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A body at rest will remain at rest, Newton tells us, unless acted upon by an external force.

Applying that law of motion to present-day Medford, it shouldn’t take an apple to the noggin to realize that the root causes for the inertia inherent in the city’s downtown core could use some shaking.

So it comes as welcome news that public and private efforts have begun to get the process moving.

Let’s start with the Downtown Medford Association, the civic group that announced last week that it had raised the $26,000 needed to fund a feasibility study on the possibility of turning downtown into an Economic Improvement District.

An EID essentially is a public-private partnership in which property and business owners work together financially for maintenance, development and promotion or projects without creating additional tax burdens.

“This accomplishment,” Annie Jenkins, the DMA’s interim executive director, said in an email to members “marks a significant step towards a collaborative vision of downtown Medford.”

The feasibility study funding, to which the Rogue Valley Times made a contribution, sets in motion one of a pair of initiatives designed to examine the issues relevant to revitalizing the economic heart of the city.

The other move in this direction came at the most recent meeting of the Medford City Council, which gave the green light to a market analysis into whether it was time to build a convention center.

At present, there’s no downtown site that could accommodate events for 500 or more. During their meeting, at which up to $60,000 was allocated for the market study, council members stressed that there have been repeated calls for meeting spaces as well as the construction of several new hotels that could house convention attendees.

City manager Brian Sjothun said that the convention center analysis would provide needed clarity.

“If the first phase comes back and says ‘no market for this,’ then it stops,” he said.

Council member Kevin Stine cast the lone vote opposing the market study, citing a similar attempt made in 2017 that determined that conditions did no merit the construction of a facility.

But other council members discounted that argument, saying that in the six years since the previous study, the needs of the city and the potential financial value of having such a site available merited taking another look.

Council member Nick Card, who with fellow council member Tim D’Alessandro broached the topic this time around, said that the potential for partnering with the Chamber of Medford & Jackson County and Travel Medford on such a project could inject needed stimulus into downtown.

“Doing this study doesn’t mean a conference center is going to be built,” he said. “… We need to explore and dive into new things.”

We agree, and while the money involved this time comes from the city instead of the 2017 state-funded analysis, the process is well-worth the cost of discovery — even if the answer only confirms the previous findings.

Sjothun and the City Council were united in their conviction that a convention center, were it to become a reality, would be a private venture.

“I don’t see us diving into or buying a facility, managing a facility or running a facility,” D’Alessandro said.

We’re on board with that opinion, as well. But there’s little downside to giving the effort a little nudge; just as getting the ball rolling on the DMA’s look into an Economic Improvement District can help lay the foundation for what Jenkins calls “shaping the future of our community.”

Now’s as good a time as any for establishing momentum, and rejecting inertia.