As I write, there is a merchant mixer meeting at Preston’s, intended to discuss Harvest Homecoming. All week, I kept saying I’d go, but as the time drew near to pedal downtown, I couldn’t quite bring myself to do it.
The chat will be polite, bullet points will be constructive – and nothing lasting will come of it.
I simply don’t have time for that any more. It seems that in this age, Americans will scream with furious passion about issues far away from them, but when it comes to taking action and organizing at the grassroots, right here in New Albany, they’ll eternally refrain from principle out of the mistaken notion that standing for something genuinely meaningful might offend someone.
This isn’t about personalities. It’s about ideas and principles. We need to quit fretting over the individual's meek acceptance of traditional strategies that do not work, and begin examining classes of ideas that help us all.
As one doing business downtown, I continue to believe that merchants must be unified and seek to sell the notion of downtown as well as their own operations. I believe they must parlay unity into strength, and strength into lobbying for what can help downtown grow and prosper. A vigorous buy local movement might well offend Wal-Mart; nothing whatever is wrong with that. It might keep a few consumer dollars away from Amazon. There’s nothing wrong with that, either. More of money spent locally stays here, locally. It's a fact.
So: Why the hell does nothing seem to happen?
I can wait no longer for Develop New Albany, the Main Street organization, to take the lead. Action isn’t going to come from that direction, and that’s regrettable, as I was a part of it for so long, but so be it. What good are 3,000 e-mail addresses if they’re so seldom used? That weight needs to be brought to bear on things that matter, not just notifications of networking functions.
Polite chat over tea and crumpets likewise is unlikely to lead to concrete results. I actually respect the motives behind such gatherings, but when action is merited, more elbow grease is needed. Worst yet is the Caesar Syndrome, whereby we are urged to look to One Southern Indiana as the savior. It took 1Si itself to put paid to this errant thought through its candidate endorsements. Can anyone still objectively read 1Si’s policy goals, and observe within them anything that pertains to improving the lot of downtown New Albany businesses?
There’s no reason why a movement cannot coalesce around a coalition of the willing, however small in the beginning. We need just a few businesses, perhaps a dozen, to get this started. Work is being done already. We must market what each of us as businesses does best, how a grouping of quality in a compact downtown offers quality and variety to consumers, and that we are proud and capable not just as stand-alone businesses, but as consortium of downtown New Albany entities.
Downtown business old-think is poison. It is obsolete, so let’s begin new-think. Let me know if you’re interested in the preliminaries. Remember, this is guerrilla marketing undertaken by a coalition of the willing, those of us who seek to rupture a few discredited paradigms and make a wee bit of revolution in the process. It is not about political labels, but workable strategies to succeed.
Can we please get started? Pretty please?
This is disheartening when I see so many other cities revitalizing their downtown. When are people going to realize that this isn't the '50s? Independent downtown businesses can't rely on a model established years ago. Marketing and and business advertising is changing all over the country, and people can't live in the past.
ReplyDeleteBusiness owners don't need to get all crazy and tweet every five seconds about their newest arrival, but a little Twitter goes a long way. So many businesses are going to crash if they don't evolve to a degree, and I'd hate to see my hometown's downtown, a beautiful one at that, disappear. I don't live in New Albany any more, but I visit the NABC nearly every time I'm back in town and it heartens me to see the BSB doing well.
i've expressed to anyone who will listen my disappointment with the regard that HH has for local downtown businesses.
ReplyDeleteeveryone keeps telling me 'thanks for saying something' but, thats as far as it goes. and of course i get the the so young and naive bit all the time. grrrr
Roger,
ReplyDeleteI have to agree with you. Being downtown is a double-edged sword. As much as you want to be a part of something, over time you get worn down by the lack of action by the city, and the lies from HHC officials. The bottom line when it comes to harvest homecoming, unless you're a bar, the financial hardship created by this fiasco is huge.
I wasn't surprised when I received and email ( I believe you received the same) from IUS stating they had been asked by HHC officials to do a survey about the financial impact of HHC on local businesses. Myself and others replied back about how flawed the survey was because the questions assumed ONLY a positive financial impact.
I'm sure the survey will still be used regardless of how few will even respond to such a biased form.
I wanted to attend the meeting as well, not so much for myself but for our new neighbors that were harassed by vendors and HHC officials. These meeting have taken place for a couple years now, in hopes of improving the relationship between business owners and HHC festival participants.
I did get involved in a situation with a vendor and HHC that led to a confrontation. Cornerstone Christian Church had set up camp right in front of the door of our new neighbor, Thorpe Woodworks. I got involved because you couldn't get past the booth on the sidewalk.
It's clearly stated in the "rules" for booth vendors that you can not operate outside your booth (rule #22). When I approached the vendor (all wearing their bright "make Jesus famous" shirts) and asked them if they had a copy of the said rules, they found them and showed them to me. Highlighted in bright yellow was rule #22. I asked them nicely if they could comply with that and they said yes. They had already been asked by the owner of Thorpe. As I left, they stopped a HHC official so I walked back down. Speaking with David White of HHC, I asked him what the problem was with enforcing rule #22, which has been a big complaint of business owners for years and supposed to be addressed. His reply was that HE allowed "leeway" with certain vendors. I informed him "leeway" was not mentioned in the rules and how he felt the freedom to do that. His response was "because my mother-in-law is vice president and that's the way it's been for 40 years".
I walked away. That hit the nail on the head. These HHC people still are living like it's 40 years ago when downtown was empty. The problem today is it's not, and people are spending 100's of thousands of dollars investing in their futures, only to be ignored by people in orange jackets on a four day power trip.
ReplyDeleteAnother HHC has past. New businesses have been ignored and been left with frustration and a bad taste in their mouth.
There will be more meetings and more lies from HHC officials about improvements. None of that will happen until the boys and girls in orange understand that they are GUESTS of the downtown businesses and need to play by their OWN rules, or get the hell out and go to the fairgrounds where festivals belong. I know these are strong words, but I get tired of being told to be "more community minded" (a phrase shared with our new neighbor of Artesia when they complained and eventually closed for the weekend) when I can't even get out my front door for the crowd that gathers in front of the sign that says "please do not block doorways".
Didn't mean to take over your post, but let me get back to the point. I agree a grassroots downtown merchant organization needs to be created, one unified enough to stand up for themselves and not get run over by the city or HHC officials.
Aside from HHC, that downtown merchant group needs to develop and institute a "buy local" campaign to support other NEW ALBANY businesses.
I had a great conversation at PC Building Materials (our LOCAL hardware store) and we started about "buying local" and how they were making their own effort to be intentional about buying local.
If we wait on anyone else to start it, I doubt it will happen.
Thanks for letting me post!
Pete
Pete, that's exactly my point; thanks for your eloquence and honesty.
ReplyDeleteIf downtown is where we're doing business, and we are, then unity among us is the means to prevent being trod underfoot.
What stands in the way of merchants grasping this simple, fundamental point?
Roger,
ReplyDeleteRegardless of the uproar this may cause, after much thought that I could provide valid argument for, the reason would be:
Immaturity