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Carrboro’s business wish list

Posted on September 10, 2009September 10, 2009 by Staff

By Dan Coleman

Serving on the Carrboro Board of Aldermen, I hear a lot about what residents think would improve the town. Although these conversations can pertain to any area of government or community life, business is among the most prominent topics.
Here are some of the most desired businesses for Carrboro, based on what I’ve heard over the past few years:

A movie theater: This has long been viewed as a desirable addition to the arts and night life that are such a big part of downtown Carrboro. With the last screens in downtown Chapel Hill having closed, the potential for a theater is greater than ever. Ideas range from intimate screening rooms to standard theaters, from first-run films to repertoire and film festivals.

A book store: With the exception of Bull’s Head, which for many is difficult to access, Carrboro and Chapel Hill lack a local shop selling new books. Bibliophiles look at Durham’s Regulator, Raleigh’s Quail Ridge and Fearrington Village’s McIntyre’s and wonder how the home of the state’s flagship university missed out. A bookstore in downtown Carrboro would provide a center for our area’s numerous writers and book lovers. It would have synergy with the West End Poetry Festival and other events and be a nice complement to the great selection of used books available at Nice Price Books.

A vegetarian/vegan/raw restaurant: Carrboro is home to a well-established community of holistic healers, health care professionals, body workers and health facilities. Yet there is little available for those who have a similarly healthy diet. To their credit, all of our restaurants offer something for vegetarians or vegans — grilled portobello sandwiches and the like — but many yearn for a more diverse vegetarian menu. Such a restaurant could become another destination business for Carrboro.

A Carrboro bank or credit union: Lots of Carrboro residents would like nothing more than to do their banking at an institution that would use their funds to support local businesses and residents. A local bank could do a lot to strengthen the Carrboro economy while speaking to the community spirit of our residents.

Without over-romanticizing, it is worth recalling the scene in Frank Capra’s It’s A Wonderful Life when George Bailey explains to a patron demanding his deposit, “Well, your money’s in Joe’s house … that’s right next to yours. And in the Kennedy House, and Mrs. Macklin’s house, and, and a hundred others.” It seems that it would make sense to lots of Carrboroans if, instead of invested in distant, faceless corporations, their funds were invested closer to home.

These are the most popular business ideas I’ve heard. I’m sure you have your own. It’s important to talk about them so that potential entrepreneurs can get the bug in their ear.

There is a lot the town can do to support budding entrepreneurs. Carrboro’s Economic Development Department can direct them to a wide range of resources to help business start-ups as well as provide guidance through the town’s oversight processes. In addition, the town’s Revolving Loan Fund for economic development is geared to help businesses that cannot obtain conventional loans.

The Local Living Economy Task Force will be wrapping up its work soon and reporting action items to the board of aldermen. The task force’s mission “is to investigate and evaluate strategies by which the Town of Carrboro can help foster the development of a sustainable, locally owned and run economy … [including] strategies regarding ‘thinking local first,’ identifying and plugging leaks, mobilizing small businesses, entrepreneurship training, investor mobilization, and public policy reform.”

The board of aldermen has made commercial development a priority and we should soon see ground breaking for new projects downtown. This will make space available for the businesses Carrboro residents are hoping for. Town staff is working on establishing commercial and mixed-use zones in northern Carrboro.

Some day you may be able to dine at Carrboro’s vegetarian hot spot en route to a film or a book reading, all paid for on your local debit card. The Paris of the Piedmont could become the Bedford Falls of the Piedmont.

Dan Coleman is a member of the Carrboro board of alderman.

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