The New Localism

Just the other day, I was reading an article about how Dell computers is pulling out of North Carolina. Now that state had invested heavily (actually they had given the local taxpayers’ money!) to this out of state business to entice them. States keep dreaming these big businesses can be “bought” to move once, but that, miraculously, they won’t be able to be be “bought” again. As you can guess, the story line was that when the going got tough, Dell turned their back on that state and did whatever they needed to survive.

The concept of Economic Gardening is about helping people with a vested interest in the community and who’ll stay for reasons of family, tradition, community, etc. develop their businesses. In a downturn, they’ll still be there. It’s “home”.

This article on the “New Localism” dovetails with that thinking. It reminded me of the TV show “Cheers” with the theme song lyrics “Where everybody knows your name…”

Here’s what Kotkin has to say and perhaps it can guide our business start up thinking:

Americans actually are becoming less nomadic. As recently as the 1970s as many as one in five people moved annually; by 2006, long before the current recession took hold, that number was 14 percent, the lowest rate since the census starting following movement in 1940. Since then tougher times have accelerated these trends, in large part because opportunities to sell houses and find new employment have dried up. In 2008, the total number of people changing residences was less than those who did so in 1962, when the country had 120 million fewer people. The stay-at-home trend appears particularly strong among aging boomers, who are largely eschewing Sunbelt retirement condos to stay tethered to their suburban homes—close to family, friends, clubs, churches, and familiar surroundings.

The trend will not bring back the corner grocery stores and the declining organizations—bowling leagues, Boy Scouts, and such—cited by Putnam and others as the traditional glue of American communities. Nor will our car-oriented suburbs replicate the close neighborhood feel so celebrated by romantic urbanists like the late Jane Jacobs. Instead, we’re evolving in ways congruent with a postindustrial society. It will not spell the demise of Wal-Mart or Costco, but will express itself in scores of alternative institutions, such as thriving local weekly newspapers, a niche that has withstood the shift to the Internet far better than big-city dailies.

What thriving local business model or institution can help further your business aspirations? How are you considering the new localism in you business plans?