Attention, candidates: Grassroots economic development by working closely with local entrepreneurs to learn how the city can help foster their ideas.

Utilizing assets like The Root.

Tonight Develop New Albany holds its annual Be Local Expo, a once yearly promotion of independent small businesses. Of course there's nothing intrinsically wrong with this approach, although it falls well short of the everyday engagement required to build and nurture the independent small business community. An "expo" is a showy thing, and the incumbents can glad-hand in a convivial setting.

But there could be so much more.

ON THE AVENUES: Prom planning's nice and all, but New Albany still needs an autonomous independent business alliance.

As long as our City Hall team prioritizes its own absolute iron-fisted political control, and refuses to consider small, sustainable efforts to support the expansion of entrepreneurial endeavors -- "creating avenues to wealth creation at all levels of society," as opposed to maximizing Gahanite campaign finance -- we'll continue to endure the pre-eminence of the prom planning committee, with predictably self-serving and tepid results.

The following podcast link offers a different scenario. Imagine if New Albany possessed fewer paid event coordinators and prom planners, and instead emphasized an "Ecosystem Builder" as described therein?

Isn't our best alternative to the subsidized-from-above River Ridge employment model to contrast and complement it with a grassroots approach like this?

Economic development is far more than squeezing a few extra dollars from the city's exhausted TIF lodes, showering outsiders with gifts underwritten by taxpayers, then waiting for incoming campaign contributions to close the circle. That's not economic development. It's a personality cult.

Better to make the most out of ourselves, right here where we live, by circulating more money locally and encouraging the social network-driven aspect of entrepreneurial activities. Cooperation creates the ecosystem, and the ecosystem fosters cooperation -- and a boost for our sense of community.

Consider listening to the podcast and learning, especially if you're mounting a campaign for local office. Perhaps the chief reason to #FlushTheClique, #DrainTheGahanSwamp and depose a few tired Democratic office holders is to get some fresh air into this civic room.

Theirs isn't the only approach to advancing the local economy. It's just the one with maximum benefit to them.

---

Why One City Hired an "Ecosystem Builder" to Support Entrepreneurs, by Jacob Moses (Strong Towns)

Want to better your community but don’t know where to start? Enter It’s the Little Things: a weekly Strong Towns podcast that gives you the wisdom and encouragement you need to take the small yet powerful actions that can make your city or town stronger.

It’s the Little Things features Strong Towns Community Builder Jacob Moses in conversation with various guests who have taken action in their own places and in their own ways.

For city officials desperate to create jobs, winning over a big corporation and convincing them to set up shop in your hometown may seem like the only option. Yet in the midst of this race to the bottom, city leaders often overlook the lower-hanging fruit right in their backyard: local entrepreneurs.

And when we say “local entrepreneurs,” we’re not just talking about the tech guy working on a new app alone in his basement or that one friend you have who left their 9-5 job to “go freelance.” Not all local entrepreneurship is so solitary, and it can take some surprising forms: the at-home baker who dreams of having her own storefront bakery downtown, the college student who wants to create a local startup. And they all have the potential to be job creators in your local economy.

Of course, a thriving startup community doesn’t happen in a vacuum. Support from city leaders is invaluable to help tap this potential.

That’s why in this episode, I chat with Skyler Yost, founding member of Strong Towns and Ecosystem Builder for the city of York, Pennsylvania (a pretty cool job title, I know). For the past two years, Skyler has worked closely with local entrepreneurs to learn how the city can help foster their ideas.

In this episode, you’ll learn how you can foster entrepreneurship in your community, including how to assess existing resources, how to create an ecosystem in which entrepreneurs are supporting one another, and most important, how fostering entrepreneurship makes your place stronger and more resilient.

From Colokial to DADA in two blocks or less, with a sideways glance at DNA's tacky mobster tactics.

