Putting your wheremoney your mouth is

Another way to define “local” is with the creation of local currency, which some communities find stimulates independent businesses, even during a recession. Folks in Southern Berkshire, Mass., for example, created BerkShares, available in $1, $5, $10, $20 and $50 denominations. Local businesses that accept BerkShares denote this in their storefront windows, and 12 local banks exchange federal currency for BerkShares (the exchange rate is $9 for every 10 BerkShares, which amounts to a 10 percent discount rewarding people for shopping locally). Creators of the program have noted that the community has experienced an increase use of BerkShares since the economic downturn.

“At national banks, a banker might leave because he got a promotion or rotated to another location,” Smith says. “Here, when you walk in, everybody knows your name.

“It sounds trite, but if you have a problem, you can talk to somebody face to face and have a relationship with someone who can be your banker for 20 years.”

Recognizing the value in both is one of the reasons Smith is backing the Live Local East Dallas effort.

“I like the inclusiveness of it,” he says. “It’s not about saying, ‘You’re a local business, and you’re not’ — it’s about doing business in your community.”

“To me, it’s just making a pledge,” Shapiro says. “I’m going to try to go to a new shop in Lakewood that I haven’t been to, or eat one time in a restaurant I haven’t visited. I’m going to try to support Ace Hardware [on Gaston] before I jump in my car and go across town somewhere else.

“This is really just a frame of mind.”

Live Localeast Dallas Sustaining Partners

1) Republic Title

2) Professional Bank

3) Times Ten Cellars

4) Blow Salon

5) Bella Vista Company

6) Greenway Investment Company

7) T-Shop

8) Diener Mills Building

9) WKA Architects, Inc.

10) Gizmo Group

11) Advocate Magazines