Wal-Mart's Push into US Cities

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-12351860

"Working-class communities with high unemployment and a lot of available land are the primary targets for entry into a city. The company has argued that abandoned land can be put to productive use through the construction of a Wal-Mart site."

Still no mention of the thousands of abandoned acres that lay derelict across rural and small town America as a result of the company's wasteful development practices. 

The 10% Solution

(previously posted on February 28, 2010)

The newly-created NC Sustainable Local Food Advisory Council is a diverse coalition that is charged with analyzing the “potential impacts that the production of sustainable local food would have on economic development in North Carolina”.   The establishment of the SLFAC stemmed from the ‘Farm to Fork’ Statewide Initiative’ spearheaded by the Center for Environmental Farming Systems in 2008.  CEFS has proposed a ‘Ten Percent Campaign’ for increasing local food production.  If 10% of the food purchased in the Fort Bragg region (southeastern NC) came from local sources, according to a report by the BRAC Regional Task Force, an additional $36 million each year would be retained within the region’s economy. This is a compelling benchmark, and a realistic one to achieve.

Similarly, Aaron Renn, author of the Urbanophile, presents this practicable, measurable, and replicable approach to revitalizing our cities – a ‘Ten Percent Solution to Urban Growth’. This is exactly what we need today, and a lot more of it: a socially and politically acceptable metric that can build trust, foster partnerships, and lead to innovation and investment. By achieving a few shared successes early on, progress can be demonstrated and commitment will strengthen. Our ‘tomorrow’ depends on it.

Mr. Renn gets to the heart of the problem: How do we increase densities in urban and suburban metro areas by efficiently reusing and redeveloping the millions of acres of vacant or underutilized land?

Rethinking our strategies for public infrastructure investments would be a good start. But here’s the key point, artfully understated by Renn: “Even where land is available, zoning restricts what can be built there, and increasing densities is politically difficult.” Ah, the Planners’ Conundrum! So, if the zoning process is stifling, then just what will allow innovation and good design to flourish? When does ‘density’ become politically acceptable?

When people begin to clamor for less congestion, shorter commute times, cleaner air, better food, more open space, and greater housing and transportation choices, that’s when. And each time gas prices rise, or a tainted food scare occurs, or bureaucratic ineptitude and political weakness kill smart land development, the clamor builds.

As our country recovers from the current recession, communities must reexamine their land use plans, their development codes, and their capital improvement strategies. Do they make sense? As for your tax dollars, what about public investments in infrastructure and facilities? Are they optimally sited to best serve their ‘owners’ – we, the citizenry? How do they improve the environment, the economy, the community? (And don’t forget to factor in those life-cycle costs!)

I believe we are in the midst of a major reconfiguration in the practice of land development, as local governments, planners, and the development industry itself are slowly realizing that ‘business as usual’ won’t help us reach a ‘post-petroleum’ future.

As for ‘the People’, they are already there. Ask elderly rural residents about public transportation. Or the young suburban couple struggling to get ahead while paying for that extra automobile. Or the working-class urban dwellers worried about the safety of their neighborhoods and the quality of their schools.

New approaches are needed. They will be found through entrepreneurial innovation, public-private partnerships, and citizen involvement – not governmental fiat.

Let’s start small – a ‘Ten Percent Approach’ – but start we must.

Smart Growth is a UN-led shadow movement intent on destroying the 'American Dream'... and so on

Posted recently by one of my favorite bloggers from Next American City, commenting on a recent article in Mother Jones magazine.  Given the tenor of the mid-term elections, the 112th Congress might not be as 'urban-minded' as planners may wish.  The Livable Communities Act is stalled, and without stalwarts like Oberstar and Dodd around to champion it, the legislation's future is unclear.  It is up to local, regional, and state land planners to carry the message that 'sustainable urbanism' and 'rural economic development' [the pillars of livable communities] are not partisan flags, but sound policies that can provide fiscally-prudent solutions to local problems.