New Orleans, Part 2

Today was our second day in New Orleans, and quite a busy one. Jana dropped Sam and David off at their Habitat build this morning, and after that, we headed towards The Idea Village by the intersection of Magazine Street and Girod Street for our first interview with a man named Tim. The Idea Village is an organization that established around ten years ago to help new entrepreneurs find their place in the business world and start up their own companies. They are able to do this by creating a tight-knit network of other entrepreneurs, companies, schools, and associations throughout the New Orleans area that allow new entrepreneurs to contact anyone they need - this is essential for new businesses because connections are so important for the commercial community. They also provide financial founding for these companies, which gives them the opportunity to get a leg up on their companies. In fact, their slogan happens to be: "For entrepreneurs and those who believe in them." Tim mentioned to us how the key for any city to rebuild itself is to build a strong foundation of small, local businesses. It creates a network of hardworking people who feed money to the local economy, and also, larger corporations wouldn't want to establish themselves anyways in a poor city - where there is crime, corruption, a lack of education, and a poor economy, a nation chain wouldn't flourish. Therefore, the only option for a city in need of renovation is for it to start from the bottom up and support motivated entrepreneurs. This happened to New Orleans about 25 years ago when there was a previously flourishing economy centered around the oil industry that had collapsed. A lot of problems arose in the city, and New Orleans was able to rebuild itself by starting from the bottom and building upwards. This gave local businesses a chance to thrive. Tim also talked about how competition is healthy and essential to all businesses. Not only is it beneficial for the consumer, but it helps the businesses because it forces them to improve, thus progressing the community as a whole. After our interview, Tim gave us a quick tour of the place, and both of us thought the rooms were really cool especially because a lot of the walls were entire white boards (talk about extreme note-taking!)

After our interview and tour at The Idea Village, we drove over to the apartment of a woman named Heidi. She is a commercial realtor for a lot of Louisiana, so she works with many larger corporations who are trying to establish in New Orleans and surrounding cities. Although the information she shared with us didn't have much to do with our project because she didn't have much knowledge pertaining to owning and operating a local business, she mentioned how a balance of large chain stores and local stores is important for communities. This is because corporations need to support all types of consumers, including those who want to support the local economy and those who can't afford to. A disadvantage that Heidi has noticed for local businesses is that it is difficult for them to survive because stores such as Dick's Sporting Goods have the ability to establish exclusives more easily. For example, if a new shopping complex were to be built and realtors were trying to fill one of the spaces with Dick's, Dick's can say that if they were to open up there, they don't want other shoe stores to open up nearby them. Yet local businesses often don't have this power because they aren't large, national chains. Another disadvantage for local businesses is that realtors and landlords aren't nearly as willing to take a chance with local businesses in their areas because the owners aren't reliable enough to remain open for the full time they claimed they would. On the other hand, national chains have often already established that they are stable enough to pay the lease and not declare bankruptcy, so the realtors and landlords often sell the spaces to them instead. In the end, Heidi's main point was that the most successful communities have a blend of local businesses and large corporations to serve as much of the community as possible.