Any Mall or big box, an economic cancer on our cities

Any Mall or big box, an economic cancer on our cities


I read a very cool article about downtown's and Wal Mart, and this also can be extrapolated to include malls and any other car based big box retailer. The link is here.

I did not research the facts given, but they seem sound and fit the description of Asheville. The tax analysis really does seem to work out and makes sense on the surface.

In the case of the most local and heavily declined cities close to me, Newburgh and Poughkeepsie, the loss of close in Manufacturing jobs AND the retail core of the city have allowed these places to become welfare wastelands.

I can't say i 100 percent agree with the slant, but the analysis is interesting, that cost would rise greatly if the city constructed a parking garage to bring people in, but at the end of the day that garage would be viewed as a unnecessary expense and a burden to the taxpayers. Not something that is helping to maintain the tax base. As it stands now, Wal Mart gets to maintain 6 acres of parking at their expense. This is EXACTLY what happened in Poughkeepsie, the city built parking structures, but the retail left anyway, and now they are trying to sell the garages.