We are looking for feedback on the services provided by the Brazos Independent Business Alliance. The big question right now is, do we want to continue providing free listings to all locally owned independent businesses in the Brazos Valley at BuyBrazos.com. While our mission is to promote all locally owned independent businesses, our biggest obligation is to our dues paying members. Some of our members have suggested that it is not necessarily fair to allow nonpaying members to have a free listing in our directory. Others feel that by having more businesses listed the directory is a better resource likely to attract more consumers. Ultimately the board will decide this issue, but we would like input from members and nonmembers alike.

by Stacy Mitchell

Many cities and towns are rethinking their approach to economic development. Rather
than subsidizing big-box developments and offering tax breaks to lure companies from
afar, they are beginning to look at how they can use those resources to grow their
economies from the ground up: to create local businesses to meet local needs.

Taken from Reviving Locally Owned Retail, full text here

From the New York Times:

Mobile but not flighty, fresh but technologically savvy, “the young and restless,” as demographers call them, are at their most desirable age, particularly because their chances of relocating drop precipitously when they turn 35. Cities that do not attract them now will be hurting in a decade.

“It’s a zero-sum game,” said William H. Frey, a demographer with the Brookings Institution, noting that one city’s gain can only be another’s loss. “These are rare and desirable people.”

They are people who, demographers say, are likely to choose a location before finding a job. They like downtown living, public transportation and plenty of entertainment options. They view diversity and tolerance as marks of sophistication.