She discussed strategies that communities have used to encourage independent local businesses including:

• Planning policies that encourage local independent businesses, such as zoning for retail near existing retail center and capping store sizes.
• Implementing local business development plans to identify desired businesses and then developing plans to attract these businesses.  Strategies communities have used to attract specific businesses include contacting cooperatives and trade associations, contacting established businesses that are seeking a second location, finding latent local entrepreneurs through business plan competitions,  starting businesses through community ownership, developing incubators or low cost space,  mentorships for start up businesses, and providing financing programs for key businesses.
• Launching a “buy local” campaign to increase awareness about the benefits of buying from local independent businesses.  These campaigns have been shown to change people’s shopping behaviors and have resulted in increased revenues for local businesses.  (Note:  many of our nearby businesses participate in Seacoast Buy Local.)

The event was sponsored by Seacoast Buy Local, SmartGrowth South Berwick and Kennebunk Savings Bank and got support from most of our local independent businesses.

Thanks to the sponsors of this event.  It was great information and, judging by all the people standing around talking after the presentation, it generated lots of ideas and discussion.

Sobo Book & Bean has copies of Stacy Mitchell’s book, “Big-Box Swindle” and you can read articles by Stacy Mitchell about promoting local businesses at The Hometown Advantage, her online newsletter.

Sponsored by Seacoast Buy Local, SmartGrowth South Berwick and Kennebunk Savings Bank

7 pm October 22, Town Hall, Main Street, South Berwick

There will be a supervised kids craft room, free refreshments and numerous giveaways to local stores.

Merchants and citizens in South Berwick, who do not take their downtown for granted with its independent pharmacy, toy store, grocery store, book store and florist, have invited a nationally recognized expert in sustainable economies to talk to the community about the common cause of a vibrant local economy.

“Big-Box Swindle”, named one of the top ten business books of the year by the American Library Association’s Booklist, contends big-box store companies have contributed to everything from the shrinking middle class to soaring gasoline consumption and declining community involvement.

Mitchell argues, though, that the small guys can fight back. A growing number of communities are bucking the big-box trend and rebuilding their local businesses. In her talk, Mitchell will outline several innovative planning policies, small business initiatives, and other strategies communities can use to strengthen independent business and create a more prosperous and sustainable future.

“This region is at a crossroads,” noted Mitchell. “Fortunately, there’s still time to ensure that South Berwick doesn’t end up like so many other small towns across of the country, where nearby big-box stores rob village downtowns of their economic vigor as well as the sense of community provided by locally owned businesses.”

A citizens’ group called SmartGrowth South Berwick and local retailers joined forces with Seacoast Buy Local, a Portsmouth-based coalition of hundreds of local business owners and residents, to sponsor Mitchell’s talk.

SmartGrowth South Berwick, a volunteer citizens group, works to encourage retail, social and civic activity in the downtown. It sponsors the annual Home for the Holidays event and has worked for zoning that will not adversely affect local retailers.

“When we read Big-Box Swindle, we knew that Mitchell’s expertise could help our community as we work to keep a strong downtown with its distinct historic and small town character,” said Puff Uhlman of Vine Street, a member of SGSB.

“One of the challenges for local retailers is we are so busy running our businesses and taking care of our families it is hard to find time to get involved in local policy,” said Jen Houghton, owner of the Little Hat Company.

Mitchell is a senior researcher with the Institute for Local Self-Reliance, a national nonprofit organization that works to build strong local economies and sustainable communities. She has served as advisor on retail development issues to numerous cities across the country and is a frequent speaker at conferences and forums.

Organizers are giving away dozens of gift certificates to local businesses as door prizes, including a $100 gift certificate to Little Hat Company. Parents are invited to bring children to the craft room and face-painting room, which will be chaperoned.

In a world that seems to be spinning faster, it’s a wonderful opportunity to bring up a family in a town that allows you to walk not run.   I remember coming home from a business trip to N.Y.C. and literally thanking God that we don’t have even one single stop light in our town.  I had spent two days in a cab trying to get to three scheduled appointments in an absolute scramble for time.  Traffic, crowds, impatience, and smog seemed to be the daily theme and it was hard to catch your breath walking down the streets filled with people, vendors, and construction barriers.  Don’t get me wrong.  The city can be an explosive energy and catalyst for getting major things accomplished.  When the sun goes down and the lights turn on there is something so magical that you feel like a child right before opening a present.

