Compelling Reasons to Buy Local

Spokane? Kelowna? Calgary?

Think Local This Holiday Season

By Mike Stolte - originally published in the Nelson Daily News Nov. 27, 2009

Spokane. Kelowna. Even Calgary. My heart races as I think of the bright lights, swarming holiday crowds and possible great deals. Yes, it’s tempting to think of a road - read ‘shopping’ - trip to these exotic locales but this year it makes more sense than ever to ‘think local’. The economic downturn is taking its toll on local retailers, service providers (which our area has an abundance of), and other businesses. These businesses sponsor Nelson Minor Soccer, give to the CT Scanner, and donate to countless community causes.

Thinking and buying local has never been hotter. When the Economist magazine recently suggested that the world needs to revisit buying local (and local/regional self-reliance) – a break from their normal trumpeting of globalization and bigger is better– people took notice. It’s now not just a fringe movement.

Not surprisingly, Nelson is on the cutting edge of think and buy local movements:

§ A well-crafted Shop-Local campaign (shop-nelson.com) spearheaded by the Nelson Business Association, and supported by many local businesses, the NDCU and the Chamber of Commerce is more than likely catching your attention. It focuses on local business owners citing why they’re shopping local. The photos are awesome. The campaign looks pretty high end.

§ The Nelson and District Credit Union is promoting its 100 Mile Mortgage (the NDCU’s whirling dervish Bradley Roulston has made numerous presentations and radio appearances to extol the virtues of buying local). As Bradley likes to ask, “Would you rather pay your kid $10 to mow your lawn or bring in someone from 150 miles away to save $0.50?” The argument has logic.

§ Local web development company Yellowseed recently launched GYOS.ca (Get/Grow/Give Your Own Stuff), a web-site designed to allow for the local swapping, trading and buying of goods and services, with a cool component focusing on locally grown food (the Five Mile Diet). What better way to get rid of those excess plums! GYOS has spread all over the Kootenays and to the Sunshine Coast.

§ Our local food movement has caught the attention of people around North America thanks to the tireless work of many including Abra Brynne, Matt Lowe, and Jon Steinman. Steinman has become a food celebrity thanks to his informative syndicated radio show on KCR, Deconstructing Dinner. The Nelson/Creston grain CSA (community supported agriculture - www.kootenaygraincsa.ca) has even caught the attention of Parliament.

§ Even my own organization, CIEL, got into the act earlier this year, hosting the 100 Mile Ideas Diet, a speaker series over five months at Oso Negro that featured local experts and community conversations on important issues of community vitality (housing, arts and culture, business vitality, innovation, localization).

Mike Shuman, author of the Small-Mart Revolution (small-mart.org) believes that thinking local is the only sure way to keep our main streets vital. He cites four major reasons for buying locally:

1. Locally owned businesses stay in the community. Their owners are rooted. They’re here in good times and stick it out through the bad. Many US communities have been burned when large businesses – many that have received incentives and/or tax breaks - pull up stakes and leave.
2. Local businesses have a higher economic impact, known as an economic multiplier. One study that Shuman cites from Austin Texas, showed that $100 spent at a Borders bookstore returned only $13 to the local economy. That same $100 spent at a local bookstore put $45 back into the local economy (in wages, donations, local purchases, etc.). In other studies money spent in locally-owned business consistently has double to triple the impact as non-local. In his book, Shuman provides many compelling examples, deconstructing myths and long-held beliefs about big corporation recruitment. Many big non-local corporations receive subsidies, while actually being net drains on local taxes. In a place like Nelson, with a higher number of services (acupuncture, massage, etc.), that $100 spent at a local business returns a full $100 to the local economy (less a bit of tax) that keeps ricocheting from business to business.
3. Local businesses have a size and character that is much more consistent with what makes communities flourish. People want to live in vibrant, walkable communities where people know their name (‘Cheers’ where, hopefully, people won’t lock the doors when you want to get out).
4. Local businesses have a smaller carbon footprint than non-local.

While a trip to Spokane is most likely in the cards sometime this holiday season, I’m committing to spend at least 10% more of my Christmas money in local businesses.

Mike Stolte is the Executive Director of the Nelson-based Centre for Innovative & Entrepreneurial Leadership (CIEL - www.theCIEL.com).

Will Nelson Become a Hollow Boutique Community?