The upshot: Colokial closes so its owner can transition to a different business model, and DADA moves from Underground Station into the vacated Colokial space because it needs more square footage, leaving behind an affordable slot that might be regarded as an incubator, or become the permanent location of a niche business.

It all makes perfect sense. To reiterate thoughts expressed in this space after Feast BBQ and Comfy Cow recently closed, downtown must be viewed as a dynamic in progress. As long as usable spaces are being occupied, there's nothing much else to say, and there'll be steps forward and backward. The aim is to keep moving forward.

Obviously, this doesn't excuse City Hall from maintaining infrastructure, or independent small business owners from cooperating; in both instances, we could be doing a better job of it.

It also points to the ongoing folly whereby Develop New Albany, the city's anointed events contractor, stages monthly merchant meetings to read top-down scrolls from Dear Leader rather than engaging folks who are investing with real money on the ground every day about ways to identify and address preconditions for successful commerce.

Lately DNA seems to spending the bulk of its time in an active effort to isolate and discredit former volunteer Kelly Winslow via the usual mobster tactics backed by the clout of Team Gahan.

Why? Because Winslow's non-subsidized grassroots New Albany Social is doing a better job than DNA with fewer resources (read: none), even as DNA's prerequisites when planning come-to-city events must always include a percentage of the take to pay a staff person's salary.

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

DNA's poorly concealed vendetta against Winslow owes to what the small-pond pillars perceive as a threat to their monopoly. It's sad and stupid, and amazingly, entrepreneurs continue to do what they do best, survive and sometimes thrive, set against this backdrop of Gahan-encouraged junior high school hijinks.

All the best to A Wild Guess and DADA.

ON THE AVENUES: New Albany's downtown food and dining scene is solid ... for now.

To me, job one remains encouraging density in downtown residency, not by bribing huge developers to pursue one or two showpiece projects, but providing fair incentives for a dozen smaller ones.

The more people living within walking and biking distance of historic downtown business district, the better the business climate, and the speedier the shift to balanced offerings; as Bluegill has been asking forever, how far must one walk from his or her home NOT to drink craft beer or eat Peruvian street food, but just buy a damn roll of toilet paper?

PHOTO ESSAY: Thanks to the intrepid entrepreneurs, hammers are meeting nails downtown.

During a Monday morning walk down Main Street to Pearl, there was a whole lotta construction going on.

First, the Montgomery-Cannon House at 516-518 E. Main, where the yellow paint is coming off, and it appears work is under way for real this time.

Resch Construction and various subcontractors are swarming around the future home of Hull & Highwater at 324 E. Main -- where those Tumblebus thingies used to park. The artist Michael Wimmer also recently conducted business here.

The scrubbed exterior of 203 E. Main is about to welcome TheatreWorks of Southern Indiana. There's an open house this Saturday. This is another Resch renovation.

Match Cigar Bar New Albany (147 E. Main) held a soft opening last Friday. Regular business hours should be in place soon, and of course the Urban Bread Co (to the left in the photo) has been operational for a few months.

GrayStone CrossFit and Human Performance is at 141 East Main in the former Liz at Home. GrayStone's soft opening is this week, and regular house begin soon.

The James Bourne Gallery is to be located at 137 E. Main Street. It stands to be a good use of former office space.

It's been nine years since the aluminum slipcover was removed from the Jacob Goodbub Building at 213 Pearl Street. I'm told the new owner (Obolisk NA LLC) plans living space upstairs and retail on the ground floor.

Adjacent is 217 Pearl, also known as the Jacob Goodbub Building, where Stephen Beardsley is rehabilitating yet another storefront (Colokial is right next door).

And just across Pearl Street from the preceding is Mesa: A Collaborative Kitchen (216 Pearl Street), also coming very soon. Yesterday it looked like the hood was being installed.

Finally, the third (and arguably most daunting) of Steve Resch's current round of rehabs. No word on what's destined for the former Good Times, which has been discussed here several times recently.

