Tuesday, May 4, 2010

A little self-promotion

Let me take a break from the newsy version of Chronicling Elizabethtown and do a little self-promotion, for what's a politician worth if he doesn't promote himself a little. Right?

First, here's the backstory:

On March 29, Daniel Klotz and David Moulton were interviewing Karlo Gessner on their podcast called The Lancast, when the conversation veered in the direction of Elizabethtown and the great potential of our community. There's lots happening here in E-town especially with Folklore Coffee, the conversation went, and with lots of open store fronts there's plenty of possibility for new businesses.

Cool, I thought as I listened. But then Daniel started talking about the Fractured Prune, which left its spot on West High Street and successfully reopened on Queen Street in Lancaster. Daniel said that it would be great if businesses could follow a similar model by basically getting their legs here in our fine town and then move to Lancaster. I couldn't believe what I was hearing!

All of us in Elizabethtown know about the downtown struggles and trying to find businesses that are going to thrive. And the last thing we want is to become an incubator for Lancaster. We not only want our own business community -- we need it to serve our residents and to maintain a stable tax base.

So I called The Lancast guys out in the comment section of their website and defended our community.And as any self-respecting interviewers would do, they invited me to appear on their podcast this week to respond in person.

I have to say, they did a great job -- and especially Daniel, who made the comment -- and took everything with a sense of humor. They also asked some good questions about what it takes to run a community like E-town.

It was a great experience, and I would encourage you to follow the links above and listen not just to my interview but others as well. David and Daniel put some quality time into  covering issues, topics and people that are of interest to people in Lancaster and Lancaster County. Sometimes, we just have to remind that that E-town is out here, too.

One side note: None of this would have happened had I not gotten involved with Twitter and Facebook. I met both Daniel and David in person a couple of times before appearing on their podcast thanks to get-togethers organized via those two social media outlets. Because I work in Lancaster, I wanted to connect with others there, and attending those "tweetups," as they're called, has proved to be a fantastic way to expand my network.