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Article filed under Independent Business | Written by Stacy Mitchell | No Comments | Updated on Oct 8, 2004

Austin Study Says City Pays Price for Big-Boxes

The content that follows was originally published on the Institute for Local Self-Reliance website at http://www.ilsr.org/austin-study-says-city-pays-price-bigboxes/

A coalition of organizations in Austin, Texas, released a report this week that concludes that big-box retailers impose significant costs on the community. It recommends that the city scrutinize big-box projects more thoroughly and adopt a long-range plan to strengthen locally owned businesses.

The report reviews and refutes several of the findings of another big-box study commissioned by the city and released in June.

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Article filed under Independent Business | Written by Stacy Mitchell | No Comments | Updated on Oct 4, 2004

NYC’s Newsstands Fight Corporate Takeover

The content that follows was originally published on the Institute for Local Self-Reliance website at http://www.ilsr.org/nycs-newsstands-fight-corporate-takeover/

Newsstand owners in New York City have filed a legal challenge to a new law that would transfer ownership of the city’s 300 independent newsstands to a single corporation.

Under the law, which was backed by the mayor and endorsed by all but three city councilors, the eclectic newsstands will be replaced by identical kiosks under central ownership. Five companies, including JCDecaux, which manages "street furniture" in 3,500 cities worldwide, are bidding for the contract.

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Article filed under Independent Business | Written by Stacy Mitchell | No Comments | Updated on Oct 1, 2004

New Report Finds Retail Development Costs Ohio Taxpayers

The content that follows was originally published on the Institute for Local Self-Reliance website at http://www.ilsr.org/new-report-finds-retail-development-costs-ohio-taxpayers/

A new report prepared for the Mid-Ohio Regional Planning Commission concludes that retail development costs cities more in public services than it generates in revenue.

The report, produced by Randall Gross of Development Economics in Washington, D.C., reviews and summarizes the findings of fiscal impact studies conducted in eight central Ohio communities between 1997 and 2003.

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Article filed under Independent Business | Written by Stacy Mitchell | No Comments | Updated on Sep 30, 2004

Supreme Court May Limit Land Seizure for Private Development

The content that follows was originally published on the Institute for Local Self-Reliance website at http://www.ilsr.org/supreme-court-may-limit-land-seizure-private-development/

The U.S. Supreme Court has agreed to hear a case early next year that could set new limits on the ability of cities to condemn and take property for private redevelopment projects.

There have been many cases in recent years where local governments have seized homes and small businesses to make way for chain retail development. In downtown Port Chester, New York, for example, bulldozers are currently leveling a 27-acre site that once housed numerous small businesses.

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Article filed under Independent Business | Written by Stacy Mitchell | No Comments | Updated on Sep 29, 2004

Flagstaff Enacts Big-Box Limits

The content that follows was originally published on the Institute for Local Self-Reliance website at http://www.ilsr.org/flagstaff-enacts-bigbox-limits/

On a 5-2 vote, the City Council in Flagstaff, Arizona, a city of 53,000 people about two hours north of Phoenix, approved an ordinance controlling the size, location, and community impacts of big-box stores.

The action is "important to the long-term vitality of Flagstaff," said Becky Daggett, director of Friends of Flagstaff’s Future, a citizens group that worked for the ordinance’s passage.

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Article filed under Energy | Written by John Farrell | No Comments | Updated on Sep 27, 2004

California Adopts First Rules Limiting Greenhouse Gas Emissions from Cars and Trucks

The content that follows was originally published on the Institute for Local Self-Reliance website at http://www.ilsr.org/california-adopts-first-rules-limiting-greenhouse-gas-emissions-cars-and-trucks/

On September 24, 2004 the California Air Resources Board announced that they had approved a landmark regulation that requires automakers to begin selling vehicles with reduced greenhouse gas emissions by model year 2009.

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Article filed under Energy | Written by John Farrell | No Comments | Updated on Sep 24, 2004

Delay in Enacting New Efficiency Standards Costs Billions – New Study Released

The content that follows was originally published on the Institute for Local Self-Reliance website at http://www.ilsr.org/delay-enacting-new-efficiency-standards-costs-billions-new-study-released/

Each year’s delay in setting three new Department of Energy appliance efficiency standards costs consumers and businesses billions of dollars in higher energy bills, according to a new study by the Appliance Standards Awareness Project [ http://www.standardsasap.org/] Implementing new efficiency standards for residential furnaces and boilers, commercial air conditioners, and distribution transformers could decrease our annual energy use significantly – enough electricity to power about 330,000 typical U.S homes and natural gas to heat about 170,0

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Article filed under Energy | Written by John Farrell | No Comments | Updated on Sep 21, 2004

Watercraft Motor Ban Dramatically Improves Lake Tahoe Water Quality

The content that follows was originally published on the Institute for Local Self-Reliance website at http://www.ilsr.org/watercraft-motor-ban-dramatically-improves-lake-tahoe-water-quality/

Since a 1999 ban on two-stroke, carburetor engines went into full effect in 2001, levels of burned and unburned gasoline products in Lake Tahoe have declined by 80-90 percent according to the Tahoe Regional Planning Agency (TRPA). The 1999 ban was instituted by the Governing Board of the TRPA, a bistate organization established to protect the lake. The board voted in favor of the engine ban after it reviewed data that estimated each day of the boating season resulted in carbureted two-stroke engines releasing 770 gallons of fuel into the lake.

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Article filed under Independent Business | Written by admin | No Comments | Updated on Sep 16, 2004

National Survey to Assess Spread of “Clone Towns” Across Britain

The content that follows was originally published on the Institute for Local Self-Reliance website at http://www.ilsr.org/national-survey-assess-spread-clone-towns-across-britain/

In a new report titled "Clone Town Britain," the London-based New Economics Foundation warns that the country’s town centers are rapidly being overrun by chain stores. "Retail spaces once filled with independent butchers, newsagents, tobacconists, pubs, book shops, greengrocers and family-owned general stores are becoming filled with supermarket retailers, fast-food chains, and global fashion outlets," the report says.

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Article filed under Independent Business | Written by Stacy Mitchell | 1 Comment | Updated on Sep 13, 2004

Mexican Citizens Protest Wal-Mart Near Ancient Pyramids

The content that follows was originally published on the Institute for Local Self-Reliance website at http://www.ilsr.org/mexican-citizens-protest-walmart-near-ancient-pyramids/

A citizens group has filed legal appeals and staged demonstrations in an attempt to stop Wal-Mart from building a megastore near the ancient pyramids of Teotihuacan, about 30 miles northeast of Mexico City.

The massive store, which would carry the logo of Bodega Aurrera, one of Wal-Mart’s Mexican subsidiaries, would be visible from the top of the Pyramid of the Sun, the largest Pre-Columbian stone pyramid in the Western Hemisphere.

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