Kudos to the entrepreneurs, developers, builders and fellow travelers. You're the ones making it happen. Soon, the old school's going to be compelled to play catch-up. That's another tale for another day, though here's a hint.

Entrepreneurs and small business owners, allow me to pitch Leadership SI's Discover Class for 2017-2018.

Our finest lunch, courtesy of Prosser's culinary students. 

Last August, I divulged the most epochal event in world history since the Berlin Wall fell.

ON THE AVENUES: You won't believe what happens next.

At the tender age of 56, I am enrolled in the 2016-2017 Discover program of Leadership Southern Indiana, or as it would prefer being known these days, Leadership SI. Today is the first scheduled activity, an overnight retreat.

It feels like waiting for the bus that first day of grade school in 1966, albeit with an iPhone in my pocket. I didn’t vomit then, so let’s hope my luck continues.

Two class sessions remain, and then my class will divide into committees to do the planning for next year's group. Meanwhile, the application period to populate it begins on Monday.

Applications for the DISCOVER Class of 2018 will be open from March 13-April 21, 2017! For further questions, contact Program Coordinator Lisa Bottorff at 812-246-6574 or lbottorff@leadershipsi.org

Perhaps inevitably through the years, participants in the Discover class (there are other courses at Leadership SI, too) have tended to be attracted to the program through what I'd describe as "conventional" work and employment groupings, which I'll simplify to mean folks who work for someone else rather than themselves. Often it's the company -- banks, hospitals, even non-profits -- paying the fee.

There's nothing innately "wrong" with this, and there is no shortage of applicants, but it's obvious that self-employed entrepreneurs and small business people traditionally have been under-represented. I mentioned this, and learned that Leadership SI already was writing a grant proposal toward funding scholarship opportunities for entrepreneurial independent sorts rather like me.

This being the first time for the grant, it won't be known whether it is to be awarded to Leadership SI until the new enrollment period nears its end. Consequently, I cannot speak with certainty as to whether there'll be scholarships for 2017-2018. However, I'm qualified to recommend the experience itself.

Whether you’re new or native to the community, this 9-month DISCOVER program is a total immersion into the past, present and future of Southern Indiana. Take an in-depth look at the various facets of our community – history, healthcare, government, economy, education and more!

In short, while I came into the class with a fair amount of grounding in these topics, it remains that I've learned a lot. Almost by necessity, entrepreneurs and small business owners possess a narrow focus, as they're devoted to excelling at niches and little pieces of larger community puzzles. The context offered by Discover is like a crash course in the bigger picture.

Personally, I think it would be wonderful to have a merchant from downtown New Albany in next year's class, or better yet, a restaurateur. As noted, there might be scholarship assistance, so my recommendation is to call Lisa (above) and have a chat. If you have any questions about my experience, I'm happy to answer them on- or off-line.

Tuesday Heresy Quartet 4 of 4: For a strong economy, encourage home-grown entrepreneurs and start-ups.

I seem to recall one of the mayoral candidates saying something remarkably similar.

State Job Creation Strategies Often Off Base, by Michael Mazerov and Michael Leachman (Center on Budget and Policy Priorities)

To create jobs and build strong economies, states should focus on producing more home-grown entrepreneurs and on helping startups and young, fast-growing firms already located in the state to survive and to grow ― not on cutting taxes and trying to lure businesses from other states. That’s the conclusion from a new analysis of data about which businesses create jobs and where they create them.

Newspaper editorial board votes 4 - 1 in favor of New Albany's downtown "revival," local businesses and two-way streets.

Granted, all the dots don't connect in terms of editorial logic.

OUR OPINION: City's 'Main Street' revival fuels region (editorial board at the News and Tribune)

 ... Long the local standard-bearer for reimagining “Main Street,” downtown New Albany is experiencing a new business microburst. From unique restaurant concepts to trendy décor shops to niche boutiques, the fork-in-the-cheese city is showing its teeth.

