Photo credit: Next City
Op-ed: A recent survey of main street small businesses shows how small-scale manufacturers can help keep dollars in the local economy.
In communities large and small across the country, vacant storefronts are eroding the local tax base and pockmarking main streets. As local governments look for solutions, a new analysis of data from Main Street America’s most recent small business survey proves that “maker businesses” create the biggest difference for local economic strength.
For years, I’ve called for cities and neighborhoods to invest in empowering small-scale manufacturers in order to help reactivate their downtowns and commercial districts, knowing that it’s one of our most underutilized tools to rebuild local economies. This new data, the first of its kind, gives us a fuller understanding of exactly how that economic revitalization happens.