The problems created by the style of development just keep piling on.
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Sure, Wal-Marts bring in some sales tax revenue, but that’s a far lower value to your city than you might think.
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Big box stores are as ubiquitous and American as Coca-Cola. And yet their impact on our cities has gone unquestioned for far too long…
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A Strong Towns member used tax data to figure out how much his local Target was actually contributing to his community.
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Big box developments are not paying their fair share.
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Cities that tethered their future to this experiment are going to struggle, while those that still have a pulse in their core neighborhoods will have a chance at renewed prosperity.
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A visual depiction of just how much American land is full of shopping malls and big box stores.
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Building after massive building now
Announcing our newest ebook.
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Everything that used to be shiny and new in this town is now aging – not all of it well. This town, like nearly every other town of its vintage, is functionally insolvent.
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American towns and states are subsidizing big businesses to the tune of billions of dollars a year. In exchange, we get crappy, big box developments and infrastructure we can't pay afford.
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Strip malls are not the result of the free market choosing a preferred development pattern; They're the result of government regulations.
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What if our goal wasn’t to build the most stuff in the shortest amount of time for the least amount of money?
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Two weeks ago, we announced a crowdsourced database collecting information on the tax productivity of big box stores in comparison with other, more compact developments. We've now mapped that data for you to see.
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Toms River, NJ was built as a collection of convenient commodities and it will be discarded once it exceeds its usefulness.
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Hauling one big load of merchandise is far more efficient than hauling multiple, smaller loads. Thus whoever can configure their operation to take advantage of this efficiency should win, right?
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It’s six years ago this month that Bass Pro – a project backed by virtually every power broker and politician – mercifully pulled the plug on a nine-year flirtation with the downtown Buffalo waterfront.
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This week was all about the promise, the risk and the decline of big box stores in America.
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Why do we invite big box stores into our our towns, enticing them with subsidies and infrastructure, competing for their attention, all so they can offer residents low-wage part-time jobs, pay minimal property taxes, then leave 15 years later?
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In the short term, you don’t want to lose the big box war. In the long term, the only thing worse than losing the big box war is winning it.
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