Kermit the Frog french fries
WBJ Editor Brad Kane
Hype can be a good thing, as long as you understand the difference with tangible results. You may sell the sizzle, but the customer still will want the steak.
For the better part of the last decade, my oldest daughter Maggie has been obsessed with Five Guys french fries. Because we were spending $12 a pop, my wife and I decided to try and sell her on homemade fries. At first, she balked, and then she would only eat them when her grandmother prepared them. Eventually, I got her to enjoy my version by cutting the potatoes into creative shapes: The Incredibles, Mickey Mouse and Kermit the Frog. Maggie bought into the buzz of eating Kermit the Frog fries and now will eat homemade potatoes regardless of shape.
Worcester’s much ballyhooed economic recovery is in the Kermit the Frog stage. This isn’t a bad thing: It’s good to have sizzle to sell. In many ways, economic development is a constant sell job – to new business, new residents – but those of us in the market need to understand the difference between the hype and the reality. Declaring, “Worcester has arrived!” after only a couple of first-step victories belies the large amount of work necessary to reach peak vitality.
For his story cover story for our June 25 issue, News Editor Grant Welker sought to judge the status of the Worcester renaissance, curious after he found Metro Worcester’s new housing starts – a key economic indicator – lagged badly behind other U.S. metro areas of similar population. What he found is while the national, New England, state and U.S. urban economies were in robust recovery, Metro Worcester remained near the back of the pack. To be fair, most hard economic data takes time to be finalized, so much of the facts Welker worked with were based in 2016 – when few would have declared a Worcester renaissance – but that doesn’t mean this isn’t a good time to gauge Worcester’s economic recovery. The data still shows this region has fallen behind basically all other comparisons.
I’m, personally, excited about the direction Worcester is headed. A new wave of professionals with a passion for the region have a chance to write a new chapter in its long history. But the sentiment is starting to lean too heavily toward the hype, and we need results. Once those start rolling in, new businesses and new residents will eat the french fries, regardless of shape.
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