UPDATE: Zachary Lozoff reports, “So, after the Sister Bay Planning Commission voted to consider the Subway project (under) a conditional use permit, the developer withdrew his proposal. Which means, NO SUBWAY!!!!! At least for now, that is… the commission is going to spend the next 6 months or so re-writing the zoning code to make it more clear on the subject.”
More at… JUST SAY NO to a subway in Sister Bay!
Three times as much money stays in the local economy when you buy goods and services from locally owned businesses instead of large chain stores, according to an analysis which tracked the revenue and expenditures of eight locally owned businesses in Midcoast Maine.
“This is the beginning of a cancer… it starts with a tiny spot and grows, consuming everything around it, sucking the life out of a once healthy organism,” says one of the the Admins of JUST SAY NO to a subway in Sister Bay – a Facebook Fan Page that opposes the idea. “When a local business like Jungwirth’s or Nelson’s or Hammersmoth TV decides to affiliate with a national chain it is a different story than when a corporate chain decides to open a branch in your town.”
Tonight at 5:30 pm the Sister Bay Regular Plan Commission meets at 5:30 pm to decide on a request made by Subway developer Bruce Gajewski, owner of 7 Subways in and around Green Bay who has been eying possible locations in Sister Bay for several years. He failed in two previous attempts to include a new Sister Bay Subway in the Pamida building and at the Sister Bay Mobile station. His latest proposal is slated for the 2nd item to be considered by the Commission tonight in a followup to last month’s opening round.
There are many people who agree with the sentiments expressed at this and other Door County anti-Subway sites that have sprung up on Facebook. But even more important are the facts behind the outrage…
Local Works! Examining the impact of local business on the West Michigan economy, a study by Civic Economics finds the following:
Local restaurants return more than 56% of their revenue to the local economy in the form of wages, goods and services purchased locally, profits, and donations. Chain restaurants return only 37%. Measuring the total economic impact of this difference, including indirect and induced activity, the study estimates that $1 million spent at chain restaurants produces about $600,000 in additional local economic activity and supports 10 jobs. Spending $1 million at local restaurants, meanwhile, generates over $900,000 in added local economic activity and supports 15 jobs.
This is just one of scores of studies that come to similar conclusions about the effects of chain stores and corporate franchises on local communities, available at The New Rules Project; Designing Rules as if Community Matters. Hopefully the members of the Sister Bay Regular Plan Commission will have already familiarized themselves with the same data.
You may wish to send comments to:
Robert L. Kufrin – Administrator/Zoning Administrator
rlkufrin@sisterbay.com