Let's consider a few examples.

As a frequent reader notes, "Not so sure the apartments (Breakwater) are a capstone. They may be a millstone."

The culinary team preparing Gospel Bird for opening is surprised to learn about menu options even they didn't know existed: "I had no idea that Gospel Bird is now a Nashville hot chicken place and that we are offering 'games' in the bar area."

(Seeing as NA Confidential has not mentioned games and Nashville hot chicken in a Gospel Bird context, it appears these notions came from elsewhere on the Internet. The newspaper still is down a reporter, after all, and most boots are on the ground in Clark County)

Then there's this: "Can someone forward me info about the accredited Main Street program? Thinking we might be missing out on something."

Straight face: It's Develop New Albany, and it probably is not recommended that Nawbany partisans make too many comparisons between DNA and Jeffersonville Main Street; the latter has a far longer record of adhering to the National Main Street program, although DNA lately has been showing signs of a renewed pulse.

Still, while difficult, let's not be entirely churlish.

The newspaper properly recognizes the entrepreneurs, humorously excludes the politicians forever eager to claim credit, and makes one hugely excellent point:

"Imagine the possibilities if New Albany shifts its downtown street grid to two-way, which would benefit business and pedestrian traffic. We’re counting on hearing positive news to that end this year."

Of course, it's funny how everyone counts on forever elusive "positive news" about the street grid, even as the folks in City Hall charged with making it happen adhere to the down low, drag their feet to the detriment of these same entrepreneurs, and pause only to award lucrative engineering consultancy contracts from sheer nepotism, once removed (something also eluding the newspaper's grasp) ... but I digress.

Of course, there's a humorous side, too: Chris Morris is one component of an editorial board now finally hinting at a solid position in favor of two way streets, on grounds of business and walker safety, as Morris chafes and suppresses a scream: But what's to become of our poor oppressed pass-through truckers? Ah, the humanity ... the lost horsepower ... what, don't these people walking around have cars?

Now, about that reporter ...

Reisz Furniture Building: Cautious optimism?

A part of this story seems to be missing.

Aren't we supposed to be providing potential developers with a tailor-made $12-15 million parking garage before they spend a dime of their own? Or was that just Doug England and Jack Bobo's backroom deal?

Meanwhile, does anyone recall the Historic District Building Tour way back in 2005?

The Reisz was included.

Remember how Bob Caesar, the human progress retardant, helped keep the Reisz building dilapidated?

We were there for that one, too.

Let's get real, shall we?

Given that the city of New Albany has done almost nothing to spur the first entrepreneurial round of downtown food, drink and retail upgrades, which now seem to be leading to a second ground of entrepreneurial housing additions sans substantive city assistance of any sort, there are two clear verdicts.

First, that the city best not take credit for matters with which it played no role.

Second, if the city DOES wish to (a) ever do something, and (b) take ever credit for doing something, that certain something should be two-way "completed" streets downtown, as soon as possible, over Caesar's sedated, bound and gagged body if necessary, because a modernized street grid for all users is the one way that the the city can help ALL the downtown stakeholders, and not merely some of them.

Do we need Democratic Party clearance for that one?

Offices, apartments planned for Reisz building in downtown New Albany; Contractor razed portion of structure Tuesday, by Daniel Suddeath (N and T)

NEW ALBANY — Five buildings consisting of office, retail and residential space overlooking a courtyard is what developer Ron Carter envisions for a portion of the former Reisz Furniture building along East Main Street.

Having received permission from the New Albany Preservation Commission and Board of Public Works and Safety, Carter had a portion of the rear of the building at 154 E. Main St. demolished Tuesday.

Two C-J article chart a housing "boomlet" in downtown New Albany, coincidentally making the case for complete two-way streets.

Dude: Grace Schneider just lapped the 'Bune, although to be fair, the latter has been quite busy cheerleading in Jeffersonville lately.

