To begin with, I’m not particularly fond of the tactic of slapping some innocuous name for your initiative that doesn’t give any clarification on what it’s about.  “Hometown Democracy”? Who’s going to vote against something like that? If you walked into a ballot booth tomorrow morning and had to choose whether or not you were going to vote for democracy, chances are good you’ll pass that in a jiffy.

It’d be like asking a troop of Boy Scouts if they would vote for “Firestarter Class”. It’s a layup.

So Hometown Democracy, what is it about? It’s about change… and resisting it. It’s the mentality which says, “Now that I’m here, burn the bridges so no one else comes.” It seems overlooked that the biggest engine driving our local economy is getting squeezed out again. And no one is stopping to consider who is going to wind up paying for it. It’s the small business. That same small business that hires locally and spends locally. The only people this is really going to benefit are retirees and light sleepers who like to hit their snooze button. It’s like Confucius says,  “Only the wisest and stupidest of men never change.” Businesses don’t make money unless they offer something *better* than what was previously available. That’s why this free-market capitalism of ours has created a world of change and elevated our standard of living to the level we all enjoy today.

Too often we demonize “the Developer” as someone who just comes in and levels old houses in the name of the Almighty Dollar and don’t look at the huge risk he bears and meanwhile provides jobs in construction, then retail and all the other associated benefits of new developments. It’s just as often the guy who wants top dollar for his 1979 wood frame house who’s whining about new development. Change is good AND necessary.

“It is not necessary to change. Survival is not mandatory.” -W. Edwards Deming