My heliotropic seedlings have started coming up. Mesclun mix was first, but mustard greens have taken the lead. Everything is up now, spinach the last to stick two long thin leaves out of the dirt. Collards have a bit of a purple tint to their young stems. One of these days im going to feel like putting these in the real ground.

A number of years back, Dad and I cleared out a little 12×6 patch of vines and small trees in between the road and the drainage ditch. We laid down an old cross tie and piled in whatever compost dirt we had at the time. We tried to maintain a vegetable garden there, we did miss a few years. One year Dad even boldly planted a winter garden of broccoli and brussels sprouts.

It is now heading back towards winter (though sunny days in the mid 80s don’t really give that impression). I decided to crack the bed back open. It was in decent shape, but i was going for a full overhaul.

The first stop was a visit to the local garden store. Hutto’s is an excellent store, if my endorsement isn’t enough, Felder digs it too. I asked for any seeds that would still grow if i planted them now. I left with packets of turnip, kale, mustard, collard, spinach, mesclun salad mix, lettuce, cabbage and radishes. When handed the large packets of turnip, kale, mustard and collard greens, I was told “a little goes a long way.” I’m sure that is true, but i have a lot of seeds, so they will probably go even further. I grabbed a bit of gin trash compost and some winter bed fertilizer to get things going.

Back at home, i piled dirt into egg cartons and sprinkled seeds in. I covered each with another layer of dirt and patted it down gently. Then I watered them and put them on the screen porch. All together, I made twelve cartons of seed to germinate. I would put the turnips and radishes straight into the bed when it was done.

Over to the street, I moved the old cross tie out of the way to make room for fresh, still creosote-smelling cross ties. The kind that leave your skin itching for days. Since creosote is heavily dangerous for the plant life, and already leaving mold in its tracks, I covered the bottom, bed-side, and top with plastic sheeting and lay them in place. Two nine foot timbers make me a eighteen foot bed. I filled the cracks underneath with old bricks strewn in the garden. Mondo/monkey grass had to be transplanted. Some stayed to form an edge between the road and the garden, some lined the ditch to be a last line of protection against erosion from the garden, and the rest went to the wheel barrow, where anyone is free to have it.

Clearly, i needed dirt to fill in the bed. Another trip to Hutto’s got me a cubic yard of Mrs. Hutto’s Bedding Mix for $35. That will do for now. Maybe another yard in the spring when i want to level it out a bit more.

Today the turnips and radishes got planted, as did moms brussels sprout plants. Some of the seeds have started to sprout so that is all quite exciting.

More as it grows.

Fall Cleaning over here. Check Craigslist for a 1969 Retro 8-Track playing Hi-Fi with FREE 8-track. We also have two excellent Vintage Kenwood speakers with FREE speaker wire.

Here is a little something to whet your appetite:

cool vintage retro ultra-hip sweet nice bad excellent hi-fi awesome

Last time I made cauliflower soup, adam complained about the lack of calories. I forgot to tell him that it had lard in it. That was in Bristol, when I found cauliflower 3 for 99p one day. I just chopped them up, boiled them with lots of spices and sauteed onion, and called it a meal. It was a bit sparse, but cost less than £1 (for what turned out to be 8 hefty servings) to make when you counted only the two heads of cauliflower that I used.

Thankfully, I didn’t write that recipe down. When mom said that she was about to throw out the cauliflower that was bought a week or so ago, i protested. I found two good looking recipes online and decided to combine the power of the two. One was for creamy roasted cauliflower soup. The other was a curried cauliflower soup. What i ended up with was a Curried Cream of Cauliflower Soup, which was rich and creamy, but with enough curry to keep me warm.

Recipe after the jump (i’ve recently thought it would be neat to have a reason to say “after the jump”).

... here paired with minted water and leftover cornbread.

First get some Cauliflower and chop into small florets. One small head seemed to be good for three people. Add in some garlic cloves (i used three) and onion (one quite small one) chopped roughly into sizes that, while large enough to roast, were small enough to not be of a disagreeable size if they were consumed in whole. Salt and pepper go on at this point, I am a big fan of the pepper, so i put lots. I also put some coriander, curry powder and something that turned out to be turmeric (gives the yellow color) on. A drizzle of olive oil went on and i tossed it all together. This all goes on a roasting tin/tray and into the oven at 425 degrees Fahrenheit (220C) for half an hour (until nicely roasted), tossing and turning around the halfway mark.