First, there's this, in which it is revealed that after two and a half years on the job, the city's economic development officials at long last want to know all about the moribund Reisz building on Main:

Shining new light on an old store in New Albany

Then this, collating numerous recent building and property acquisitions into a coherent whole, including the (gasp) prospect of infill construction:

Boomlet begins in New Albany

Random observations after reading these two pieces ...

1. Nowhere is it mentioned that Chalfant, Carter or other investors require a $12 million parking garage as collateral for money they don't have. How very refreshing. What's DNA have to say?

2. Implicit acknowledgement abounds: Without previous entrepreneurial investments in restaurants, bars and shops (largely unassisted by the city) over a period of eight year, there'd be no demand for living space.

3. Yet again, the city is coming in on the tail end of something already begun. Charitably stated, it is belatedly asking what it can do to help, which brings us to the single most obvious answer ...

4. ... the fact that taken as a whole, Grace's two write-ups constitute some of the best slam dunk evidence yet of the pressing need for two-way street conversions and complete streets in New Albany.

5. In part, this is because the developers see the presence of an untolled bridge as highly beneficial, meaning you should reread #4 as the corrective for the problems we'll experience along with the upside.

6. Noted in passing: The prospect of infill construction nearby on the 300 block Main is the best reason offered to support this blog's position on the farmers market location. Anchoring the farmers market to its current spot means sacrificing infill potential, and there's a municipal lot behind Wick's that is far better suited for the permanent farmers market location.

I might continue; feel free to comment here or at Fb.

ON THE AVENUES: As a journalist and entrepreneur, I’m not tired of the “Buy Local” argument. Not at all.

ON THE AVENUES: As a journalist and entrepreneur, I’m not tired of the “Buy Local” argument. Not at all.

A weekly web column by Roger A. Baylor.

Back in 2010, one of my locally-written columns for the Alabama-owned newspaper, which these days is “local” primarily to Jeffersonville alone, asked the question, “Can ‘shift happen’ in New Albany, too?”

(Those scraping, clanking, stevedore sounds you hear are CNHI wagons being circled. It’s the one tip they never, ever miss.)

But have no fear; today’s essay has nothing whatever to do with newspapers, because it’s all about localism – and by virtue of its corporate ownership, the newspaper simply ain’t. With your indulgence, I’d like to revisit my 2010 piece, with a few relevant updates.

---

In the better (craft) beer business, we have creatively adapted an old activist mantra to suit our specific circumstances: “Think globally, drink locally.”

American “craft” beer is a locally brewed adult beverage. It is not to be confused with mass-produced, conceptually derivative swill from multinational manufacturing corporations like AB InBev or MillerCoors, which currently seek to foist the word “craft” on unsuspecting drinkers via misleading marketing tactics that might make Moons appear Blue, and cause even Herr Goebbels to cringe.

Genuine American “craft” beer is best consumed locally, with folks who share the vision and dream the dream, and as a locally loyal revolutionary, I do my fair share of sampling. Indeed, quality control is a never-ending task. To my delight and edification, the ongoing revival of downtown New Albany allows me to drink local beer quite locally – when merited, copiously – and still walk home afterward in a physically beneficial and socially responsible manner.

In fact, my family’s decision in 2003 to buy the midtown house we currently occupy was consciously calibrated with drinking, dining, walking and bicycling in mind. Mind you, this was before there was much of anything downtown to walk or bike to. Local independent businesses have rectified the situation, largely without governmental subsidies of the sort generally fluffing Chain Land. It’s enough to gladden a tea partier’s heart -- if you can pull him away from the culinary glories of Chick-fil-A.

You see, it wasn’t “luck” that enables my strolling and biking. It was planning, stemming from solid, traditional, locally-based principles of life indigenous to urban areas originally built for precisely these same purposes. At one time such notions were the accepted norm. Now they are being rediscovered by New Albany’s residents old and new, and the city’s rising indie business community.

