Tag Archives: local economy

Time Banking comes to Ypsilanti with the hOur Exchange

You might already know this, but I just discovered that Ypsilanti now has a functioning time bank. (For those of you not familiar with the concept, that’s a system of reciprocal service exchange in which units of time serve as currency.) It’s called hOur Exchange Ypsilanti (hEY), and there’s a 1:30 orientation session Thursday, January […]

Posted in Ideas, Local Business, Locally Owned Business, Uncategorized, Ypsilanti | Also tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 15 Comments

Ann Arbor’s vegan food cart The Lunch Room to evolve into a brick-and-mortar Kerrytown restaurant

Yesterday, the owners of Ann Arbor’s favorite vegan food cart, The Lunch Room, formally announced that they would be following in the footsteps of Eat, and making the transition from seasonal outdoor vendor to year-round brick and mortar. Following is my interview with Phillis Engelbert, who, together with Joel Panozzo, owns The Lunch Room. MARK: […]

Posted in Ann Arbor, entrepreneurism, Food, Local Business, Locally Owned Business, Uncategorized | Also tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 14 Comments

Is the Bank of Ann Arbor’s “non-local banker campaign” a hypocritical, pointelss mess of faux-localism?

For the past few months, those of us who live in and around Ann Arbor have been subjected to a relentlessly pervasive advertising campaign featuring a balding, sunken-chested, Clearasil-colored cartoon banker with an often furrowed brow, and standard issue “nerd” glasses. He started showing up on billboards a little over a month ago. At first, […]

Posted in Ann Arbor, Marketing, Observations, Uncategorized | Also tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 119 Comments

BALLE founder Judy Wicks on the origins of Urban Outfitters, the birth of the Localist movement, and the necessity of local ownership

Recently, while in Grand Rapids, I had the occasion to meet Judy Wicks, the founder of the White Dog Cafe in Philadelphia, and the woman who, ten years ago, brought the Business Alliance for Living Local Economies (BALLE) into being. Since the meeting, we’ve been chatting by way of email… Here’s the interview. MARK: Having […]

Posted in Economics, Local Business, Locally Owned Business, Sustainability | Also tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 13 Comments

Accelerating Community Capital (part one)… at the BALLE 2012 conference

I spent the day in Grand Rapids, participating in a workshop on new models that are evolving for local businesses to raise capital from lenders, investors and donors, at the 10th annual conference of the Business Alliance for Living Local Economies (BALLE). What follow are my rough notes, for those of you who care about […]

Posted in Economics, entrepreneurism, Uncategorized | Also tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 13 Comments

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