We had something which could have been chicken broth/stock frozen, so i had that in a pot melting with some more water and a chicken bullion cube. The idea is to get enough liquid to hold the cauliflower in, chicken or vegetable stock is good for flavor of course. This may have been about three cups, but your experience may vary. Go easy on the amount of liquid as you can always top it up if you desperately need some after the cauliflower is added.

When that is on a boil, slide in the roasted cauliflower cocktail into the pot. Drop in some thyme and bay leaves at some point about now too. Let that simmer for about half an hour until the cauliflower is well tender. At this point most recipes call for a blender to puree the stuff down to a point at which it is unrecognizable. Not wanting the fuss, i pulled out a potato masher which makes short work of the cauliflower. You retain some texture and browned bits this way. The soup is almost done. The final twist is cream. Most recipes call for milk or light cream, but we don’t play around with dairy fats in this house – go for heavy whipping cream (double cream for the brits). I put in nearly a half pinter. No rule on this, just pour and stir until you think it looks good. Make sure it is warmed back up, and serve.

Variations to get you started: you can always add more pepper to any recipe, red, white or black would be lovely here. Nothing wrong with some fresh or dried peppers either. If you want to posh it up with a garnish cilantro may be just the job. Broccoli can be cooked in a similar manner, but may not agree with the curry so nicely, so go easy if adding it to the vegetable mix. Potatoes could probably bulk it out in a pinch. If you go light on the curry, cheese is a popular addition at the end with the cream, just make sure it melts and gets back up to hot.

For days, people came to our house. Arms full of food, eyes full of tears, minds full of memories.
For hours we stood, hugged, shook hands. Friends, neighbors, cub scouts, community leaders, co-workers.
For the last forty five minutes we sang. We listened, we reflected, we prayed.

In these days of instant communication over the inter-tubes, people having the interwebs in their pockets, and taking pictures on the digitals, all i had was a bike and a notebook, and a grocery list. That is not to say that the grocery list really mattered. But it does indicate that I had other things to do, namely, make fajitas. This is not about fajitas. This is about the the recently announced resurfacing of Woodrow Wilson Drive.

Talking about municipal public works is boring. This is going to be very boring because of that. Also, i forgot my camera, thus, no pictures to liven the mood. Please forgive me.

Yesterday I saw a JFP (and JFP-Local) tweet about a press conference Mayor Johnson would be holding announcing the resurfacing of Woodrow Wilson Drive. I figured this would be a good chance to go and ask a question or two. Conveniently, I could combine trips and hit the grocery store afterwards, pay attention, this is almost a theme of the post.

I arrived at the corner of Peachtree and Woodrow Willson to see a small clutch of news-peoples, police officers and people of some local significance standing behind some orange traffic barrels by the park. I walked over to the cameras and leant on my bike waiting for Mayor Johnson to arrive at the podium. He announced the work to be done: a resurfacing of Woodrow Wilson, done with assistance from the MDOT Intermodal Connector Program. Work has also been approved on Mill and Pascagoula streets, presumably under the same program. Work had already been approved, and is presumably now to start, on Pearl streets. These are all being done under the guise of improving access to Union Station (which I absolutely and enthusiastically support!).

The details of the resurfacing program are as follows: The contractor is Superior Asphalt. As Woodrow Wilson is an important corridor, the work will be done to minimize disruption. The work will take place on one lane at a time, mostly at night. There will not be any work undertaken during Jackson State or JPS football games at Memorial Stadium or Newell Field, respectively. The work should start “in a week or so” and be done within three months. It is the undersanding of the Mayor that the work will take only 60 working days.

Three news cameras showed for the “turning dirt”: Fox 40, Wlbt 3 and Wapt 16. The Mayor was joined by a representative from Superior Asphalt, the City Council President, a doctor from the hospital across the street and probably somebody else. I think he mentioned that an MDOT representative could not make it.