When I would come home to South Berwick I would always let out a sigh of relief knowing that I could just slow down and enjoy each and every moment without someone behind me needing to get somewhere.  One of the main reasons coming home would be so satisfying was knowing that I was raising my children in a small town community surrounded by endless opportunities.

South Berwick, Maine is the quintessential place to place to plant your roots.  I have three children ages 14, 7, and 2.   My oldest will be starting high school next year.  He has been playing on a sports team since he started school here which he loves.  He is an honor roll student and will be able to take advantage of the many great classes offered to him that let him stretch out of his comfort zone.  He loves South Berwick and especially Main Street.  He was sad when Flynn’s closed but loves to be able to hop on his bike with his friends and ride to the fields or grab ice cream at Aggies.   My 7 year old loves walking to school.  She loves to wave to the crossing guards, and picking up chestnuts that have fallen from the trees.  Her favorite activities are soccer, piano, and cheering on at team that is known for bringing home national championships.  Most of all she loves playing with her friends.  My 2 year old’s most favorite thing to do is walking around the block through Main Street with her Dad and then going to the playground near the fire station.

We live in a town where the Principal of our elementary school quietly and with dedication works to make sure all of our children’s needs are met.  One of her first acts was to put up a fence around the school yard.  We live in a town where countless parents and residents volunteer endless hours, money, and sweat to make sure that each child has a team to play on if they choose.  We live in a town where retired people give endless hours to volunteer in school to help children outside of the classroom and we live in a town where parents are more than willing to offer a hand with car pooling and making time for neighbors when they need help.

One of the reasons Strawberry Festival is so successful is that people visiting our town on that very special day get a glimpse of the character, altruism, and good will that our community seems to have in abundance.  South Berwick is a great town and seems to bring out the very best in people and I’m very proud to be living here with my family.

–Jen Houghton

Quality of Place and Job Growth: A New and Needed Maine Investment Strategy, a report by the Governor’s Council on Maine’s Quality of Place was released in May. The Council was appointed by Governor Baldacci in 2007 in response to the Brookings Institution study: Charting Maine’s Future: An Action Plan for Promoting Sustainable Prosperity and Quality Place that recommended a three-fold strategy for Maine’s sustainable prosperity: 1) investing in product and service innovation, 2) streamlining government at all levels, and 3) revitalizing our towns and cities while protecting our rural landscapes.

The Council’s report makes the case for protecting and promoting our quality of place as a way to build Maine’s economic prosperity for the future.  The report’s recommendations arise from the changing Maine economy. In the past, Maine’s economy was tied to resource extraction and the use of natural resources as inputs for manufacturing. Now Maine’s economy focuses more on services, from fast food jobs to highly skilled service jobs like computer programming and design. Today’s manufacturing jobs in Maine, whether in lumber, paper, boats, or biomedicine, require much greater worker skills so it means that Maine is in worldwide competition for people who can create and sustain this 21st century economic development.

In this report, the Council asserts that Maine’s chief economic asset in this competition is our Quality of Place. They use the metaphor of the value of one’s home to describe how we need to protect and enhance our Quality of Place:

To understand what this means, think of your home in Maine. You may like your home because it’s in a historic neighborhood near cultural amenities, or because it’s in a quaint town surrounded by open space and recreational opportunities. You may like your home because you enjoy farming or gardening, because you love being by the coast or near a lake, or because you are inspired by your scenic views or your relationships with community members.

Our homes in Maine represent many values to us, just as do our historic downtowns and Maine landscapes of all kinds. But at times in our lives, a home’s primary value becomes its economic one: we want to move and need to sell. How do we market our home? We fix it up, paint it up, polish it up, to show it in its best light. We attract prospective buyers by touting our home’s architecture; its neighborhood or town location; its access to cultural, recreational, or community amenities; its views of sunsets, mountains, or open fields. We need to distinguish our home as of better quality than others we’re competing with for a sale.

That’s what we need to do for Maine’s future prosperity. We must attract new “buyers”— visitors, retirees, businesses, and skilled workers — to Maine. Our distinctive, competitive advantage in a world that has become one giant economic neighborhood is Maine’s spectacular, place-based, natural and built assets. Maine’s principal advantage in today’s global competition is our Quality of Place. We have majestic mountains, unbroken forests, open fields, wild rivers, pristine lakes, a widely-celebrated coast, picturesque downtowns, lively arts and culture, and authentic historic buildings. We must learn to think of them as the basic infrastructure of Maine’s future prosperity.