“Thinking globally” provides wonderful insights into successful strategies pursued in differing environments. As an example, in 2010 my family reunion was held in Concord, Massachusetts, and during the course of rooming, dining and watering options in the Boston metropolitan area, we chose to stay in Somerville, a community just to the north of downtown Boston.

Apparently, such is the taste for Somerville self-identity (of course, the city’s residents still cheer for the Red Sox) that it has a “buy local first” movement: Somerville Local First. Consider the way that Somerville’s business community defines its mission.

Overview: There is a movement coming....a return to local and the emergence of sustainable economies. We're at the epicenter....Shift Happens

Mission: Somerville Local First, formed in March 2008, is a network of locally owned and independent businesses to build a robust Somerville economy and a vibrant community.

We accomplish this by:

-Organizing a Somerville Local First campaign that raises the awareness of customers, businesses, and government agencies regarding the benefits of purchasing from locally owned businesses.

-Implementing programs and discounts that reduce the cost of doing business for locally-owned businesses. Bringing together independent businesses for mutual benefit and networking opportunities.

-Supporting Somerville ordinances and regulations that promote locally owned businesses.

-Collaborating to deliver programs to help local businesses become greener in their business operations.

Products: Organizing, supporting, strengthening and promoting locally-owned, independent businesses in Somerville, MA. Educating customers about the benefits of shopping locally.

www.facebook.com/SomervilleLocalFirst

New Albany’s locally-minded group is called New Albany First, with goals mirroring Somerville’s. Across the river is the older, more established Louisville Independent Business Alliance (LIBA). LIBA’s goal of keeping Louisville “weird” in a sense of uniqueness and independent ownership is shared by many businesses on the Indiana side of the river.

Glancing to the east, beyond the Interstate-driven, exhaust-perfumed franchise purgatory of Clarksville, another “buy local first” model also exists. Jeffersonville Main Street actively seeks to organize its business community, and wastes no opportunity to espouse these core “buy local first” principles. On the other hand, New Albany’s main street organization, Develop New Albany, openly concedes that it would gaily promote Wal-Mart if Wally World coughed up the requisite membership fee. That’s horrid, if pathetically typical of a what happens in the absence of principle.

Why does any of this matter? The Institute for Local Self-Reliance (www.ilsr.org) offers these ten vital commandments. The sooner New Albany grasps them, the better, but slowly, the shift indeed is happening.

1. Protect Local Character and Prosperity
New Albany is unlike any other city in the world. By choosing to support locally owned businesses, you help maintain New Albany’s diversity and distinctive flavor.

2. Community Well-Being
Locally owned businesses build strong neighborhoods by sustaining communities, linking neighbors, and by contributing more to local causes.

3. Local Decision Making
Local ownership means that important decisions are made locally by people who live in the community and who will feel the impacts of those decisions.

4. Keeping Dollars in the Local Economy
Your dollars spent in locally-owned businesses have three times the impact on your community as dollars spent at national chains. When shopping locally, you simultaneously create jobs, fund more city services through sales tax, invest in neighborhood improvement and promote community development.

5. Job and Wages
Locally owned businesses create more jobs locally and, in some sectors, provide better wages and benefits than chains do.

6. Entrepreneurship
Entrepreneurship fuels America’s economic innovation and prosperity, and serves as a key means for families to move out of low-wage jobs and into the middle class.

7. Public Benefits and Costs
Local stores in town centers require comparatively little infrastructure and make more efficient use of public services relative to big box stores and strip shopping malls.

8. Environmental Sustainability
Local stores help to sustain vibrant, compact, walkable town centers-which in turn are essential to reducing sprawl, automobile use, habitat loss, and air and water pollution.

9. Competition
A marketplace of tens of thousands of small businesses is the best way to ensure innovation and low prices over the long-term.

