Opinion: New year brings fresh start, celebration

With this first issue of 2005, we detail the results of our second annual SBJ Economic Outlook Survey. In November – after the election – we sent surveys to 700 randomly chosen SBJ subscribers. We received 150 responses, or 20 percent, of our sample. That’s a tremendous response rate, considering that people in the survey business are happy with a 5 percent or 6 percent return rate.

The second survey allows us to compare and contrast two years of results. The upshot: Optimism is high, and SBJ readers predict more new jobs, larger raises and significant revenue growth in 2005. Want details? They’re spelled out throughout this issue.

25 years of SBJ

Throughout 2005 we will be celebrating SBJ’s 25th anniversary. We’re planning a huge party and special coverage throughout the year, as well as our 25th Anniversary Special Edition in July.

But we don’t want the celebration to be all about us. It is Springfield area businesses that made our longevity possible; we want to celebrate you.

This year’s Business Spotlights will focus on companies experiencing significant anniversaries in 2005, with special attention to our peers – other companies that also are celebrating their 25th year in business.

If your business was founded in 1980, or if you are celebrating a major anniversary – your fifth, 10th, 15th, 20th, 25th , 30th, etc. – be sure to e-mail me at cfrench@sbj.net, phone me at (417) 831-3238 or fax me at (417) 799-0603. We also will recognize century businesses, those 100 years old or older, in our 25th Anniversary Special Edition.

Another anniversary feature is “Then and Now,” featuring photos of longtime Springfield businesspeople. Remember when the boss had hair? In a mullet? Got a picture? Send your photos by e-mail to the address above (jpg format, minimum resolution of 300 dpi) or mail them to PO Box 1365, Springfield, MO 65801.

Another blast from the past will be monthly Retro SBJ columns from past editors, writers, ad managers, etc. – who will recall their tenure, how SBJ affected them, and how they, and the market, have changed since.

Sales tax trauma

Maybe Springfield’s recent depressing sales tax revenues are a fluke, but I doubt it. We saw this coming back in the early ‘90s with the proliferation of Wal-Mart Supercenters throughout the region. Now speculation is reality: Springfield and Greene County’s sales tax base is eroding.

Back during the Supercenter boom, people argued that there was plenty of business for everyone. And if we were just talking about Wal-Mart, that might be true.

But we’re not just talking about Wal-Mart.

Up until recently, Springfield was the center of shopping activity for the region. Now, commercial developments have made Nixa and Ozark, and points south, increasingly independent of Springfield stores and services. At the same time, untaxed online purchases are on the rise as more people become comfortable with secure Internet transactions.

An alternative for funding our city government is unknown at this time, but you can bet taxes will play a role.

Homelessness

The time is long past for Springfield to address its homelessness problem in a comprehensive and compassionate manner that results in long-term solutions.

The Commercial Street-based shelters – The Kitchen’s Missouri Hotel and the Victory Mission – are already at capacity. Recent headlines about the closing of New Higher Ground Church, which was trying to pick up some of the slack, have brought this issue to the forefront once again.

We need a viable solution to the problem of the hungry and homeless, but that means a real solution, not throwing thousands of dollars at a consultant to study the problem. A taxpayer-funded study can be a valuable tool in solving a problem – but only if its recommendations are followed.

How about following the recommendations that were made 10 years ago in the April 1995 Report on the Impact of Homeless Persons on Commercial Street and Mid-Town for the City of Springfield, Missouri Department of Planning and Development?

That study concluded that it is a mistake to concentrate social services in one location, specifically Commercial Street. Concentrating services concentrates the problem and attracts predators who take advantage of the homeless and create problems for the surrounding businesses and neighborhoods.

If families and individuals are to become self-sufficient, they need to be housed in mainstream neighborhoods with ready access to public transit, not institutionalized in shelters.

Families need to be kept together in appropriate housing. There are abandoned and vacant homes throughout Springfield’s older neighborhoods that could be had for the price of back taxes.

What do you say, Springfield?

Clarissa French is editor of Springfield Business Journal.