Jersey City has taken steps to check the cycle of chain store dominance. They've instead built a model that allows for opportunity for local entrepreneurs.
In this 20-minute talk, ILSR’s Stacy Mitchell looks at why cities need independent businesses, and also at some of the issues that are facing these...
Independent businesses are among the best engines that cities have for advancing economic opportunity. But they’re disappearing in many places. This isn’t, in large part,...
At a recent New York City Council hearing, ILSR submitted testimony examining the importance of locally owned businesses to the City.
The Composting for Community Initiative seeks to encourage a composting infrastructure that is locally distributed and possesses a diversity of scales, feedstock materials, and end-uses...
Amazon is on a building spree, and many local officials are eager to bring one of its giant fulfillment centers to their own backyard. But a...
Amazon fulfillment centers impose so many hidden costs on local economies that cities ought to reconsider welcoming them at all, much less greasing the way...
Under what has become known as the “dark store” method, big-box retailers are declaring their busy stores to be functionally obsolescent and therefore nearly worthless...
In this 1-hour webinar presentation, ILSR’s Stacy Mitchell and others present on how cities can protect and strengthen urban entrepreneurship and local businesses amid rising...
There’s an emerging model that offers a glimpse of a new, better way for communities to generate economic development. It’s called a real estate investment...
The political interests of labor and small business are often seen as pitted against each other — a perception corporate lobbyists work hard to perpetuate....
Although few cities take full advantage of them, planning and zoning powers are among the most potent tools communities have for shaping their economies. Two...
Cape Cod is the rare community that considers regional economic impacts when weighing big-box retail development, and that makes all the difference.… Read More
This toolkit provides guidance on how to block big-box development in your community, including tips on how to form an effective citizens group, fact sheets...
Handing out multimillion-dollar subsidies to large chains has become commonplace in much of the country. But when governments use public money to woo national chains,...