While the photo op was going on I got to talking with an Officer Brister (im pretty sure thats his name). After opening with the standard “who are you with” we got to talking about the road and pedestrian access. We both had noticed that many people working for the hospital cross the road to get to their cars parked near Murrah. He asked me how the crossing was and said that he thought it looked scary – fast traffic on and off the interstate. I suggested a crosswalk with a warning light was needed but he said it would only make people speed up. We decided that the best option would be a pedestrian controlled red light. He encouraged me to ask the Mayor about any pedestrian accommodation they may have made.

Johnson said that there would be work done on sidewalks and crosswalks along the road. I am not sure if this is new or existing sidewalks. He did indicate that pedestrian facilities were important to development. I overheard him talking to one news man about a new development coming to Jackson. He spoke of a mixed use development where people could “work play and stay in one place” which was the trend of developments nowadays. I think this is fairly exciting for an American city, but i did not catch where this would be. He said that it would bring an estimated $2 million in tax revenue to the City when fully developed. This would be land that did not generate any tax revenue currently. Hopefully this is on a brownfield site, rehabilitating abandoned buildings is far better than paving over valuable, if unruly, greenspace.

Then he got to my real curiosity. I was wondering what sort of study was done on life cycle costs of road surfaces. A resurfacing is just a temporary solution to bad roads. I asked about different paving methods or materials and if they were studied to see if they could extend the life and value of the road. Johnson replied that they are not done on a case by case basis – suggesting alternatives to merely paving were not studied at all – but from an overall standard based on the type of road. He did mention that some alternative road materials (recycled glass or rubber) are used sometimes, but necessarily being used in this case. He did say that the standards they applied were designed to get the most bang for their buck. Without looking more deeply into the issue or studying alternatives more carefully, we may not know if we could get more bang out of that buck.

So. Speaking of road surfaces. I went to the grocery store. I got, among other things, eggs (and was told to wash them by the cashier – not necessary due to USDA regulations on egg producers). I rode my bike home. On these rough streets, my bike and I can absorb most of the smaller bumps, but the larger ones – not so much. Thankfully my eggs all remained intact – but it did get me thinking about the importance of smooth roads. Having less traffic on residential streets would certainly help slow the onset of potholes and ruts. This is one of the further, gestalt issues that should be looked at.

Improving sidewalks is important for pedestrians. Sidewalks, especially along busier roads give people a safe place to walk (ok, you knew that). In my neighborhood, in the evening, it is generally lovely and traffic free, so people walk in the streets everywhere (we also have very few sidewalks). Cyclists should not ride on sidewalks. This is dangerous for pedestrians and does not help raise visibility of cyclists on streets – which is what should be done. The most effective cycling improvements that I have noticed are cycling only streets (cut off to cars) and cycling catches at stop lights – allowing cyclists to filter out of the stopped traffic and get ahead of the cars. Motorists don’t notice cyclists amongst the cars, and its a horrible place to sit in between two cars with engines running. Cycling catches make sure the motorists see the bikes and get to the other side of the lane once the cyclist gets going.

I am a bit torn about bike lanes. They are great when they are respected – cyclists can easily fly through stopped traffic and not worry about a lane changing car not noticing them. the problem, however, is when they are not respected. People park in them, walk in them and drive in them. This is not safe for the cyclist. Additionally, merging back into traffic tends to be harder from a cycle lane than from within traffic. For example: a cycle lane on the right side of a four lane road is very difficult to move from when you need to turn left – if you were in the right lane, this maneuver would only require you to shift to the other side of the lane before changing – but without constant signaling and looking backwards (both unsafe to that extent), this is not easy to do from a bike lane. Integrating with traffic is difficult from segregated lanes. Cyclists need to move with the traffic – no salmoning! Riding on the side of the lane usually allows room for a motorist to squeeze through, and spaces between stopped cars allows the cyclist to race to the head of the queue at a stop light. Its all about maintaining smooth efficient traffic flow.

Perhaps instead of bike lanes, safe routes should be marked. Signs indicating that a road is also a key bike throughway may help. A wavy line of green paint in the lane (where it won’t get worn down by cars) with the occasional bike stencil could indicate to cyclists as well as motorists that that road is ideal for cyclists, and cars should be wary. It is the visibility of cycling that needs to be raised.

