Watertown’s (Economic) Development

Here is my more detailed response to the question raised at the recent League of Women Voters’ Candidates Forum that became a conversation on Economic Development.  I believe that it is a leader's responsibility to communicate a vision for Watertown and not simply to repeat the question saying, ‘New growth is important to Watertown’ or ‘I am excited about what is happening on the Arsenal site’.  My platform on economic development can be best grouped into three cross-cutting priorities:

 1.  Creating a culture that values and supports local entrepreneurs and cultivates partnership relationships with them.

 2.  Proactively choosing our own fate with real estate development.

 3.  Working collaboratively between departments to shoulder the load of existing services.

For those citizens with a longer attention-span than 120 seconds, here are some thoughts on the first of these,

1.      Creating a culture that values and supports local entrepreneurs and cultivates partnership relationships with them.

As a community extension worker and organizer in a rural village in South America, I spent 3 years living in a frontier-style community of 1000 people and limited access to the outside world.  Big business interests had not yet discovered this community and most commerce went through several small shops in the town plaza which was a bustling center of that society.  I’ve never before seen such a tightly-knit community and the relationships that these villagers formed with one another and with me gave it a family-like character that I will never forget.  From generation to generation in Watertown, we see family- of locally-owned shops and commercial zones as a dying breed.  I am not alone in my belief that without these essential building blocks of a community, the ties that bind our interpersonal connections fray thinner and thinner.  To a corporation, the consumer is a number or a row in their database and if you aren’t satisfied with what you get, there are another 10 million customers out there who are.  To a locally-owned business, you are a neighbor, a parent of their child’s classmate, a sister to their classmate or a member of the same religious community.  The difference is obvious and if you elect me as a town councilor, this is something you’ll hear me speak a lot more about.

Thinking further about it, I believe that our historic fight to keep Walmart out of Watertown should be viewed not as the culmination of a movement, but, rather, as the beginning of something bigger.  Whether it is a high-profile battle like this or the other seemingly run-of-the-mill and commonplace issues that the council faces two times a month, the council must remain vigilant to the influences and interests of the corporation.  We must plan pro-actively for an alternative economic model wherever possible.

A strong alternative to allowing outside interests to profit from the active commerce that goes on in our town is to cultivate our local economy. To create a more vibrant local economy, we should do a better job of nurturing and growing new small businesses.  The National League of Cities has concluded that the role of local leaders in promoting local businesses is to, (1) provide leadership, (2) establish communication strategies and (3) provide for an efficient regulatory environment.  I will work deliberately towards these goals as your town councilor.  I will support and publicize the important work of such organizations like Belmont-Watertown Local First by assuring that local businesses are ‘branded’ as ones with roots in our community.  Additionally, I will work to create a culture of appreciation for these businesses and the value that they have towards building a sustainable community.  Lastly, I propose that we take a critical examination at the red-tape that makes it hard for small businesses to start and succeed in Watertown today.  Nothing should be off the table with these ideas: innovations in tax structures, liquor-licensing, zoning and/or procurement procedures.  In the discussion of how to put back to use the two library branch buildings, I would introduce the idea of a town-managed co-working facility (click here for examples).  Co-working facilities are shared office-spaces where entrepreneurs or researchers can work in a professional and communal environment while bringing a renewed vitality to the neighborhoods and surrounding commercial zones.

When looking at medium and large companies doing business in Watertown, I believe that they should have an interest in improving the quality of life for our residents.  If you own a business here, then your commitment to this town should be a long-term one.  Such a commitment should be accompanied by a vision of Watertown as a hospitable place for your current and future employees and for their families to live and prosper.  This means that companies doing business here should be held accountable to contribute to infrastructure projects, education initiatives and even towards the cultivation of smaller new businesses in their infancy.  As a councilor, I will work to build partnerships with our largest business-owners and develop mutually-beneficial projects together.  This includes honoring the accomplishments of these companies through proud celebration and recognition of their successes.  In this way, the community can get behind our business leaders with a sense of civic pride and shared identity. 

An ideal culmination of this work will be a Watertown where any time a resident wants to hire a landscaper or plumber or go out to dinner, they can consult a directory of locally-owned business proprietors to do it and these businesses are thriving as a result.  Furthermore, through constant communication and reinforcement of this local-first philosophy, the residents of Watertown will become cognizant of the benefits to our community of such an action.  In addition to this, medium-sized companies with their offices here become invested in the town to the point that they may sponsor a WHS student scholarship for excellence in some thematic area or with an annual internship in their office.  Large-sized companies may even work to assist in the rehabilitation of a library building into a co-working facility that allows for young consultants or free-lance professionals to build their businesses or they may collaborate financially with mass-transit innovations or school computer lab upgrades.

We already have many family-owned businesses that pride themselves on a job well-done and the interpersonal relationships they’ve made with their customers over generations.  It's a common refrain that 'Watertown has a strategic location' geographically as we are but miles away from some of the world’s top technology and biological innovators -and our rents are still lower than in Cambridge.  We have a lot going for us.

Neighbors, friends, stand by me next week and cast a vote for this vision of a hometown that stands on its own two feet -for our city to be known as a destination of its own.  Dare to dream, Watertown.  We don’t have to be Boston’s bedroom any more.