Heh, heh, heh, You Said "Cracker Barrel"

The soundtrack for Beavis and Butthead Do Economic Development is pretty much what you expect from the Chamber's Bill Ramsey and Steve Rust of the Fayetteville Economic Development Council. They oppose any restraint on developers and demand corporate welfare and tax subsidies to induce new businesses to locate in Fayetteville, something at which they are pretty much failures. They no longer know the difference between an outright lie and a "strategic deception," and, with apologies to Bobby Ferrell, they are in bad need of a new mantra.

Only the conflicted editorial staff at the Northwest Arkansas Times still take them seriously. Even the local mutation of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette today has finally called bullshit on their Cracker Barrel wolf cry and their vision for Fayetteville's future. It recaps the ancient angst driving the clueless Chamber crowd, saying, "For years, Springdale has claimed bragging rights because it snared a Cracker Barrel after Fayetteville gave the restaurant trouble over the size of its sign. Springdale took Cracker Barrel in—sign and all. Not only did Springdale get the tax revenue from the restaurant, the city also got to giggle over how it had one-upped its rival to the south."

The Democrat-Gazette editorial then points out what everyone else already knows, "Springdale’s having an identity crisis. The city built its business identity with a wide-open attitude. Cracker Barrel’s got a great big sign? No problem. Come on down. Springdale’s hands-off approach has brought in a lot of business over the years. But it’s also resulted in the clutter that’s so much a part of the city’s image. The billboards, the signs on store fronts, the makeovers of former stores into used car lots, the reappearance of one-time gas stations as restaurants.... It’s all there for folks in Springdale to cringe at every day."

Last week, Bill Ramsey was still whining about the Fayetteville sign ordinance. He and Rust need to accept the fact that Fayetteville residents do not share the goals of the Chamber and the FEDC to make our city look like Springdale, but that would take a little common sense. It would also take a little imagination to encourage sustainable economic development that did not demand a free lunch on infrastructure and did not destroy the qualities that make Fayetteville unique.