From Senatobia, take highway 4 east to gravel springs road, go south to O B McClinton road and take a left. Within a mile, you will see the cars lining up on the street and neighbors renting out their driveways and yards for $3-5 per parking spot. The marching band, consisting of up to two snare drums and three bass drums led by a fife, marks the Turner family homestead. Two dollars gets you a long night of food and music. This is the Otha Turner Memorial picnic, started by the late Otha Turner in the 1950’s as a labor day goat barbecue, it is now an open barbecue and blues party.

Some little girls were dancing around as we arrived:

We walked around the house to the back yard, which had been transformed into the perfect venue for a blues show. An open shed had a menu posted which revealed that a barbecue goat sandwich could be had for only $3.50, pork was $3 and pickled eggs only fifty cents. The goat sandwich was excellent: thick white bread, plenty of sauce, and delicious meat. A trailer directly behind the house held the huge barbecue smoker where freshly cooked meat was being kept warm. As people came in, the chef at the barbecue snuck out some tender ribs and offered them to whoever was standing around.

This is who you sneak ribs from:

A tractor trailer was set up with a stage in the back of the yard, blocking view of the horse pen. One of the Turner women shouted out for the Burnsides, who seemed to be running a bit late. A young man who was enjoying the festivities thoroughly took it upon himself to climb on stage and assure the crowd that the music would start soon “Its definitely gonna jump off soon, and because you had to wait, we gonna make it real good.” He made a number of these announcements in only a few minutes before a blues guitarist came sat down on stage, flanked by Dexter and Garry Burnside, who supplied the drum and bass guitar for the performance.

The picnic drew one of the most diverse crowds I have seen at a musical event in Mississippi. Some elderly ladies and gentlemen from the Turner family sat on a bench near the food shed. Country neighbors were joined by young people of all description from the city. Red-necked men stood next to borderline hipsters. People from Memphis, Jackson and Compton swayed to the music alongside everyone else.

It got packed later in the night, but there were plenty of people gathering at the shack early on.

In between each artist, the marching band would strike up. The fife sometimes just seemed erratic, but made for an entertaining set. The people behind the instruments was always changing, sometimes a drum would be played by someone from the crowd. The snare drummers held their drums sideways and played casually, while the bass drums would dance around, putting on a show. Throughout the whole night, the drumline was excellent. When they started playing, the crowd would rush from the stage to surround them tightly. People closest would always dance while everyone else angled for a better view. The band often got so caught up in playing that they could not hear the calls for them to get back to the stage to kick off another set – they had to be physically pulled and pushed at least once to get them to the front.

Throughout the evening, a number of artists came to the stage, always supported by some member(s) of the prodigious Burnside clan. Otha’s sixteen year old granddaughter Sharde came on stage late in the night for a few songs, including an amazing fife rendition of ‘Ride Sally Ride.” Sharde was an excellent fife player, and it was announced (i think) that she has a CD on the way. R.L. Burnside Jr. turned up on stage to play “just one song.” It turned out that he had another song he wanted to play, before he played one last song. That last song was followed by several other last songs before one of the Turner women tried to kick him off stage. He played one more song after that. His trademark seemed to be just that – one more song.

It is really impossible to do justice to the experience in a blog post. The only lighting was a partially clouded moon and a single street light in the middle of the yard. 200 speed film and a no-flash philosophy don’t turn out good pictures in these conditions. The displayed pictures were taken on E’s digital. It was a wonderful experience, capped off with camping below the Sardis Dam.

For a video of Sharde, Otha and the Rising Star Drum Band in the Turner’s back yard, check this video. This is what happens as people arrive, but they dont park in the back yard anymore.

For a full recorded song:

Some people bemoan the lack of train connections in the US, some just complain about the lack of alternatives to the car or plane. People often ask why it is that Europe has a better (presumably defined as more dense, accessible, and frequent) rail network than the US. I am pretty sure that this question is often asked rhetorically, but I’ll answer it anyway: After World War Two, European countries invested heavily (yes, with monetary help from the US) in their damaged rail networks.

With that out of the way, I can introduce the issue at hand. There is currently a lot of excitement over the prospect of high speed rail in America. Californians passed a bond issue to finance a high speed link from LA to SF; a cabal of governors in the midwest signed an agreement to promote high speed rail; and the federal stimulus plan includes money for developing high speed corridors in several places in the country. This is all very exciting, and has undoubtedly lead to a massive surge in articles of dubious accuracy extolling the joys, benefits and statistics of high speed rail.

