Media Roundup: Week of August 8

Date: 9 Aug 2014 | posted in: MuniNetworks | 0 Facebooktwitterredditmail

This week’s rumblings on municipal broadband held more reverberations from last week’s announcement that the FCC would take up formal proceedings regarding Chattanooga, TN and Wilson, NC petitions. The message for preempting state laws is being amplified, first Business Insider wrote this piece on How “Gig City” Chattanooga is putting Big Cable on the ropes: “Ultimately what it … Read More

Denver Suburb Seeks to Take Back Local Authority

Date: 1 Nov 2013 | posted in: MuniNetworks | 0 Facebooktwitterredditmail

Centennial is asking its voters to reclaim local authority this election. City leaders want to make better use of an existing fiber optic system but a 2005 Colorado state law pushed by a corporate telephone company precludes it. If the citizenry reclaims its local authority through referendum, the City can take the next step toward providing … Read More

Does Wal-Mart Really Need Our Tax Dollars?

Date: 1 Dec 2003 | posted in: Retail | 0 Facebooktwitterredditmail

Typical of shopping centers built decades ago, Alameda Square in Denver is a cheap, single-story strip of stores. It’s ugly and rundown. But that does not deter shoppers. Mostly Asian Americans, shoppers come from miles around to patronize more than a dozen Asian-owned businesses, including two grocery stores, two restaurants, a hair salon, a clothing shop, a jeweler and a bakery. On a weekday afternoon, the parking lot buzzes with activity. Inside Pacific Ocean International Supermarket, the dingy exterior gives way to bright lights, shelves stocked with canned bamboo shoots and dried fish and aisles of shoppers. Most of Alameda Square’s businesses are profitable. Together they generate about $125,000 a year in sales tax revenue. But if the city of Denver has its way, these small businesses will be evicted to make way for a Wal-Mart super-center. … Read More

Denver’s Asian Businesses Force Wal-Mart Retreat

Date: 1 Aug 2002 | posted in: Retail | 0 Facebooktwitterredditmail

Strong protest from dozens of Asian small business owners has led Wal-Mart to drop plans for a giant supercenter in west Denver. Wal-Mart had been working with the Denver Urban Renewal Authority (DURA) to condemn and bulldoze Alameda Square, a shopping center housing some 25 Vietnamese, Cambodian, Laotian and Chinese businesses, including the city’s largest Asian grocery store. This spring, DURA declared the center "blighted," the first step in evicting the businesses and clearing the way for Wal-Mart.… Read More

Small Businesses Fight Abuse of Eminent Domain

Date: 1 Aug 2002 | posted in: Retail | 0 Facebooktwitterredditmail

Denver’s Asian stores are not alone in facing condemnation for a national chain. In a growing number of court cases around the country, small business owners are challenging attempts by local and state governments to seize their property for chain store development. Traditionally, eminent domain—the power of government to take private property for public use, provided that the owner receive market value—has been used for schools, roads, and other public infrastructure. … Read More