We ran across this interesting piece out of Hendersonville, N.C., on the economic effects of buying from local, independent retailers.  This paragraph was particularly telling: "A recent study by the firm Civic Economics makes the issue crystal clear, for every $100 spent locally, $45 stays in the community.…

Walking San Francisco's neighborhoods this week, I was reminded of the many contributions of the corner store.  Take Tartine, for instance, in the Mission District.  This tiny bakery gives the neighborhood a place to gather, a focal point, a destination.  (All of these attributes are augmented by its several outdoor…

What happens to bourgeois bohemia when the bourgeois part drops out? For long-time residents in LA's Eagle Rock neighborhood, the return to pre-boom rents may be a blessing.  But for those with visions of new hipness, its identity is seriously threatened.

From today's NYT:  "Over the last five to…

NY Mag surveyed more than 100 retailers in the city and came up with a terrific, very now look at how retailers are coping with changing consumer habits.  Reporter Michael Idov calls it "a retail shakeout of historic proportions."  "Fifth Avenue, Madison Avenue and Soho are suddenly pocked with…

With thousands of stores expected to close next year, the big question for cities will be what to do with the vacancies.  Because most cities depend on sales tax, most have overzoned for retail locations.  Think about the impact of a long-term vacancy of one or two houses on a…

New research from Portland demonstrates the truth of something we all probably suspected:  The presence of an upscale grocery store in your Portland neighborhood adds an extra 20 percent or so to homes within a block and a half.  Small neighborhood move theaters have an even greater effect – 14…

Or are they about to become the new centers of "thrift?  That's the question Newsweek asks in a story just posted.  Read it here. 

Newsweek reports that nearly a fifth of the country's largest 2,000 regional malls are failing, and according to the International Council of Shopping Centers, a…

Once home to Wal-Mart in Wisconsin Rapids, a 120,000-square-foot big-box retail shell is now home to the Centralia Center for Senior Citizens.  The town has revived and reinvented this empty space that threatened to leave a hole in the middle of their community and the neighboring shopping area.