Village Merchants Valentine's Day
You're going to love this
Happy 11th!

Today is one of my favorite days of the year. While people are inside watching TV the world quiets down to a very extreme extent. You can hear your breath. You can hear birds chirp. Head outside today and enjoy this momentary change in our world. And, Go, Eagles! (a nod to my Dad who said that often :)

Speaking of quiet, we were able to gather 786 comments during the recent comment period on an ordinance to ban gas-powered leaf blowers in Portland. Thanks, if you were one of those who commented. Really - it makes a difference!

Next up the ordinance will be tweaked some and then brought before our City Council. Now would be a great time to continue to weigh in and let the City Council know you support this ordinance. I'd like the ordinance to start earlier, not have any carve-outs for any reason (thanks to our Parks Department for dragging their feet), and cover every gas-powered tool, not just leaf blowers. I wrote about this to you last month.
Wait, what was that? Funconference.me, you say? Yes, it's a little something I've been cooking up for a couple of years. Speaking of cooking up, I've written up some of my thinking about local businesses and how to love them. I'm starting to put some of my ideas about neighborhoods and how I exist in mine out there. See what you think.
I’ve been pretty much single for the past 6 years. I had a thought yesterday while out running errands, that for those of us who are single and seeking, we might as well offer some love to our hometown. I’ve been doing this ever since I moved to the Pacific Northwest (Seattle in 1995 and Portland 2002-present). This region is pretty easy to love and has caught many peoples’ eyes and hearts. I’ve never lived anywhere in the world (maybe besides NYC) where I’ve heard more people say “I love This Town”. (read more)
Here
There are lots of reasons to support local businesses. By shopping locally, for instance, we keep our money in our community. It also lessens the amount of (often noisy, often diesel, often idling) delivery vans clogging our streets. These are some obvious reasons, but I’ve been finding more gold in them there hills – read on for some further insights! Here are 3+ ideas of ways to look at local businesses that you may not have thought of. (read more)
There's some background for why funconference.me and why now. It seems that when I thought about it I've been involved in similar things for years. As I wrote it out I realized that the festival/unconference thing has been part of my life in a big way for many years.

By the way, congratulations if you live in the Portland area and just lived through the ice storm we had. That was really something. It brought back some challenging feelings from the shutdown of the pandemic which was a good reminder of how to be resilient and how to keep reaching for each other when we get isolated.

For what's up in my business world, ready my most recent Bizmissive. If you'd like to join that list, click here and you'll be automatically added. I send it out at about the same cadence as this one - monthly - except the list starts off with a 10-part series on my marketing perspective.

I hope this missive finds you doing well. Feel free to reach back and let me know how you're doing and what juices your life these days. Below is a picture from our recent Portland Winter Light Festival - that certainly helped brighten my life!

Lots of love, health, fun, good food, company, great music, and enjoy today's quietest day of the year!

Love,

Albert
My friend, Brian Hassett, wrote this great collection of reasons he loves Joe Biden. Check it out.
Pickin' On Series - Oppression (The Human Experience Remix) - Embraced