GRAVENHURST’S WINTER OF DISCONTENT
We folks here at Birch Hollow, in uptown Gravenhurst, have been working hard on our business ventures over the past six months, and it has been one of my longest writing hiatus periods in my own recent history. My writing jags are being disrupted by the basic need of business attention, and I must note that the sacrifice of writing time has paid dividends in the antique enterprise.....while other businesses have taken a whipping in this most recent recession the online antique enterprise has been surprisingly strong. While I can’t stray too far from the keyboard, especially in the autumn season...which has always been my favorite time of the year, it is a nice, fuzzy, warming feeling to have accounting that spills favorably in the profit column for a change.
This is going to be one of the toughest economic periods in Gravenhurst history, moreso than for the other major Muskoka communities. The main street has been hit hard by the failing tourist economy and of course by the decentralizing "pod" commercial developments.....robbing, as they say, "Peter to pay Paul." Any modest economic visionary should have seen this coming and done everything possible to revitalize the historic main street business community before the recession, before the commercial expansion in the town’s south end, and before the winter of 2009-10 when we can expect a typical late recession hangover,....."the long-way from full recovery atmosphere," that will take its toll on those businesses just hanging on. And there’s road re-construction in 2010 to look forward to that will not be met with business enthusiasm..... when it comes to the anticipated inconvenience to be faced by already stressed business owners and landlords. We have family members in one of those storefronts so we know first hand just how precarious these lead-up months are to, remaining a for-profit mainstreet business.
I will never give up on Gravenhurst’s inherent capability to overcome adversity as it has for well more than a century of ups, downs and wobbles. It’s a survivor and it’s why I like living here. While it’s true I’m not a fan of local government, I am tremendously confident that the resident investors will push ahead regardless and get ready to meet the 2010 municipal elections, embracing the spirit of change. There are some folks on council who need to retire, or at the very least, to be defeated should they decide to give the council-experience another try. While I won’t endorse any candidates in this blog-site, I won’t hide my enthusiasm for a full house cleaning, in favor of some better economic leadership that benefits the whole town......and my town includes the historic and all important main street.
Trust me, I’ll be back soon with regular blog contributions. There’s too much at stake here in South Muskoka to sit on the fence and ponder.
As for the new pool.....well, all I can say is......FINALLY! And this is the problem. It has taken far too long to get one, and this needs to be understood to make pro-active changes for all the other improvements long over-due in Gravenhurst.
Thanks for visiting my Gravenhurst blog-site. More coming soon!