For clarification, I really like trains. Trains are my favorite form of transportation. I look forward to reading train industry journals online – the ones filled with advertisements for ballast tamping machines and in depth analysis on the different types of track and sleepers available. Some of my friends at university thought it was weird how much I liked trains – I could only explain my interest by saying that since I had been deprived of trains as a child, being exposed to so many made me go over the edge. It was an infatuation. One might expect me to be very excited by the prospect of having high speed rail in my own country. I’m not really.

For all of the great things that can be said about high speed rail, it is not really what we need. We need a solid, extensive, well served passenger rail network first. High speed rail would serve a few cities, when a train is traveling at 186 mph and above, it is not practical nor efficient to stop very often. Services of this speed would only serve major cities spaced over a hundred miles apart. High speed rail is designed to compete with air travel. While this is great, it limits the users of the network to those in major cities. What is needed is an expanded network, not a slimmed down one. Access to train travel needs to be increased, not restricted.

Right now, Amtrak has 44 routes. 31 of these routes only have service daily, if that often. The number of route miles served more than once daily is hardly 14% of the number served only daily (3,934 route-miles served more than daily, 28,233 route-miles served daily or less. source.). A network like this does not serve its potential customers well. What is needed is a serious attempt at making rail travel a viable travel option in the US. A more complete network would be able to feed into the inter-city routes that make money for operators.

A successful rail network could consist of three parts: Local, Inter-City and High Speed.

Local trains could share track with Inter-City trains. These would be slower, smaller trains which stop more often. Capable of speeds up to 80 mph, these trains would serve the sprawling urban areas and smaller communities along the Inter-City routes. Services could run frequently during the working day to maximize the usefulness to commuters. It should be noted that may local and state authorities already operate services like this.

Inter-City trains would run faster and stop less frequently. Routes for these services could follow major transportation corridors, and current Amtrak routes and serve cities too small for high speed service. These could run fairly frequently throughout the day. With double track, these trains could operate around 125 mph and share tracks with the local trains.

High Speed trains would run on dedicated high speed lines. Modern traction technology such as exhibited in Alstom’s AGV allow for these trains to operate at up to 220 mph. Services of this speed would compete directly with air travel and serve cities over 100 miles apart. The slower services would feed passengers into the service at major cities.

It would not be easy to build such a national network. Unfortunately, it has been a long time since American had an extensive network, and many of the miles of track have been taken up or fallen to low standards of maintenence. After all, standards for track built pre 1940’s would not be the same as the precise engineering required for high speed lines. Amtrak shares track with freight trains. Much of this is single track, and even though Amtrak gets a two hour window for travel, a single delay on a long distance train may set the train back for longer farther down the line. The tracks need to be upgraded so that Amtrak can operate at its most efficient speed. Or better yet, the government could take over the ownership of the train tracks themselves. This would allow a single body to oversee the construction and maintenance of track. Depending on the conditions of such a deal, rail operators may actually like the idea: they get to stop worrying about track maintenance, handing over cost and liability to the government; they may get an immediate cash infusion (most large train operators have high debt loads) as the government buys the track and land from them; all they have to do is subject themselves to a timetabling authority, where they could be guaranteed a slot close to when they need it.

Many people object to the idea of the government playing such a large role: owning the track, operating the trains… As far as owning the track, it does not really matter who owns it, so long as it is maintained to high standards. Most people are happy to tacitly consent to the governments ownership of roads, so the government owning other transportation infrastructure really shouldn’t bother anyone. Privatization of rail is possible, if it can be first established well enough to turn a profit. Privatization may not be needed though. State ownership of train operations is less relevant in Europe now with open access of one country to another. By this I mean that one can catch a German train in France, a French train in Italy, a Polish train in Hungary, and many other great combinations. It doesn’t matter that it is a government owning the company that owns the train, pays the conductor and picks out the decor – it is free market competition amongst government owned operators. So long as there is effective, efficient management, it does not matter that the government plays the role of sole shareholder and regulator of one or more train operators. Local and state governments could play a more active role in local and regional services, providing line with its own flavor and democratic ideal.

