Does Your Town Have a Self-Esteem Problem?

Small Town Buildings

As I travel across Texas evaluating and consulting on historic buildings, I see the same thing over and over: many towns have a self-esteem problem. Not on a personal level, but as a town.

How a community sees itself can make or break its economic development—and in some cases, its ability to survive.

Telling business owners to fill vacant buildings or creating yet another “development plan” doesn’t do much more than telling someone with low self-esteem to just “hold your head up and get over it.” It doesn’t work.

Ask yourself: do your residents and business owners seem pessimistic when someone talks about a new park, a mural, or a downtown improvement?

That’s not laziness or apathy—it’s the town internalizing its decline. People stop caring when they don’t see value in what they have. And what I notice in every struggling town?

They are not maintaining their own buildings and public spaces.

When a town stops maintaining itself, it stops valuing itself. The usual response from city leadership, forming committee after committee, writing new plans, passing policies, and hiring consultants, doesn’t work.

Outsourcing the pride of your town to someone who doesn’t live there is like hiring someone to exercise at the gym for you. Ridiculous, right?

So what does work?

Get your hands dirty.

Pull the weeds from the sidewalks. Wash the windows of vacant buildings. Paint the peeling handrails.

Simple? Yes.

Cheap? Yes.

Effective? Absolutely.

The towns that are starting to thrive are doing this. Small, regular steps. Encourage business owners and residents to join in. Show them, through action, that their town is worth caring for.

When people see competence, pride, and care being demonstrated, the mindset of the town begins to shift.

Owners start repairing and maintaining their own properties.

Conversations around town become more positive.

The negative energy fades.

And guess what happens next?

Vacant buildings start to fill with businesses that want to stay. Young people start sticking around. Your town becomes vibrant without any overly complex development plans.

Ask your city these questions:

• Do we maintain what we have?

• Are our business owners and residents engaged?

• Do city officials and council members show up and do the work themselves?

• Does our town feel proud?

  
  

If the answer is no, you’re not dealing with an “economic development problem.” You’re dealing with a town that has given up on itself.

A depressed town with low self-esteem.

The only way to fix it is to roll up your sleeves and show up. Demonstrate that your town is worth the effort. No one from outside can do it for you.

Change the way your community sees itself by the way you treat it. Earn the respect your town must have to prosper.

Growth and development will happen naturally once your town starts believing in itself again.