The Valley Center Keep It Local Directory was started in 2009, when business for many service providers came to a standstill. We needed a low cost way to promote our services and that’s when the Keep It Local Directory was formed. More than a decade later, locals still find this format beneficial. It will continue to be published until it is no longer needed.

Keep It Local is not some trend that is going away anytime soon. If anything, the idea of building up your community by using your hometown businesses and service providers will grow.

We all know longtime neighbors who survived the last recession and who have now made the decision to pack it in and move out of state, where the cost of living is lower. With the national debt clock ticking higher and higher, and credit card debt at an all time high, I can only wonder why. I am not an economist, but I think the economy is not as great as we are led to believe. People are living paycheck to paycheck and the only emergency backup plan is to run the credit card when their car needs work or their roof leaks or so many other scenarios that can happen in our daily lives. I know a few people who have had to cash out their retirement plans in order to continue what we all think the American Dream is – a mortgage and a car payment, etc. The American Dream and keeping up with the Jones’ as we once knew it, is dead. We need to change our mindsets and stick together in order to hold each other up as a community and not only survive, but thrive.