I suppose it is my fault – having a background in customer service and sales and marketing; I just assumed that people would understand how important it is financially for our entire community that Newburyport is properly promoted.
Apparently, that is not how most people think.
The average person does not stand at the front lines between the seller and the buyer. They are usually working for someone who is ‘bringing in the business’ and doesn’t fully understand their ‘terror’ of responsibility. Others are in a support role, making product, fixing product and shoving large amounts of electronic and hard-copy paperwork around to satisfy regulators and stockholders.
But without marketing and sales, the factory would grind to a halt, all that paperwork would dry up and of course, great numbers of people would find themselves unemployed and very miserable.
That is what I mean by the terror of responsibility. The salesman knows everything depends on him and which is often the case, is never appreciated for that fact.
In Newburyport, our ‘prettiness’ and our infrastructure and our schools need cash – and lots of it. Last night at CPA, the soccer group estimated $10,000 a year to just maintain sports fields. Ouch! And that’s for a bunch of grass! We live in an expensive place.
We need growing tax revenue to sustain Newburyport and if you’ve noticed from the average citizen, most of us ain’t got it! Grants are often drying up out there and are not as readily available as they once were! (Thank you Maddof!)
And since 2008, we have not had the crowds in Newburyport as the economy has hurt a wide group of demographics across the country.
And we need these outside visitors to keep our businesses humming, we need their visits to fund our sidewalks and our infrastructure.
We need to be a highly desired location so our real estate and property values are high so banks will have confidence to loan based on equity.
We need lots of visitors.
And we need to make our city so desirous that people can not keep away. That means our Downtown is looking awesome, the Newburyport Historic District sustained and looking sharp, and our attractions, inns, museums, restaurants and shops are heavily promoted.
People talk about not needing a parking garage or even additional parking. That’s not the mindset we need to pay for our services! We need more visitors (14% will come back and live and some will pay for our high real estate) so that we desperately need a parking garage. That is what is called looking to the future.
It is adopting a mindset in which we looking for more revenue to help pay for the improvements in our city.
If the city depended on me, the entire town would be boarded up!
Let us all chip in our efforts to market and promote Newburyport so we can attract more visitors.
-P. Preservationist
www.ppreservationist.com
Brick and Tree 