As Joe Borgstrom mentioned in his last post, the keynote at the Michigan Downtown Conference this year was James Howard Kunstler, a dynamic speaker and visionary whose speech painted a grim picture of the changes he sees coming. Joe’s right when he says that “it isn’t what you say, but how you say it.” I think Kunstler had the right vision, but he delivered only the bad news. His message was intended as a wake-up call, but his dark delivery risked alienating the very folks he hopes will take action... 

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Prior to my current position with the Scottville Main Street Program, I worked in sales. I always made it a point to strive to be the best at what I did. I will always remember what one of the best salesman I ever met said to me when I asked about his sales philosophy. He simply said you need to be their best friend or dazzle them with your knowledge. When I asked which of the two was most important, he told me that people want to do business with their friends...

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I can’t tell you how many times I’ve said the title of this blog as advice to my five year old daughter. Usually its my response hearing her answer a question my wife or I have asked in one of her huffy, five-going-on-fifteen, timeout inducing tones. “I’ve already told you THAT,” or “FINE.” If you have kids, you know what I’m talking about. However, today I’m advocating for we, as downtown professionals, adopt a little bit of that attitude.

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People’s preferences have changed. Suburbs are “out”… a relic of an automobile culture where high-speed auto access defined every transition of our day-to-day life, (from home-to-school-to-work-to-stores, and back), and was accomplished on four wheels in a climate-controlled environment. No more. Cities are “in”, right? Everyone wants to “live-where-you-work”, and walk to shops, entertainment and – in general – all the best things in life. That’s the great promise of the “back-to-the-city” movement. Except it didn’t happen the way we predicted.

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