Initiative to Address BRAC, Other Issues
By Brigid Schulte
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, June 15, 2006
Arlington likes to think of itself as a county of neighborhoods. Places where the owner of the local business lives just around the corner and everyone stops to chat at the local coffee shop or ethnic grocer's.
Such as when Arlington County Board Chairman Chris Zimmerman (D) wanders over to Rappahannock Coffee on Columbia Pike on a Saturday morning. "You won't stop saying 'Hi,' because you run into so many people you know," he said.
Last week, Zimmerman announced a $350,000 small-business initiative to commit more money and people to that neighborhood ideal. The county will hire two staff members to work exclusively with small businesses. They will open a transition center in Crystal City to help the 300 small businesses in the area as they seek strategies to survive the Base Realignment and Closure Commission's shifting of about 17,000 jobs and 3 million square feet of office space to other areas in the next six years. And they will help nonprofit organizations to operate more like efficient businesses.
Currently, the county has one worker assigned to small-business issues, but that person has had to juggle other duties as well.
In his State of the County address, Zimmerman noted that 75 percent of the county's businesses have 20 or fewer employees each. Those small businesses provide 37,000 jobs.
"Small businesses are going to come and go; someone's going to retire, and there's no one to take it over. The question is, is there opportunity for something to come along to take its place?" Zimmerman said in an interview. "The important thing is to continue to have new entrepreneurs, so we have a thriving sector."
The new staff members also will help to set up kiosks in Rosslyn, Clarendon and Ballston to enliven the streets with such ventures as bike rentals and flower and ice cream sales. As the county's 130 specialty and ethnic grocers seek to thrive, the two small-business-oriented county employees will be helping.
"We've done research, and we've found that the specialty ethnic corner markets give quite a bit of service and employment," Zimmerman said. "Among other things, people get to shop close to where they live. People are able to get off the bus, pick up a quart of milk and then go home. That helps us with our traffic problem, that people don't have to be so car-dependent."
The small-business initiative will continue a new effort to market Arlington's unique small businesses, using such aids as theme maps and walking "trails" showing places to dine and shop. For example, a recently issued "For You and Your Dog" map highlighted dog-friendly restaurants, pet spas and other pet-themed places such as the Dogma Bakery.
But perhaps most critical in the increasingly developed area is that the workers will help to find affordable alternative locations for small businesses that are squeezed out by development or rising rents.
The effort is not only about economic opportunity but also identity.
"People have different feelings about chain stores and national companies. When we didn't have anything at Clarendon, people complained about what they didn't have and how they had to go long distances to buy things," Zimmerman said. "Now that we do have them, the concern is that we'll lose the businesses that make us unique, that make us more than a shopping mall. We want things that make the community a unique place."
Places such as Java House, the Curious Grape, El Pollo Rico and Arlington Gift & Garden, which is owned by an Arlington family that ran a hardware store for generations.
"Every place can have a Barnes and Noble or a Cheesecake Factory," Zimmerman said. "It's the other kinds of businesses that keep a community's identity, that give a community its flavor."
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