I think it's interesting to note that some communities back where I used to live, New Jersey, have seen their downtowns obliterated not necessarily by Starbucks, but by the springing up of law offices, mortgage and realty companies, and banks.
While they do prevent the worst possible scenario -- abandoned buildings -- none of the above really foster interest in the downtown the way that a real storefront can. They feed off the energy of a bustling downtown but add nothing to it, and if there are too many of them, they can just plain kill a downtown.
Places have actually fought back with no-bank ordinances, and had some success with it. There's really no reason why any one downtown needs fourteen different banks anyway.
I won't go too much into the big box stores, if only because of my propensity to actually shop there. But I did hear just today about an interesting new way that a town in California decided to fight Walmart: they just plain took away their land by eminent domain. (http://abcnews.go.com/WNT/story?id=2001070)
Usually, Walmart winds up being the beneficiary of eminent domain, which is why their cries of "eminent domain is unfair" ring kinda hollow with me...but it'll be interesting to see how the courts rule.
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Date: 2006-05-31 10:02 pm (UTC)While they do prevent the worst possible scenario -- abandoned buildings -- none of the above really foster interest in the downtown the way that a real storefront can. They feed off the energy of a bustling downtown but add nothing to it, and if there are too many of them, they can just plain kill a downtown.
Places have actually fought back with no-bank ordinances, and had some success with it. There's really no reason why any one downtown needs fourteen different banks anyway.
I won't go too much into the big box stores, if only because of my propensity to actually shop there. But I did hear just today about an interesting new way that a town in California decided to fight Walmart: they just plain took away their land by eminent domain. (http://abcnews.go.com/WNT/story?id=2001070)
Usually, Walmart winds up being the beneficiary of eminent domain, which is why their cries of "eminent domain is unfair" ring kinda hollow with me...but it'll be interesting to see how the courts rule.