
{"id":4344,"date":"2008-12-23T11:48:57","date_gmt":"2008-12-23T19:48:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.carrborocitizen.com\/main\/?p=4344"},"modified":"2008-12-23T11:48:57","modified_gmt":"2008-12-23T19:48:57","slug":"for-the-record-122408","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/2008\/12\/23\/for-the-record-122408\/","title":{"rendered":"For the Record 12\/24\/08"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>What is local?<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>We\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re curious. We hear so much talk about buying local; supporting local; eating, breathing and existing local. And we get it, sort of. The benefits of doing much more closer to home are clear, especially from an environmental standpoint.<\/p>\n<p>And this paper is among the many encouraging support of our local economy. In fact, there are several efforts to do so \u00e2\u20ac\u201d all of them pretty much focused on their version of supporting local.<br \/>\n<!--more--><br \/>\nIt\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s quite a panoply:<\/p>\n<p>In the last several months in Carrboro alone, there have been several efforts started or floated, including the town-sponsored Local Living Economy Task Force, a group exploring the BALLE model (Business Alliance for Local Living Economies), and photographer Jesse Kalisher\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Walk Carrboro\u00e2\u20ac\u009d campaign to promote Carrboro as an arts destination around the state and region. Add to that the many groups and organizations also seeking to promote our arts community, a new \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Book Local\u00e2\u20ac\u009d campaign by the Orange County Visitor\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Bureau and the Chapel Hill-Carrboro Chamber of Commerce\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s official \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Buy Local\u00e2\u20ac\u009d campaign.<\/p>\n<p>All of these efforts hinge on shoring up something that is local. It would be interesting to see just how much these various efforts concur on what that word means.<\/p>\n<p>There\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s no simple answer. The Farmers\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 Market model, typical of many markets throughout the country, uses a 50-mile rule, which is akin to the definition of local in some macrobiotic diets. Fifty miles makes sense for the production of food, but not so much for light bulbs, paper towels and paintings.<\/p>\n<p>Let\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s start with geography. Does local mean the Piedmont or just Carrboro, or Carrboro and Chapel Hill and maybe Orange County? Where does that leave Pittsboro and Saxapahaw? How does Hillsborough fit in?<\/p>\n<p>And how about commerce? Does the local economy include the grocery store chains that are among the county\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s top employers? Do we recruit businesses that will compete with homegrown enterprises? Is a shop still locally owned if the owner retires to the beach but keeps the place open?<\/p>\n<p>And planning? How does the vision of making this town an arts destination jibe with concerns about lack of parking and traffic congestion? Do we want a tourist economy?<\/p>\n<p>We don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t question the motivation of all these buy\/shop\/support\/eat local efforts. They\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re all genuine attempts to make this a better place to live and work.<\/p>\n<p>What we do question is how well the various ideas fit together and whether there is some way for these efforts to support each other.<\/p>\n<p>Some kind of local local summit is in order \u00e2\u20ac\u201d probably not to forge a consensus, but to get the ideas out in front of groups and individuals similarly inclined.<\/p>\n<p>We\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d like to hear from you about this issue. Please send us your definition of local and any thoughts you might have about improving our local economy.<\/p>\n<p>You can email editor [AT] carrborocitizen.com or send a note our way to Box 248, Carrboro, N.C., 27510.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Weather alert<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Two years of drought have spoiled us in a strange way. Gloomy, cold rainy weather is traditional this time of year. So quit moaning, this isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t Arizona. <\/p>\n<p>And please note that spring is just around the corner. Research conducted by The Citizen confirms that the planet is still tilting on its axis and, given the current movements, spring should be rolling around in a little less than 90 days.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>What is local? We\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re curious. We hear so much talk about buying local; supporting local; eating, breathing and existing local. And we get it, sort of. The benefits of doing much more closer to home are clear, especially from an environmental standpoint. And this paper is among the many encouraging support of our local economy&#8230;.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4344","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-opinion"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4344","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4344"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4344\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4345,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4344\/revisions\/4345"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4344"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4344"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ibiblio.org\/carrborocitizen\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4344"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}