3c hapter - Index of

A Model to LIONize 97
LION members are like angel investors but with a hyperlocal
focus. James Frazier, a former options trader and hedge fund manager
who moved to Port Townsend with his family in 2006, is the
group’s unoffi cial spokesperson. He became disillusioned with “in
your face” capitalism, and now works as a fi nancial advisor, when
he’s not hiking, DJ- ing, or fi elding calls about LION. The group’s
members, he explains, “place a very high value on putting investment
dollars back into the community and helping the multiplier
effect really benefi t our community. It’s the same thing with spending
local, it’s just investing local. So money comes back as a return
and the principal, when loans are paid off, gets reinvested back in
the economy for another business. You can literally watch the money
multiply, helping one person and then another and another.”
The group’s impact can be seen all over town. On Upper
Sims Way, the Mt. Townsend Creamery churns out cheese made
from local cows’ milk. Visitors to the shop can watch the cheese
makers at work behind a glass wall. Nearby on Water Street is
the Broken Spoke, a full- service bike rental, retail, and repair
shop that opened in 2009. At the northern edge of town near
Fort Warden State Park and overlooking the sound is Olympic
Hostel, a youth hostel that draws families and backpackers for its
agreeable accommodations and access to kayaking and hiking. In
the historic Uptown district, a developer is fi nishing up small- scale
cottages that blend in with the area’s low- key aesthetic and ecofriendly
culture. And 12 miles south of Port Townsend in a rural
area known as Chimacum is Finnriver Farm, a family- run organic
farm and cidery that produces sparkling cider and fruit wines. All
of these enterprises contribute to the vitality of the area, but few
would be as successful, or perhaps exist at all, had it not been for
the fi nancial backing of LION members.
Their work has inspired other efforts as well. A group of 10
residents, including Kolff, has invested a total of $160,000 to install
a solar array at the airport through a new state law that encourages
public/private partnerships to promote solar energy. The 10
investors formed a limited liability company called Jefferson Solar
to undertake the investment. Another grassroots organization,
Citizens for Local Power, unshackled the town from its high- cost