Return to the Real
By Melissa Everett, Ph.D.

As the economy melts, the conversation in the national media has been all about managing Wall Street’s fallout onto Main Street. This is important. However, a more important question might be this: what is Main Street going to do to save its own skin and increase its control over the situation?

Any answer has to begin with a return to the real, a big step away from the abstractions of paper that can be bought and sold without clear value, and back to a focus on the goods and services that an economy needs to provide. Resilient communities are those that understand the need to use resources efficiently, build on assets, and keep wealth in the community. They realize that their local strategies are a product of local conditions and assets, and must be designed in detail from the inside.

• The town of Osage, Iowa, wrote its own textbook and retained its home-grown manufacturing industry through the un-glamourous practice of energy conservation, helping the factories and small businesses to cut energy costs so that they could better meet payroll. Today, unemployment in Osage is half the national average. A leading company, Fox River Mills, has expanded manufacturing and increased its work force from 110 to almost 400.

• The Pennsylvania Fresh Food Financing Initiative (FFFI) has made $42 million in grants and loans to finance 58 new and expanded grocery stores in low income neighborhoods, creating inner-city jobs and preserving the state’s farms.

• Dynasty Deconstruction of Cleveland, Ohio has dismantled over 75 buildings and re-sold the components, creating jobs at $10 - $18/ hour for a work force of 23 and spinning off special training programs such as Hard Hatted Women.

Look closer at the Hudson Valley’s economy, and you will see seeds of the same wise thinking. New York’s Energy Research and Development Authority runs a small commercial audit program that serves those businesses that take the initiative, but does not target geographic or industry clusters. The Hudson Valley Agribusiness Development Corporation invests in key companies and infrastructure to strengthen the food and farm sector. Habitat for Humanity operates an attractive ReStore for reclaimed building materials, in Newburgh, and could expand the operation dramatically. All these strategies deserve greater support.

What should a community do???

• Invest in energy efficiency systematically and broadly, and capture the dollar savings; nurture the industry that is grown by doing this.

• Identify home-grown industries that meet local needs, from food to shelter to clean water to beauty and culture. Grow them.

• Create efficient and effective marketplaces – online and in every village and city center -- so that each existing business reaches its full potential and the regional marketplace provides a stepping stone to exporting from a position of strength.

• Invest in the social safety net – both the public agencies, and the nontraditional approaches to mutual aid like Time Dollars (www.timedollar.org), so that people can take care of themselves and each other and cut reliance on the stretched service agencies.
Local economies that are staying vibrant in the midst of the national meltdown, are often writing their own scripts. That, above all, is something that our maverick communities are good at. Let’s use this asset to advantage.

Melissa Everett, Ph.D. is Executive Director of Sustainable Hudson Valley, www.sustainhv.org.