An anonymous reader left this plaintive cry on an old post here:
My Arizona small town is a mess. We are going to become a ghost town and/or absorbed into the County if we can’t generate revenue. The Town Council and Chamber are full of power plays, bickering and a Good Ol’ Boy attitude. We have no “quaintness” factor, no historical buildings, and not even a downtown center. Our business core consists of mixed-use buildings sprawled this way and that up and down the highway. However, we DO have a rich agricultural base that I’m positive can generate tourist income if approached correctly. I presented a proposal based on the “thematic approach” to tourism. My oral presentation was met with applause at the town meeting. But the Good Ol’ Boys still seem to favor big box stores and factories as the answer to our economic woes, and the Chamber does nothing but point tourists to the surrounding towns that supposedly have more to offer. Is there a way to circumvent a self-destructing Council and Chamber? Wheels spin around here, but nothing productive EVER gets done. I’m just a “lowly” female citizen with a good brain, a great plan and enthusiasm. Can anybody suggest how I can proceed when I’m up against the Good Ol’ Boys?
There are two ways to try to change a small town set in its ways: work with the existing system, or go around them.
I tend to favor going around them. Remember, every minute you spend worrying about the other people who won’t do what you want, is a minute you can’t spend doing something positive yourself. Other people do share your ideas. Find them, even if there are just two of you. Work together. Hold planning sessions where others can join in, like at the library. Be relentlessly positive in your planning, and tolerate no negativity. Take baby steps toward your goals. Build your own positive momentum, and more people will want to join you.
If you want to work with the system, learn everything you can about how it works. You have to know the system, to subvert the system. (I heard that from a smart person when I spoke in Washington.) Talk to everyone, whether they support your ideas or not. Be the connector and the center of information. Working within the system is all about networking.
What ideas can you help brainstorm to help this reader? How are you helping your town make positive changes?
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Becky started Small Biz Survival in 2006 to share rural business and community building stories and ideas with other small town business people. She and her husband have a small cattle ranch and are lifelong entrepreneurs. Becky is an international speaker on small business and rural topics.
I’m not helping my town, in general,with making positive changes. Anymore.
I tried, and was treated as if I was unwanted and unappreciated in a very public setting (and never cleared publicly or privately) I took that to mean they don’t want my help.
That was two years ago, and while I’m stronger a person as a result of the encounter and although it’s killing me inside not to be able to help when I have so much to offer – I’m choosing to grow my business outside of the confines of this particular town and focus on people who have said “Yeah, I need some of that magic” —
Alleycatcafe sent this comment by email:
Wow, this really got me churned up! I had no idea other small towns were going through the some of the same restrictions I have felt in mine. I have chosen, so far, to go around them. It is frustrating and people are giving up left and right, because they’ve tried for years to effect change only to be stopped by local government naysayers and limiting cost of permits and rules. I have a handful of merchants that are willing to at least help. With the help of one, ONE other merchant we spearheaded a project to get big hanging baskets of flowers to hang from lamp poles downtown…. they go up today actually! But to get from the idea to the actuality… murder! One idea for the person from Arizona… in the book “Animal, Vegetable, Miracle” Barbara Kingsolver talks about a trip to Italy. They have farms that have been converted to tourist destinations where they stay with the family and “help” on the farm. People from big cities are craving the simpler life and they will pay money to experience it. Also, the town might be able to be “marketed” as a sustainable town, start looking into sustainable agriculture, this is an important step for our country and with your agricultural area you could start to attract tourists to the farms with events like apple picking and squeezing or seed planting, idk just start investigating….. don’t give up. We are losing our small towns and farmers at a frightening pace… we need to stay and teach our children how to feed themselves, from the ground.
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Oh my God, this is yet another article I am going to have to share.
I feel the exact same way about my hometown. I’m not there anymore–I left it ages ago when I went to college. But I’ve always felt like I wanted to go back and change things for the better. But the corruption, the defeated mindset, is so so entrenched…I talked with my mother about relocating back there and she said I could start my business–in a town 40 miles away. Why would I do that?! But that is her mindset and the town’s as well.
I’m still young…I have a few ideas to go about this, but they are more on the subversion side. Ever since that talk with my Mom, I’ve been thinking about doing a survey about the town’s shopping habits (i.e., how much they buy things in town) and posting ads in the paper and out around town featuring the results. Something to highlight how much money/business is really being lost.
K, you might be able to find those shopping statistics. In Oklahoma, the Cooperative Extension service has a retail specialist who can help with retail capture stats.