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Downtown is your town’s core: How to make your case

By Becky McCray

Why does downtown matter? I’ve been asked why downtowns matter to small towns. Why should you invest your time and money into revitalizing your downtown? What makes it more important than any other area of town? What about that highway frontage? Or the edge of town where the discounters locate? In our Survey of Rural […]

February 22, 2021 Filed Under: community, economic development, rural, shop local Tagged With: building community, community development, downtown, economic development, Joe Borgstrom, main street, opinion, Place and Main, rural

Economic self defense for small towns 

By Becky McCray

Carlos Moreno presents a slide saying, "They will never fix it. There is no they."

Editorial by Becky McCray Not everyone who says they’ll help your town is telling you the truth.  If you want a resilient small town economy and prosperity for the people in your town, I have some self-defense ideas for you.  Focus more on your own people, less on attraction.  Stop paying people to bring business […]

June 7, 2020 Filed Under: economic development, entrepreneurship, mistakes, POV, rural, survivors Tagged With: attraction strategy, community development, diversity, economic development, editorial, local investing, locavesting, opinion, point of view, prosperity, remote work, rural sourcing, zoom towns

Say Thanks to Small Business Owners

By Glenn Muske

Don stands in front of colorful paint samples.

We walk and drive by small businesses every day. We go in their doors, make purchases and continue on our way without another thought. We depend on small businesses. They fill our need for products and services, and we expect them to be open on a regular basis to meet our needs (and sometimes we […]

June 17, 2013 Filed Under: Best of, entrepreneurship, rural Tagged With: opinion

Is it time to ban “Shop Local”?

By Becky McCray

Utility bill printed with, "Garbage. Support your local merchants. Shop Alva for the holidays."

This first appeared in our weekly email newsletter, A Positive View of Rural. Even though I love local business, I’m about ready to ban “shop local.” Sounds crazy, doesn’t it? I mean, I’m something of a shop local champion. So why am I ready to get rid of “shop local”? Because I’m afraid it has […]

June 12, 2013 Filed Under: Best of, customer service, rural, shop local Tagged With: opinion

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