High speed rail is sexy, no doubt, and building an excellent network is a noble goal. With an average speed of 86 mph, the Acela, America’s only ‘high speed’ service, is laughable. It would be much more impressive to see an American Iron Horse splitting the countryside at 220+ mph. Before that is done though, we need to ensure that the rest of the passenger rail network will be strengthened. It is no use building a high speed rail network if the rest of the network falls into decay and passengers turn their backs on it due to lack of accessibility. High speed trains would certainly raise the profile of the train network, but that would be lost when potential passengers look at their options only to find that they have none.

There is a battle going on over what ‘local’ really means. I figured that it would be rather good fun to jump into the fray. So here I go.

I was informed of the rising storm on the fourth of August, sometime in the evening. A twitterific update by one of the JFP’s self referential accounts indicated that ShopLocal had ‘declared war’ and linked to this JFP article with the details. This is what had happened.

A JFP article criticized ShopLocal, the Clarion Ledger and the parent company of both, Gannet, for the misleading use of the word local. ShopLocal responded in a post which tried to belittle the JFP and claim that ShopLocal itself was local. This then led to the twitter post and article which came to my attention.

Its a bit odd, the ShopLocal post. The title asserts that they are local (it actually says that explicitly, “ShopLocal IS Local” you can tell they are serious because even the ‘is’ is capitalised), but their article provides absolutely no support for it. Their article is dedicated to saying that national chains can actually in some sense be considered local (more on that later). They end on the surprisingly weak point that they “support” local retailers. By this, presumably, they mean that they take local retailers money in exchange for advertisement. Support really isn’t the right word, they provide a service, for which they get paid; they are not investing in local businesses, they are quite literally taking their money. I will allow them this massive discrepancy and focus on their two separate claims.

The claim that ShopLocal supports local businesses rests heavily on their definition of local. By clarifying the definitions as they are used in daily parlance, I will disprove both main claims made by ShopLocal. The three definitions of local they provide are absurd. The presence of a business is the only factor in determining if it is local:

National-local: These are stores that have a national footprint, but still on a granular form have local market presences across many communities and cities.
Local-local: These are stores that are only found in one region. Examples include a small up & coming chain or a successful multi-location family business.
Hyper-local: These are stores that are only found in one (1) and only one town. Typically, these are referred to as mom & pop type operations.

It is easy to see that the only consideration is the distance from a certain town in discerning if it is local or not. So presumably this makes every Wal-Mart a local store, because, they are, after all, located in only one place. Actually, this makes every business a local business wherever it is located. Toyota becomes local – they have a dealership here, Nissan even has a plant nearby! This is kind of like HSBC’s marketing slogan “The world’s local bank.” Even though it is based in London, every HSBC branch is a local business, according to ShopLocal. Furthermore, if you have internet banking, HSBC has a presence wherever your computer is. The ‘local’ locations are endless! This means that while I was in Bristol, England, Trustmark National Bank (based in Jackson, MS) had a local presence in England – making it both local and international at the same time!

To define “local” we must look at what people mean when they use the word. The meaning is easily multifaceted. There are considerations like the distance of a business from the reference point (community, city, etc) which ShopLocal understands. People refer to places as local when the management has a local presence, understands the clientele and can respond to community needs and wants. This is roughly having not only local management, but also locally autonomous management. Lastly, the local business model that many people cite comes from a more economic standpoint – a local business is one that invests in the community in which it is based.

In Bristol, my Local (pub) was about a 90 second walk from my house. This is clearly very local in the grand scheme of things. The problem is, there were four other licensed establishments (excluding the restaurants!) which I had to pass in order to reach my Local. Did this make The Cat and Wheel less local than the others? While distance and location play a role, its not the whole story. While being a local business implies that the business is located in the locale in question, the implication is not an equivalence: merely existing in the locale in question does not imply that the business is local.

