As residents of the Southside we are blessed with natural resources such as mining, forestry and our moderate climate blends with agriculture, ranching and farming. Our local economic development depends on a strong local infrastructure where we need to be proactive instead of reactive regarding growth issues on the Southside. Our resources must be treated as assets and carefully integrated into the fabric of our community.        Given the world-wide shortage of food and the ever increasing costs of transportation, we can take further advantage of our agricultural potential. Home and community gardens combined with farmers markets are one way to increase our local economy and reduce the transportation carbon footprint.        Now it is time for us to look more closely at our current strengths and future visions. By strengthening our local business sector, we are implementing a business attraction strategy. Many business owners in small areas such as ours are not necessarily local; many are first attracted to the community as visitors.        Most of the building blocks of a thriving community are already in place; education, medical, churches and policing. Attracting a new business into a rural area is always difficult. Decisions are often based on the quality of the infrastructure the area has to offer. The reality for a small community such as ours is that there is no money for business attraction. We must become inovative.