Running a company is all about making mistakes, but here’s some we think they’d like to have back.

Save Our Springs Alliance Finally Drowns Itself
The spring of 07 saw SOS fall into the trap all too many issue advocacy organizations do: It overestimated its relevance. It ignored dwindling contributions and pushed ahead with a frivolous and ultimately fatal lawsuit.

The organization that sought to control growth by squelching roadways now sits parked in federal court, awaiting a ruling on it bankruptcy settlement plan.

Next time you’re parked on Loop 360 and its feeder roads, congratulate SOS and it early proponents. Until 1994, 360 was to be THE loop around Austin, a full-blown freeway, not the divided highway notable for its signal lights and scenic bridge.

Halting growth in Austin and the surrounding area is like telling a woman in the last stages of childbirth “don’t push.”

Their Cross to Bear
Where is the money coming from for the endless lawsuit/appeals by the anti-Wal-Mart yuppies near Northcross Mall? Wouldn’t that money be better spent at local businesses?

Gee, I’d like to look at the presents under their trees this past Christmas to see where they were purchased. My guess is that big-box boycotts don’t extend to Best Buy, Toys R Us, Lowe’s, Circuit City—you get the picture.

If the RG4N (Responsible Growth for Northcross) zealots had supported the original businesses in Northcross, it wouldn’t have been empty and ripe for redevelopment. Good grief, people! The Arkansas boys have redesigned and resized the store beyond recognition. If you want it to go away, just do like you’ve always done.

Don’t shop at Northcross.

Icon Mania
Las Manitas as an iconoclastic Austin business? Maybe it is up there with El Rancho, Night Hawk, Hill’s, The Tumbleweed, the original Threadgill’s, Ironworks, Dot’s, Fonda San Miguel, Broken Spoke—and so on.

But it really isn’t the city’s job to decide what should be preserved as an icon and what should not. As Marc Katz said in his October 2007 editorial, “The city government and its politicians are the wrong entities to prevent Las Manitas, or any other for-profit business, from going out of business or falling prey to development, like so many memorable Austintatious businesses of the past.”

The city council overstepped its bounds by extending the loan, and because of public outcry, they placed new (and ridiculous) conditions forcing the sisters to ultimately reject the loan in its entirety.

What lies below the surface at Whole Foods?
Whole Foods CEO John Mackey began 2007 by limiting his salary to just $1 and foregoing future stock options. “Fortune” magazine named Whole Foods the fifth best business in the country to work for. And more good news followed with the announcement of its intention to buy chief rival Wild Oats.

But then came the FTC revelation that Mackey played a childish, questionable game for almost six years:  He engaged in pseudonym blogging on financial message boards against take-over target Wild Oats.

The SEC and Whole Foods board opened investigations. The board completed its review, leading to an addition to the corporation’s Code of Business Conduct. It now is a firing offense for any board or leadership team member to blog or post in chat rooms or on message boards, on any topic involving Whole Foods or its competitors.

Look—there is no one here that doesn’t like Whole Foods. Especially here in Austin, we pull for the hometown success story. But this is embarrassing to the company, its employees, even its customers. With that SEC investigation still open, Whole Foods is open to suspicions about what may lie below the surface.

BTW, when someone at other grocery stores doesn’t have enough to do, they rearrange the shelves. Maybe Mackey should give that a try.

Condo craze/y?
The last major housing bust in Austin was in the mid and late 80s. Austin land flips and home building were moving like a speeding locomotive. And like a locomotive, developers and builders were unable, or unwilling, to heed warnings of trouble on the tracks quickly enough to avoid bankruptcies.

They acknowledged problems ahead, but sincerely believed that “my project will sell.” 

Looks like the wave of condo building downtown is repeating that history. “Yeah, there are too many condo units downtown, but mine will sell.”

Real estate cheerleaders say many of the condos in other buildings are being bought as investments to be rented out. Will SXSW attendees be enough business to support the “investment” for a year?

Austin has become a buyers market. Renters buy when the prices go down enough—even without subprime loans. What happens when prices go down too much? Investors don’t have to worry about capital gains.

At least the suburban home builders are taking note. Centex is one of several major home developer/builders who have put projects on hold in Austin. New home construction is down almost 20 percent, and sales are down nine percent for the year—more than 14 percent in just the last quarter.

That reads like a trend to me. It’s time to pay attention. Just because it’s not as bad in Austin as it is in many other parts of the country doesn’t mean we’re bullet-proof.

Pam Baggett-Wallis is the CEO of Persuasion Communication specializing in crisis management, business continuity and issue advocacy and can be reached at pam@abdmag.com