In response to public demand, the Healdsburg City Council is limiting the number of tasting rooms allowed downtown and is starting to look at ways (zoning changes etc.) to cap the number of hotels in town, or at least downtown. These are changes I am happy to see coming.
But recent conversations about these issues have inflamed worries from some that the guiding principle of supply and demand is being abandoned to the detriment of our local economy. “On the surface it may sound good to make these changes,” they say, “but there could be unintended negative consequences.” “If tourists demand more hotel rooms and tasting rooms, we are foolish not to supply them,” they insist.
A key premise embedded in the idea of supply and demand is that natural economic balances will be the result if business enterprises are left more or less unencumbered. There is an unshakable faith that the principle is imbued with a trustworthy logic. If artificial restraints are removed, then fairness, equal opportunity, stability and predictability will be the outcome. We can avoid unintended negative consequences.
I think this is wishful thinking. There is as much faith as science at play here — as well as a prejudice towards desired outcomes (their own success) that skew these predictions.
Many free-marketeers like to issue warnings about what effect a hotel limit (for example) will have on parking, rents, proliferation of VRBOs, competition — the list goes on. They will outline a row of contingencies as if they were dominoes; as if the future will unfold with a clear and obvious trajectory. This pseudo-logical and alarmist manufacturing of possible outcomes is many times just laughable.
Their forecasts inevitably come hand in hand with a “too late to turn around” warning that says that small local serving type retail businesses can’t survive in the current economic environment. “Landlords forced to turn away tasting rooms will be left with empty storefronts,” they say. “People are too comfortable shopping online or traveling to big box stores in Santa Rosa to support traditional retail businesses downtown.”
I disagree.
Because tourism has been successful and the financial wheels are turning, we can address our concerns and complaints from a position of strength, not lack. It is the right time to start constructively creating a balance between tourist-serving and local-serving businesses.
Will the local-serving, mom and pop shops survive? Look around town. Many, if not most, of the businesses with real longevity fit this description (and yes, many sell to both locals and tourists and all struggle with high rents). On the other hand, we see tasting rooms and high-end boutiques coming and going frequently. If a business provides an experience that embraces community, fills a need, hires locals and supports local nonprofits, the community tends to respond.
Removing the demands of the market from the driver’s seat and replacing it with a community values-centered approach is not as risky as you would be led to believe. Most locals (and this includes landlords) want a commercial center that serves them, and they oppose the free market blindly snowballing our downtown into a bourgeois playland/tourist mall. They are willing to make balance work and they look forward to the rewards of convenience, great customer service and a downtown that feels like home. It will require a community-wide embrace of a shop local ethic (which should be actively promoted by the chamber of commerce) but I think we are ready for it.
The tourists will appreciate this new focus as well as us locals. They come here to escape their big city woes and experience a place where people love their downtown, know their neighbors and breathe easy — and where people proudly enjoy sharing their passion for the finest wine made on the planet.
But alas, there is already noise among the visitors. Some are saying that Healdsburg is letting its small town charm slip away. If this continues, will they too be asking, “Remember when Healdsburg was …?”
Chris Herrod is a lifelong Healdsburg resident, presently serving on the city’s Parks and Recreation Commission.
