CLARK COUNTY —
Let’s look local along canal
It looks as if our canal is moving forward. This is a good thing. It will attract more of the visitors Louisville receives. This will aid Jeffersonville’s and Clark County’s economy.
My question is what kind of businesses will occupy the new shopping areas? Will the new businesses be locally owned or out-of-state chain stores?
Locally owned stores would preserve Jeffersonville’s uniqueness. Chain stores would give nothing to the memory of the tourists, except the sameness of what they see where they live.
A chain store’s money is eventually deposited with the parent company. Bookkeeping, marketing, construction and goods will also be outsourced. For every dollar spent in locally owned stores, three times as much stays in the local economy as opposed to chain stores. Local stores use local accountants, marketing, banks and construction. To bring in chain stores would hurt our local economy by costing jobs of local enterprises.
Let’s put local businesses on equitable footing with chain stores and restaurants. Let’s offer local businesses and restaurants the very same incentives as the chains — from securing grants to tax benefits to lower costs on utility hookups.
Whatever tangible incentive that is offered to the chain stores should be offered to local businesses. Only by putting local businesses in equitable footing with chain stores will Jeffersonville and Clark County really prosper.
As the bumper stickers in the state of Washington read, “Buy Local or Bye-Bye Local,” “Be a Local Lover,” and “Think Local, Buy Local, Be Local.”
We can start prospering in Jeffersonville if — when we shop — we ask, “Are you locally owned?”
— Steven Fetter, Jeffersonville
Opinions
EVENING NEWS LETTERS: July 31, 2010
- Opinions
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BEAM: Dealing with disaster
Yet the survivors of Daisy Hill have also witnessed deceit. They say greedy people not affected by the storms have claimed gift cards and even cars meant for those in need with bogus addresses and other lies.
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CUMMINS: Are machines becoming more humane?
I can see it now. Load gobs of financial data into the massive bi-partisan federal computer, powerful enough to digest the national debt. Whatever it spits out, Congress could not filibuster, nor could the president veto it.
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DODD: An unexpected Angel
- CHEERS AND JEERS — For May 26-27
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STAWAR: The souvenir state of America
Recently, my wife Diane and I spent the day aboard the Belle of Cincinnati with our daughter’s family. We all had a good time, even though the diesel-powered Cincinnati attraction isn’t a real steamboat, like our own Belle of Louisville, and despite the fact that it poured down rain the whole time.
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NASH: Making a Memorial vacation
Memorial Day weekend is upon us which brings us to the start of the summer travel season. With the mild winter we had around here most schools didn’t have much in terms of snow make-up days so many kids have already finished up their semesters and are ready to get on with their holiday. Not to worry parents it will only be a couple of weeks before the back-to-school sales kick in and in no time at all it will be time for those youngsters to go back.
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HARBESON: A handy little idea
After having worked hard the past few months, I now have something new to add to my resume — “I was Lead Project Manager for a major construction venture, supervising every aspect in the creation of a privately funded community building.”
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MORRIS: Nancy Hogan was more than just an employee
Pulling into The Tribune parking lot each morning was pretty uneventful in the old days. Nothing good happens between 5:30 and 6 a.m. Nothing at all.
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HAMILTON: Is this really the best we can do?
As you know if you pay attention to national affairs, the United States faces a perfect fiscal storm at the end of this year. A confluence of deadlines and policy triggers unlike anything I can remember in a half-century of public life will produce massive budget cuts and serious tax increases amounting to a 3.5 percent hit on the nation’s Gross Domestic Product.
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LETTERS: May 23, 2012
— Tea Party leader responds to bridges column
— Bridges need a new approach
— Wives of JPD officers say thanks for service
- More Opinions Headlines
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