So, we must look to our historic downtowns, cultural amenities, forests, fields, mountains, lakes, rivers, and coast — and access to them — as resources we must husband and market to keep and attract business, skilled workers, visitors, and retirees. To market these place-based assets effectively, we must ensure investment in their well-being and improvement. We must learn to think of them as the basic infrastructure of Maine’s sustainable prosperity — much as our highways and bridges are among today’s basic infrastructure, requiring continuing maintenance and investment.

In today’s economy, prosperity comes from the ideas, talents, and energy of people. Skilled workers, entrepreneurs, tourists, and retirees can go anywhere. Where they choose to work, visit, and live depends on personal preferences and the appeal of their destination. Maine’s advantage in this global competition for people is our Quality of Place.

They then describe how the three strategies recommended by the Brookings Institution to achieve sustainable prosperity for Maine work together.

These elements do not operate separately, independent of one another, but only as a system. That is, while each element is important in its own right, the power of the three together — their ability to achieve the goal of sustainable Maine prosperity — lies in their connectedness to and mutual dependence on one another.

This is how systems work in real life —from the human body and families to the solar system —each organ, each member, each planet influences the other; and change in any one, positive or negative, results in certain change to the others. So, when we invest in Quality of Place, we are investing in jobs and innovation; when we streamline government, we make Maine more attractive to investment; and when we invest in innovation, we strengthen Maine’s Quality of Place.

Historically, we focused on needed investment in jobs and equipment, in the fond hope this would bring a high quality of life as a secondary benefit. Today, we know it works both ways: when we safeguard and strengthen our quality places, we increase the likelihood of attracting the investment and people we need. In fact, unless we protect those places, the investment and people are likely to come not at all!

The report then goes on to make recommendations about what should be done to protect, strengthen, and build economic opportunity upon Maine’s Quality of Place assets, both natural and built.

Read the full report: Quality of Place and Job Growth: A New and Needed Maine Investment Strategy, Governor’s Council on Maine’s Quality of Place, May 2008.

Read the Council’s First report: People, Place, and Prosperity, 1st Report of The Governor’s Council on Maine’s Quality of Place December 2007

“informal public gathering places. The phrase “third places” derives from considering our homes to be the “first” places in our lives, and our work places the “second.”

Americans long enjoyed third places in the form of the inns and ordinaries of colonial society, then as the saloons and general stores springing up with westward expansion. Later came the candy stores, soda fountains, coffee shops, diners, etc. which, along with the local post office, were conveniently located and provided the social anchors of community life.

“Third places” also suggest the stability of the tripod in contrast to the relative instability of the bipod. Life without community has produced, for many, a life style consisting mainly of a home-to-work-and-back-again shuttle.”

 

From Our Vanishing “Third Places” by Ray Oldenburg

As South Berwick explores the feasibility of using the St. Michael’s property as a library or other use we have the opportunity to create a new kind of civic place in our downtown.
Over the past decade and a half there has been a boom of library building around the country and these new libraries are

“moving beyond their traditional information and education functions to take leadership in developing places for civic, cultural and social exchange. … three inter-related developments appear to be the prime levers for change: (1) community-library partnerships and collaborations; (2) library programming; and (3) library-community co-location.”

From Libraries are the new commons for the 21st Century by Diantha Dow Schull

If South Berwick purchases the St. Michael’s property for a library or other use, how can we avoid mistaking space for place? As Ms. Schull points out:

A word about words: “space” does not make “place”

Public libraries are often referred to as public spaces or public places, with “space” and “place” used interchangeably. This is problematic, as the two words have different meanings. Space is defined as an undeveloped, blank area, or an area to be used for a particular purpose, whereas place signifies space that is animated by activity and imbued with meaning through cultural practice. Library Placemaking may be taken to mean the process by which public spaces are developed into meaningful public places.

From Libraries are the new commons for the 21st Century by Diantha Dow Schull

How can we as a community be intentional about creating a civic place on the St. Michael’s property? How can we create a process that fully explores how the property could be used in a way that will most enhance our community?