Dear Macon, Do We Need to Break Up?
Dear Macon, do we need to break up?
I’ve been spending a lot of time out of town here lately, and I’m noticing something.
We’re not doing a good job of supporting one another.
Too many times we go and see the same businesses over and over again.
Too many times the same old people are celebrated, and while they deserve their celebration there are other people doing really cool things as well.
I’ve hesistated to write this post for some time because I feel like it’s important to highlight the positives of our community, and I know it’s important for economic development and bringing in new businesses for myself and my writers to stay positive. But y’all don’t always make it easy.
There are small business owners- all of the people willing to advertise on this site are people I am grateful for. They are willing to invest in me, and it’s a mutually beneficial relationship. I did the math recently, between this website and my social media channels, I reach 150,000+ people per month. Between myself and my incredible writers and the advertisers, that’s a huge amount of people to reach.
But then there are moments when places like The Hummingbird, full disclosure: they are a paying advertiser on this site, takes a big risk to do something like going smoke free- because so many people say they would go if only it were non-smoking. And then we don’t do a good job of supporting them. Because of this, they have to reverse their new policy, and then people grumble because of it. Angel Collins wrote a really, really good article about this, and about how there is a core of people downtown who have worked towards revitalization with the money they work really hard to earn.
We don’t do a good job of celebrating those people. We don’t do a good job of celebrating the ordinary people who take a chance on opening a business, who work SO HARD day in and day out to keep their doors open- greatly because they do what they love but also out of a senses of giving back to their community.
Speaking for myself, I work so hard to promote the independent businesses here because I know these owners myself and I love to work with them. I’ve had people accuse me of living this high-end life because I spend my money here locally with the boutiques and restaurants- but truly I want to keep my hard earned money here: in Macon, in Athens, and elsewhere I travel. I want those communities to benefit.
And Macon, I love you- you are my heart and my soul but gosh almighty we’ve got to do a better job of supporting one another in these endeavors. I reach 150,000+ people per month with this blog and social media channels. And I do this because I love these businesses and communities. But when I go outside of Macon, I see people in those communities doing a better job of supporting local businesses. It makes me incredibly frustrated.
This is not to say there aren’t groups working on promoting Macon, because there are. I’ve gained new insight in to what the Chamber of Commerce, Main Street Macon, the Convention and Visitors Bureau and more do on a daily basis. But we, the people the individuals, we’ve got to do a better job of this ourselves and stop depending on others. We’ve got to share more about what’s good about our town to others, and social media makes it so easy. I do this for a living and reach almost 200,000 people per month all around this state and outside of it- just think of what we could do if we worked together?
And now we’re about to have a knee jerk reaction to a shooting that happening outside of a historic nightclub by proposing that those under the age of 21 can’t go in to bars- just when we’re finally getting Mercer students regularly involved downtown? Proposed by a councilman who doesn’t even represent that part of Macon? Please, Macon, come on.
Perhaps it’s not time to break up, I don’t want to give up on us yet- but we do need to work harder. Together. All of us.
Love to all y’all,
Molly
