build. The community is spread out over 29 square miles and has no central location to rehabilitate.

But Mayor Rich Hrivnak would like to see that change.

"There's a whole bunch of little communities, but there's no one place that people can come together. So I thought, 'How do we fix this?'"

Hrivnak's idea is to create a town center on open land in the borough's Renton neighborhood.

"I really think people are looking for that. They want that sense of community. They want that one place they can go and come together as a community," he said.

Hrivnak said the idea is only in the early stages but would help to create a sense of community for the borough, as well as "serve as an economic development catalyst to bring in revenue."

Plum's slogan, "Live, work and play here," is exactly what Hrivnak would like to see in a town center.

Hrivnak said he envisions a place with a borough hall, library, post office, gas station, small businesses and a coffee shop.

"It would be an environment where someone could come on a Saturday afternoon, park their car on Main Street, get a cup of coffee, pay their bills and stop and get a book from the library, all in one trip."

The borough has a couple of options for developing the land, and, Hrivnak said, he hopes a town center will be the result.

"I think of like Mayberry, with a town hall, an area with a quaint feel to it," he said.

"It would be a great opportunity to bring the community together."

Murrysville officials are looking at a similar project and are working through the concept and planning phase, chief administrator John Barrett said.

"The goal of the project is to make the area pedestrian-friendly," Barrett said.

The project will include new sidewalks and the planting of trees.

"If we make it more visually friendly, we're hoping the businesses will come," he said.

But the idea isn't new. Barrett said community officials have been discussing the idea for the last 11 to 12 years. The project recently became a reality through a $739,000 grant from PennDOT.

Town centers are getting attention now because of a recognition that mall development left many communities without a place for people to come together, Henderson said.

The redevelopment of traditional town centers or the creation of new ones will help restore that feeling, he said.

"It will help with re-identifying with your neighbors," he said.

Henderson said when there's one key place to go in a community, people begin to get to know each other on a deeper level and form a bond.

"Downtowns are the heart of your regions," Henderson said. "They make you who you are."