10. Product Diversity
A multitude of small businesses, each selecting products based, not on a national sales plan, but on their own interests and the needs of their local customers, guarantees a much broader range of product choices.

Who could ever tire of localism when localism makes so much sense?

Taxes and "business-friendly" policies? Maybe for 1Si, but not for entrepreneurs.

Dare we delve once again into the world according to Richard Florida?

After all, I wouldn't want that Joel Kotkin exurban apologist guy coming by and egging my house.

Let's cut to the chase, all the while remembering that like so many other places, New Albany contributes to a net diaspora of talent. The talented typically move elsewhere. Those remaining here talk a lot about low taxes and business-friendly policies, and are Dixiecrats, and ...

Oops. I'm starting to see an ominous pattern.

What Cities Really Need to Attract Entrepreneurs, According to Entrepreneurs, by Richard Florida (Atlantic Cities)

... Perhaps even more interesting from the perspective of urban policy are the location factors that did not make the cut – those that high-growth entrepreneurs found to be of little consequence in their location decisions. At the very bottom of the list were taxes and business-friendly policies, which are, unfortunately, exactly the sorts of things so many states and cities continue to promote as silver bullets. Just 5 percent of the respondents mentioned low taxes as being important, and a measly 2 percent named other business-friendly policies as a factor in their location decisions.

Nice press for Earth Friends in the C-J.

On the same day that Professor Erika encourages the wee ones to expedite their monies out of town (the shareholders of Mega-chain-land thank you, dear), the C-J's Dale Moss profiles Stacie and her grassroots, local Earth Friends Cafe. Irony -- what a concept. Here's an excerpt.

Cafe serves food with thought; Restaurateur caters to vegans, vegetarians

Is a steady paycheck really worth it?

Stacie Henehan Bale’s answer is in a partly filled strip center alongside a funeral home off Grant Line Road in New Albany, Ind.

There, Bale owns and runs Earth Friends Cafe. Almost 41, Bale is finally her own boss, ready as she can be to cope when it seems no one else ever is going to come in that door.

Bale caters a good bit to vegetarians and to vegans in a Southern Indiana in which people line up for Paula Deen’s buffet. Bale likes her chances, nonetheless. Once in a while, business fairly thrives.

"New Albany is a city of entrepreneurs": That's why New Albany First is needed.

Andy's eloquent letter speaks for itself. Before I turn it over to him, permit this reminder about the many conceptually unified events tomorrow evening: Art and beer and localism, all at the same time.

---

(This is a letter to the editor I wrote and submitted to the Tribune, but it doesn't appear that it will get printed before Jeff Milchen's visit. I decided to post it here instead.)

New Albany is a city of entrepreneurs. That's the base idea that New Albany First, New Albany's Independent Business Alliance, uses as our foundation. An independent business alliance is not just a "buy local" organization although educating the public on the benefits of supporting locally-owned, independent businesses is a primary goal. An IBA is an organized group of entrepreneurs banding together to raise awareness, promote education and foster an atmosphere of working together to make their community better.

As New Albany First organized, we realized that one way we could help was by hosting seminars and speakers that could promote the importance of localism and encourage prospective independent business owners. In recent weeks, we've started a seminar series with local business owners telling their stories, good and bad, and explaining their passion for what they do. The conversation has been fascinating and we will continue that conversation in the coming months.

We're also bringing in Jeff Milchen, the co-founder of the American Independent Business Alliance (AMIBA). Jeff will be giving a talk on Friday night, October 28th starting at 7 pm at the River City Winery in New Albany. He'll be speaking about the importance of localism with a question and answer session to follow. Then, on Saturday morning the 29th at 10:00 am, Milchen will present his workshop "Strength in Numbers" which will look at how organized IBA's and other groups can work in their community. If you intend to come to the workshop, we urge you to also attend Friday night's talk as both events work in conjunction. Both events are free and open to the public.

