On the Importance of Being Local

What kind of world do we want to live in? Our choices today are what will determine what that world will be. We can look to our neighbor, or to some outside entity to satisfy our needs. Whatever choice we make will empower the recipient. All too often we have empowered entities that have no interest in our true well being. At the same time we have reduced the capacity of our neighbors, who are most likely interested in our well being, to help meet our needs. Supporting local businesses, local farmers, and local organizations helps us to regain the power to choose the way we would like the world to be.

Who is more likely to listen to us? A non-local entity or your neighbor. What about the money that we save when we shop at chain stores or on the internet? That saved money has its costs:

• First, it sends our hard earned money out of the town that we live in. It is not available to continue circulating through, and thereby enriching, our town. This is the well known multiplier effect in which a dollar spent at a local business creates at least three times its value in the local economy.
  
• Second, that savings is the means by which our local businesses are eliminated, and the taxes by which they support our local government services, as well as the many local charities that they support. Saving money puts our local shops out of business.
  
• Third, that savings is also the means by which we lose the sense of place in our town as well as our sense of community. We cannot talk of community when we lack a venue with which to interact with the people of the community. Our patterns of development are not conducive to neighborliness. Neighborliness requires a commons. Our commons is our downtown. All too often in this community, we think of our downtown as a tourist destination. We need to claim it as our own! This is where we encounter our neighbor. And if our commons is a place not exactly suited to our needs, let us endeavor to make it so! Only as such, will it be an appealing place for locals and visitors alike.