Julie Boisen is a successful healthcare consultant for a national firm. She operates from an office she started on Main Street in Plankinton, where she has put dozens of people to work. Boisen also bought a Main Street restaurant that was up for sale, remodeled it into the Commerce Street Grille and Bar, hired professional chefs, and adopted a local-foods business strategy, serving her customers vegetables from my friends at Muddy Pumpkin Farms and meat from local farmers and hunters.
Why is Boisen, a Minnesota transplant, making all this effort to keep Main Street alive in Plankinton, population 707? Simple: because she understands that if Main Street dies, the town dies:
"We have a firm belief that when Main Street starts losing business, that's when you start losing your town, and that's when your community starts to falter," Julie Boisen said. "I think having Main Street business is important. That's why we put Ethos on Main Street. We wanted people to see Plankinton is growing" [Anne Jauhola, "Couple's Multiple Business Ventures Spark Growth in Plankinton," Mitchell Daily Republic, 2011.11.23].
Side notes: Boisen's husband Brad is a big Republican, contributing $2500 in the past year to Kristi Noem and $1700 to Michele Bachmann, but Jauhola's article doesn't say anything about South Dakota's tax structure luring the Boisens away from Minnesota. It also doesn't mention Boisens' needing a no-interest loan from the city to advance their economic development efforts. Take note, Madison....
Pine Ridge at a quick glance has about three churches and a para-church and about as many vacant lots. Then there are a whole host of government buildings, three national franchises, three gas stations, post office, several homes and government quarters, vacant buildings, and about three or four private businesses. Several idea people have dibs on the vacant lots but it seems to take an act of congress to improve them.
The disdained tiny hamlet of White Clay, population 11 (within Nebraska), just two miles south of Pine Ridge Village, population 3000, has more going for it. I aggravate leadership by saying the best place to conduct business on the Pine Ridge Reservation is in White Clay.
White Clay by Executive Order, as far as many people know, is part of the Pine Ridge Agency but under Nebraska jurisdiction.
A healthy main street is worthy of keeping that way or striving for.