"SHOW ME THE MONEY" OR WHY COLLEYVILLE'S ELITIST IMAGE WON'T GO AWAY

I'm riled up.  Just when I thought we'd moved away from the image of Colleyville being obsessed with money, here comes another article about our city leaders bragging about disposable income.  Usually I manage to wait until at least noon before I get ticked off, but Wednesday morning it hit me right in the face before I'd even made coffee, much less had my daily dose of caffeine.  Seems our fair city commissioned a study to prove that Colleyville citizens have more money than our neighbor to the north, Southlake.  Right there on the front page of the Fort Worth Star Telegram were pictures of Colleyville Mayor Donna Arp and Southlake Mayor Rick Stacy squaring off in the "we're richer than you" debate (the Star Telegram's words, not mine). To his credit, Stacy got off some real zingers in the article.   

According to the article, an analysis done by the Buxton Co. of Fort Worth found that households in Colleyville had almost double the "disposable income" of Southlake ($32,523 to $17,647 to be exact).  I've requested a copy of this study from the city, as well as the documentation authorizing it and how much it cost the citizens.  I'll share that with you when I receive it.  In the meantime, let me explain why this analysis irritates me.  I'm tired of Colleyville constantly being portrayed as having the "highest per capital income" in the area, or whatever the latest statistic happens to be.  You see, I've always been of the opinion that of all the things I'd like to know about my neighbors, their income is not at the top of my list.

At the city council retreat last month, Mayor Arp brought in an editor from the Fort Worth Star Telegram to advise the council on media relations.  Toward the end of his presentation she asked him why Colleyville had a reputation of being elitist.  He answered her question by saying (and I'm paraphrasing here) that Colleyville could possibly be perceived to be elitist by readers, say in Mesquite, that read Colleyville's boasts about housing values and income levels, followed by quotes from Colleyville city officials   saying they don't want Walmarts in their town.  Articles such as this one in Wednesday's paper only add to that perception. 

The inference in the article is that Colleyville sought this information to support economic development efforts.  I'd like to point out, however, that to merchants in Colleyville the important statistic is not how much money people have, but how much they actually spend here.  As a former retailer here I can tell you that while I had many wonderful customers who lived in Colleyville, my best customers came from outside the city. You know the ones I refer to, those people who have Walmarts and such in their cities.  The ones who weren't being drained by high mortgage and car payments.  If city officials want to know how to entice more businesses to come to Colleyville I'd like to suggest that they get out and pound the pavement and ask the existing retailers why they are here and what they need from the city.  This could result in useful information that could be used to do something proactive instead of just talking about bringing Neiman Marcus to town. By the way, Neimans went to Grapevine - wonder what their disposable income per household is? Disposable income may give some "bragging rights", but it does not seem to be a magic formula for economic development or attracting retail businesses. I'll bet you that anyone considering opening a business here is out asking questions and many of them are going elsewhere when they hear the answers. 

By their own admission at the priority setting sessions last month, the council has devoted almost all economic development efforts for the past several years to the Village at Colleyville.  The zoning for this development was approved over two years ago and we have yet to see a building emerge.  Other developers with established track records have been insulted, discouraged or denied outright.  I don't want my tax dollars used to fund any more studies in a feeble attempt to entice businesses to come here unless the city is ready to do business when they do.  Without the appropriate mix of retailers to draw consumers to Colleyville we are dooming the chances of the small ones who do open.  If city officials really want to do some research they should survey the businesses that have been here and left.  To my knowledge no one is doing this.  And next time I see a front-page article about Colleyville I hope it has some substance.  I'm pretty radical about this uppity stuff (oops, I meant to say up-scale).  I received a wonderful email from a friend today that kind of sums up how I feel about all this.  It's a beautiful poem with incredible pictures.  If you'd like to see it just email me and I'll send it to you.  It's called "Interview With God" and the line that really got me was this:  "….a rich person is not one who has the most, but is one who needs the least".  Amen.

Note: "Interview With God" website is www.reata.org/interview2.html. If you can't access this site, words only are available at www.reata.org/words2.html.