On behalf of the board of directors for New Albany First, we're very pleased to be able to bring Jeff to New Albany, especially now when localism has become such a hot topic in our area. We hope to see many of our fellow southern Indiana residents attend. New Albany is a city of entrepreneurs. We at New Albany First urge you to think about that and to "be local.".

Andy Terrell
Director, New Albany First

New Albany First upcoming events include information session, entrepreneurship seminar and a special guest.

(Submitted)

---

I wanted to fill you in on a few upcoming events that New Albany First will be hosting.

This Thursday, September 8th from 6p - 8p, we'll be hosting a public information session at the New Albanian Brewing Company on Grant Line Road in the Prost room. Many of you have attended one or more of these already and we certainly welcome to you to stop by and meet each other and potential members.

On Thursday, September 22nd we'll be having the first of our local entrepreneurship seminars again to be held at NABC Grant Line Road from 7p - 8:30p. NA First members Gary Humphrey of River City Winery and Roger Baylor from NABC along with Allen Howie of Idealogy will be discussing the issues facing opening a restaurant in New Albany with Allen talking about branding and marketing. One of the main goals of any independent business alliance is the encouragement of new locally-owned independent businesses in our area. This is one way we hope to fulfill that goal and with more seminars already in the works, we feel this is a great way to do that.

Finally, on October 28th/29th, we're very pleased to welcome Jeff Milchen to New Albany. Jeff is the co-founder of the American Indpendent Business Alliance (AMIBA) which is based in Bozeman, Montana. Jeff will be giving a keynote presentation on Friday night, Oct. 28th (time to be determined) and then a workshop the next morning. Both of these events are being hosted by the River City Winery. Jeff is an internationally known advocate for independent businesses and is highly sought after, so we're really happy he's going to come to New Albany to talk with us. More details on this to come.

Thanks to all of you for believing in this project and for your support.

Andy Terrell
Director, New Albany First

Check out my spiffy new t-shirt!

Last week, I participated in an entrepreneur's workshop at IUS, and in return for my testimony about how I've "succeeded" in bizness without really trying, I was gifted with this trendy tee. Seriously, it was fun; I'm flattered; it all goes to show that war is over, if you want it; and if you forget why any of this matters, just let your clicker do the walking back to March and this: A Candidate’s Progress (7): Professor Frump will play the company way.

Wired 65 Entrepreneurial Networking Seminars.

Courtesy of Mike Ladd of the the New Albany Urban Enterprise Association. For more information, click this Wired65 web link.

Open thread: What the hell was that all about?

In the wake of Wednesday’s somewhat broad ranging thread, a friend suggested to me yesterday that there is a fundamental difference between a small business owner and an entrepreneur.

Speaking personally, I’ve never seen any difference between the two. It seems to me that I'm both. Is there a difference, and if so, what is it?

As a corollary: I’ve accepted it as axiomatic that using the historic business district downtown as it was originally built to be used (not necessarily with the same mix of businesses, given changing times) is fitting and proper. Can this be reasonably construed as a threat to some doing business there, perhaps because they are small business owners but somehow not entrepreneurs?

After all, the recent LEO article included quotes from downtown furniture dealer Todd Coleman, who it would seem has a different view of the unfolding renaissance and his place in it. If not, then why would he say that he's considered running for mayor?

And: Why do people commonly say there’ll be too many bars and restaurants, but no one says there are too many salons? There are quite a few salons, aren’t there? Are these not subject to the same start-up vicissitudes as the bars? Is it lingering bitterness at the riverfront 3-way alcohol option? Is that bitterness justified? Won't some of the drinkers have their hair cut and visit the antique shop?

I remain surprised that the discussion here Wednesday took the turn it did. Some wounds came open. It is understandable that there’ll always be complaints for the sake of complaining – in all times, in all places.

When it comes to downtown attitudes, what's, and where’s, the beef?

Feel free to let me have it ... again.