Ideas and notes from other places

1. "Austin City Council passes big-box rules," from the Austin Business Journal. From the article (emphasis added):

The new rules require developers of retail sites greater than 100,000 square feet to obtain a conditional use permit from the city. The changes also require city staff to notify residents within a one-mile radius of a proposed project to allow then time for comment.

The measure passed unanimously. Council members also asked city staffers to look into creating a new large-scale retail zoning category.

(These three ideas are too important to put in the smaller type that I use to denote quotations. In DC, the distance for which notice requirements are 200 feet. The new Austin ordinance extends this by 5,080 feet! Or from less than one block to at least 15 blocks!)

2. "It's 'Buy Buffalo' Week," in Buffalo Business First. From the article:

The group Buffalo First, which was just formed six months ago, has come up with the concept to encourage local shoppers to support stores in the City of Buffalo. Buffalo First consists of local independent businesses and organizations that pool their resources to encourage area residents to support Buffalo's economy. Nearly 100 local businesses belong to the group.

I am not a fan of sales tax holidays, because sales taxes are important city revenue sources. Better that good programs promoting patronage of local businesses be developed. As well as programs to help develop high quality and successful independent businesses.

3. "No link to Oakland project for big chains," from the San Francisco Business Times. From the article:

The managers of a $300 million redevelopment of Oakland's Jack London Square are expected to all but bar national chains from the food hall at the heart of the project, emphasizing local and sustainable food businesses.

The developers expect to issue guidelines for the food hall soon, taking them from an advisory committee led by Renato Sardo, a key leader of the international "slow food" sustainable cooking movement. The Jack London Square developers have essentially put the food hall in Sardo's hands.

The committee is made up chiefly of people from nonprofit food groups, including Michael Dimock, former chairman of Slow Food USA and executive director of the Roots of Change Fund; a representative of Investors' Circle, which helps funnel capital to environmentally friendly firms; and Eleanor Bertino, a food publicist and Slow Food USA board member.

Sardo said the guidelines will emphasize local producers, high quality food, environmentally sustainable food and operating practices and small producers. The committee would also like to see a farmer's market established at the food hall. "We are trying to hand pick the tenants," Sardo said. "We are not looking for national chains.

This project has some similarities to the New Town proposal that I have written about quite extensively. Not all of them good. But the focus and commitment to the direct and early participation by other stakeholders is completely different in comparison to the DC project.

Index Keywords: urban-revitalization