Locally-owned, independent businesses are an “integral part of Saint Petersburg’s unique character,” provide jobs, and turn a city into a real place worth living in, working in and visiting, say the members of the new independent business advocacy group Keep Saint Petersburg Local.

Inspired by the success of the Austin Independent Business Alliance with its “Keep Austin Weird” campaign, Keep Saint Petersburg Local president and founding board member Olga Bof, along with other local business people, set out to do the same thing.

Independent businesses aren’t just about local flavor, according to the American Independent Business Alliance, but also about fostering a healthy local economy. The business development and strategic planning firm Civic Economics, based out of Austin and Chicago, studied the multiplier effect of local business spending and found that money spent locally is three times more likely to be re-spent locally.

In its study of Austin in 2002, the group found that for every $100 spent in an “indie,” it generated $45 in secondary local spending compared to $13 when the purchase was made at a chain. These results were confirmed in Maine by a second study by the Institute for Local Self-Reliance in 2003.

Still, it can be a hard sell convincing city residents to buy from local independents: it is rare that an indie can compete on price against national megastores.

But consumers need to understand that “cheaper isn’t better,” Bof said. “It could be putting their neighbors out of a job.”

Bof grew up in the Cuban-American neighborhood of Little Havana in Miami, where locally-owned, independent businesses are the norm, contributing to its unique culture and sense of place.

Later she lived in Paris for a year. She said it was a culture shock when she returned to the U.S. and that from state to state, “everything looked the same.”

Bof added that chain stores have robbed cities of their uniqueness and their essence. St. Petersburg was different, however, with vibrant, locally-owned businesses, artists, natural beauty and “sheer awesomeness.”

“I have never found ‘home’ until I got to St. Petersburg,” she said.

James Howard Kunstler, the author of “The Geography of Nowhere” and a leading proponent of “New Urbanism” – a rejection of sprawl in favor of compact, walking neighborhoods – gave a lecture at the TED conference in 2007 about the perils of losing a sense of place in a community.

In it he describes vast swaths of America that are essentially the same: the same stores, the same food, the same cement block buildings, and everything is spread out to accommodate cars, rather than people.

“We have about 38,000 places that are not worth caring about in the United States today,” Kunstler said. “When we have enough of them, we’re going to have a nation that’s not worth defending. We need better places in this country.”

St. Petersburg has embraced some elements of New Urbanism. City Councilman Karl Nurse, in a lecture to a class of political science students at USF St. Petersburg, said getting residential building owners on Beach Drive to open up their bottom floors to commerce was a tough fight, but ultimately has proven to be very successful.

Nurse said that Beach Drive’s collection of small boutiques, art galleries and cafés, is now vibrant, despite St. Petersburg’s greater economic worries. Ground-floor commerce, dominated by independent businesses, has been integral to that development.

Buying from a chain store “doesn’t make sense if you’re doing things the right way,” said Matthew Neal, the owner and operator of Café Bohemia at 957 Central Ave. “I take a lot of pride in the food I make.”

He said you won’t see a frozen food truck pulling up to the restaurant, because he doesn’t buy from them. Even his straws come from a smaller local supplier, rather than a huge national outlet.

Neal has kept Café Bohemia alive through the recession – despite the decline in consumer spending and an increase in food cost – by working more and scaling back his labor costs.

“I won’t sacrifice on quality,” he said.

Instead, Neal relies on his “insane Scotch-Irish work ethic.”

“I know exactly what ingredients go into everything I make,” he said. “People might not realize they are eating healthy, but they are.”

His clientèle are not the wealthy set of Beach Drive and he is far enough away from the waterfront that he doesn’t feel the fluctuations in tourism. Neal said Bohemia is a neighborhood café, and he attributed eight years of success on the local following and a focus on quality and trust.

“If someone orders vegetarian, they know the knife I use to cut it wasn’t just used to cut roast beef,” he said.

But operating a local business, even with a loyal following, is difficult. His customers have been hit hard by the recession.

“People have less … and get frugal quicker,” he said.

On top of that, things like credit transaction fees are harder on small businesses that cannot negotiate better rates or absorb the costs through volume.

Parking, too, has been a hurdle. Many of his customers have come into the café to sit and study, or read, only to find a ticket on their windshield when they leave.

“The city is basically charging an extra tax for commerce,” Neal said. “It does not promote commerce.”

Bof said Keep Saint Petersburg Local plans to address these kinds of issues.

“We’re not just a networking group,” she said. But will instead “speak on behalf of local businesses at city hall.”

The group also plans to host workshops, organize co-op advertising purchases, and work with the city’s Business Assistance Center to give a boost to both rookie and veteran entrepreneurs. While downtown might be the nexus of independent business in St. Petersburg, Bof said the group is for all locally-owned and operated businesses within the borders of the city.

“Small businesses are the backbone of the local economy,” said Business Assistance Center manager Shrimatee Ojan-Maharaj.

She added that small business development is one of the seven pillars of Mayor Bill Foster’s goals for the city.

The center provides training for entrepreneurs, helps with business plans, and offers  access to incentives and credit counseling.

Despite cuts to the budget and a reduction in staff, “we continue to see the value and need to provide expanded services to small business people,” said Ojan-Maharaj. “We’re here to keep them in business.”

Keep Saint Petersburg Local officially launched on Black Friday, Nov. 19, but is hosting its first major events in January, with Free Hugs Fest on Saturday, Jan. 21 and the inaugural general meeting on Tuesday, Jan. 31.

The mayor will participate along with local business owners, giving out hugs to residents in front of Enchanted Forest Photography at 529 Central Ave. and again at the Saturday Morning Market in the Al Lang Stadium parking lot.

Through Jan. 31, Keep Saint Petersburg Local annual membership fees are halved. There are three levels: the “Friends” of local indies is $10, the “Local Hero” (standard business membership) is $25, and the “Local Superhero” is $50.

In addition to founding the independent business group, Bof writes the weekly “Localista” blog for “I Love the ‘Burg,” which focuses on the “stories behind the store front.” Fellow Keep Saint Petersburg Local board member Sheri Kendrick, of Enchanted Forest Photography, provides the visuals.

Bof, too, is working on starting her own independent business, a children’s book store that will be named Cheeky Monkeys Books & Toys.

Information and a calendar of events can be found at keepsaintpetersburglocal.org.