Made in the Kootenays Housing Crisis Requires Home-made Solutions

Now that I have my house in the Kootenays should I care about housing for others? If prices are too high here, won’t the current financial crisis straighten things out, like it’s doing to formerly overheated housing markets south of the border? If there aren’t enough rentals, won’t the market respond and build some?

These are all questions that emerged at the “100 Mile Ideas Diet” conversation café on innovative affordable housing solutions that CIEL (www.theCIEL.com) organized at Oso Negro (www.osenegrocoffee.com) last week (this was the 4th of 5 forums on issues related to community vitality). Housing is such a broad and relevant topic (we all need housing) that the café was only able to scrape the surface of the issue, in the process tapping into some passionate beliefs and values when it comes to housing and possible solutions.

“The market has failed, and failed colossally here”, began housing consultant Derek Murphy. In the last great market failure, governments stepped in. Murphy gave the caffeinated crowd of 75-80 some history and context. A housing shortage caused by the swooning ranks of boomers in the ‘70s led provincial and federal governments of the day to become proactive, not only providing units (through non-profits and cooperatives) and incentives for housing developments, but also offering generous subsidies to low and even middle income earners to buy homes (up to $10k). This time around that same supply crisis we experience here in Nelson is more of a regional issue. It’s confined mainly to the west and differs from community to community. Therefore, we shouldn’t expect it to be addressed by deficit-laden Ottawa or Victoria any time soon said Murphy.

What does that mean for us? With rentals in short supply (and disappearing yearly), developers only building higher-end units (and all that’s moving much more slowly – if at all- in a slow economy), prices still hovering in the $300 k range (unaffordable for most first-time buyers), and the issue being complex (spans geographical and political boundaries – Salmo, Castlegar, the Valley, Nelson are interconnected), are there any signs of hope?

To make matters worse, many of us who bought when things were cheaper (like me), are often oblivious of the issue. Or they believe we should raise the drawbridge and not let anyone else in. But if young families, and many of those who helped to build the vitality that we appreciate in Nelson (seniors, artisans, people who work in lower paid sectors that fuel much of our service-based economy) can’t afford to make this place home, we become a hollow boutique community. “The word is out,” said panellist Stacey Lock, community outreach worker, “Don’t move to Nelson unless you have accommodation.”

Some of the innovative solutions suggested were interesting: allow innovative non-profits to flourish (like years ago), provide land trusts (public owns the land, therefore units are more affordable) like they do in Europe (CBT was suggested as the catalyst), offer shared accommodation (in Philadelphia, trusts operate larger renovated houses accommodating 7-8 people), provide housing where a full range of services can be provided to the homeless (like Portland Hotel in Vancouver – panellist Michelle Mungall pointed out that it costs 33% less to house those in need than provide for medical, health, and justice services to the homeless. She also stated that one in five clients of emergency housing services locally are the working poor).

There were also some more affordable construction options offered; the new Castlegar seniors residence is coming in at 2/3rds of typical development costs, yurts (a fully insulated yurt for less than $20 k), supporting local builders (Mandala, Top Notch, etc.), or accepting more cheap modular (pre-fabricated) housing. Tata, the Indian manufacturer of a sub-$5,000 car, is selling out of its new basic $5,000 five hundred square foot pre-fabricated three story walk-up apartment units in the Indian housing market.

Nelson is going to have to get over its extreme Nimbyism (Not In My Backyard) if it wants to move forward on the issue concluded panellist Derek Murphy. He asked some provocative questions:

• Is Nelson willing to accept 40-60 unit multi-family dwellings (which we currently seem to oppose)?
• Are we willing to expand City boundaries to allow for more serviced land (and therefore more affordable units)?
• Are we willing to accept and push for more modularized homes (e.g. mobile homes and other pre-fabricated choices), getting over our hang-up for custom (more expensive) homes?

All food for thought and worth having a continued community conversation and respectful debate on. Closing our eyes and ignoring the issue won’t make it go away. Only good focussed leadership will help.

To follow the continuing discussion: http://ciel1.blogspot.com/

To listen to the café’s conversations, stay tuned in the coming weeks to KCR for the ‘100 Mile Ideas Diet’ and CIEL’s web-site (podcasts of the show).

Mike Stolte is the Executive Director of the Nelson-based Centre for Innovative & Entrepreneurial Leadership (CIEL – www.theCIEL.com).