Pretty much any store, no matter how large the chain, has locally based management. When Brookshires grocery store opened in Jackson, they imported some managers from Texas to run the individual stores. The managers lived and worked in Jackson from that point on. When people talk about a business being locally operated, what they really are talking about is where the autonomy of management lies. Local management can react to the communities needs, desires and tastes; this generally means a management more responsive and dedicated to the community it serves. With a large corporate chain such as Wal-Mart, there is little autonomy of management at the local level. Each store looks the same and sells the same products. Local management is a matter of corporate paperwork, shift scheduling and signing off on deliveries from the corporate truck fleet. Local Wal-Mart management cannot actually manage the store in a way that reflects the community around it. Local products and local tastes are not found in Wal-Mart stores. Sure, they sell Mississippi Blueberries in some stores but that took negotiations by the state Agriculture Commissioner to achieve. On the other end of the management spectrum there are chain stores which really only carry the brand. In the Shell station in Macon, MS, the local management is fairly autonomous from Royal Dutch Shell corporate headquarters in The Hague (click here to listen to that in Dutch). Sure, the station carries only Shell gasoline, and pushes Shell credit cards on you, but they also have a deli which serves up breakfast, lunch and dinner for the town. Besides the branding, the stations management is free to shape the store to local taste, and adapt to feedback from local customers (and yes, I do realize that the management probably does not even live in Macon, and probably manages many other stations, but my point remains). Even with locally responsive/autonomous management, nobody would mistake the Macon Shell for a local chain. If you ask for something at CVS, the management will have to get permission from higher management to carry the item; if you ask for something from Deville, they will pick up the phone and place an order without having to ask permission.

Investment in local communities is what motivates many people to patronize local businesses. Somewhere on the interwebs there is more exact information on the topic, but the general idea is as follows. For every dollar in revenue, a locally owned and operated business will make a larger contribution to the local economy than an out of town chain. Take this example of two fairly identical stores, one a locally owned drug store, the other being an out of town chain. Since each is about the same, their taxes and utilities will be roughly the same. So for a dollar spent in each business, say, ten cents goes to taxes and utilities. We can now ignore that ten cents. Another fifty cents may go to covering the wholesale cost of the product bought – so that goes to the product maker/distributer. Chain stores can often lower this cost as they own distributers or can negotiate better prices from the maker, but thats pretty much irrelevant in this simplistic example. Say another ten cents goes to pay wages of the workers. The remaining thirty cents is profit, this goes to the owner of the company. With a chain, this goes to headquarters, way out of town (or to shareholders worldwide). With a locally owned business, this stays in town, with the owner returning that money to the local economy when they shop, eat out, and donate to charity. So thats the idea, when you shop locally, the local economy does better. Instead of acting like a drain for local dollars, local businesses act as a fountain, supporting businesses all around them. The idea is, this is a good thing. As a bonus, if a business uses local suppliers, those suppliers support the community even more. Why politicians spend their time trying to attract companies to open branches locally is a mystery – encouraging local entrepreneurship would grow the economy and boost tax revenue much faster.

The other day, I used an online service provided by a company called Google. I used this service to find the website of Deville Camera and Video, a locally owned business. So, I guess that ShopLocal would say that Google is supporting local businesses. We cannot really, on anyones definition, debate that Deville is a local company (they even have a big sign when you go in the store that says they are, with proof, and thanks the people who support them – the ones who give them money in exchange for goods). Google has done pretty much what ShopLocal would do: provide me with information on this establishment, including a list of all services they provide. If you aren’t convinced, Google even has the power to suggest local businesses that I have not even heard of when I only know the business type and location (just type in something like “camera shop in jackson, ms”) thus encouraging me to patronize these businesses. Google has done this without taking money from Deville though, so I guess they are just more altruistic in their support of local business. Should we call Google a local business? (What about local.google.com? Its got local in the URL!)

Google is not based in my house, it does not invest in my house and I do not have a say in the searching algorithm. Google is not local. ShopLocal is based in Chicago, the owners and operators are in Chicago and they do not actually support the Jackson community. ShopLocal is in no way local to Jackson. It doesn’t even appear that one could say that the retailers who advertise on their site (see below) could even be considered to be local businesses. There is a difference between having a local address and being a local business.

**UPDATE** Time has an nice article on the buy local point. This is besides all of the stuff in the JFP.
http://www.time.com/time/business/article/0,8599,1903632,00.html

Macon, MS – There is no daily paper to get the word out. Notifications are put up at every bank teller window, and by each till in the grocery store.

I look out the front window as the car rolls slowly in procession. Cars pulled over dot our short route. Old men on the sidewalk lean on their canes and gaze at us pass, heads slightly bowed. Neighbors talking on the porch go silent, but don’t shift an inch as they watch the cars in the road. Kids swinging from screen doors pause, hanging on the door handle; curious eyes follow the scene. Even the grey clouds sit still, low in the sky.