Reports & Studies

Stay Local! Reports

• Stay Local! Business Summit: Stabilize, Sustain, & Grow [PDF]

  What do neighborhood business districts need to stabilize and sustain existing businesses, and grow new businesses and industries? Read the final report from the January 2007 Business Summit Stay Local! convened in New Orleans.

• Stay Local! Weighs in on Starbucks in Jackson Square [PDF]

  Stay Local! urges the Louisiana State Museum board to consider the long-term cultural and economic benefits of leasing the space formerly occupied by La Madeleine on Jackson Square to local Chef/Owner Scott Boswell rather than to Starbucks.

• The Urban Conservancy 2007 Progress Report [PDF]

  See what we’ve been up to! The year in review: staylocal.org, neighborhood guides, business summits, Lafitte Greenway and Urban Main Street advocacy.

• Zoning on Magazine: Stay Local! Weighs In on Pita Pit [PDF]

  Stay Local! writes in support of The Audubon Riverside Neighborhood Association and Smart Growth for Louisiana’s appeal to the Board of Zoning Adjustment to overrule the decision of the Department of Safety and Permits classifying high-volume national retailer The Pita Pit as a cafeteria restaurant rather than a fast food restaurant.

Reports

• Angelou Report On Santa Fe Independent Businesses [PDF]

  Like New Orleans, Santa Fe’s economy is based largely on small locally owned businesses. And like New Orleans, Santa Fe’s economic health is on the line as national chains move in, bringing with them increasing competition for labor, higher rents, and usually a decrease in small business sales.

• Arts And Economic Development [PDF]

  Learn how arts programs have served as components of high-impact economic development programs by assisting state and local government in multiple ways.

• BIBA TIF Report [PDF]

  The author of this report from Boulder, CO states, “TIF holds the promise of a no-risk benefit to our sales tax revenue stream, but in point of fact, there are consequences…And there are alternatives to TIF.”

• Community Benefits Agreements: Ensuring that Urban Redevelopment Benefits Everyone [PDF]

  CBAs are legally binding contracts between two private parties— developers and community-labor coalitions—to ensure that major development projects benefit local community residents.

• Community Benefits Agreements: Making Development Projects Accountable [PDF]

  Written to help community groups learn how CBAs work, and to explain the many benefits for which community groups can negotiate.

• Economic Impact Analysis: Local Merchants vs. Chain Retailers [PDF]

  Civic Economics conducted this analysis for Liveable Cities assessing the economic impact of local merchants relative to a chain merchant carrying comparable lines of goods in Austin. BookPeople, Waterloo Records, and Borders Books & Music, provide a case study. (2002)

• Footloose and Fancy Free: Top 30 US Walkable Urban Places [PDF]

  Urban development is trending away from “drivable sub-urban development” and back to higher density “walkable urban places” as witnessed by the success of transit-oriented development, downtown revitalizations, and new urbanism. Read the summary of The Brookings Institution report by Christopher B. Leinberger.

• Local vs Chain in Maine [PDF]
• New Rules Project Fact Sheet

  Looking for some facts about supporting local businesses? Check out this great fact sheet put together by the New Rules Project.

• Trade Deficit in Food Safety [PDF]

  Stay Local! participated in the New Orleans release of this July 2007 report by Public Citizen calling for stronger food import policies to ensure food safety. Bottom line: Shop local for your meat, produce, and seafood. See you at the Farmer’s Market!

• Which PILOTs Should Fly [PDF]

  March 2007 report by the Bureau of Governmental Research on “Payments in Lieu of Taxes” (PILOTs) in New Orleans. A must-read for taxpayers in general and local business owners in particular.

• Why Not To Have Walmart In Boulder [PDF]

Studies

• Comprehensive New Study Examines Impact of Katrina and Rita on Louisiana Businesses [PDF]

  Researchers studied the change in the total number of firms by parish and industry in Louisiana to measure and analyze the number of firms could be “verified open.” This report captures data for about 96 percent of companies in the state.

• Effects of Wal-Mart on Local Labor Markets [PDF]

  From The Public Policy Institute of California

• Fiscal Impact Analysis of Residential and Nonresidential Land Use Prototypes [PDF]

  Big box retail, shopping centers, and fast-food restaurants cost taxpayers in Barnstable, Massachusetts, more than they produce in revenue, according to this analysis by Tischler & Associates, July 2002

• Street Survey of Business Re-openings in Post-Katrina New Orleans [PDF]

  A survey of St. Claude Street, Magazine Street, and Carrollton Avenue documenting how much more quickly local stores opened after Katrina than regional and national chains.

• The “Six Sins of Greenwashing” [PDF]

  The recent surge of environmental awareness in North America is unmistakable. Less studied is the apparent increase in “greenwashing” – false or misleading green marketing claims.

• The Andersonville Study of Retail Economics [PDF]

  In a study comparing the economic impact of ten Chicago businesses and their chain competitors, Civic Economics found that locally-owned businesses generate a substantial Local Premium in enhanced economic impact. (2004)

• The San Francisco Retail Diversity Study [PDF]

  In this 2007 study, CivEc calculates market shares for independents and chains in several categories, examines economic impact of locally owned vs. chains, and analyzes how modest shifts in consumer spending of 10% from chains to local businesses would generate added economic activity in San Fran including job creation.

• Understanding the Fiscal Impacts of Land Use in Ohio

  In seven of eight communities included in this summary report of impact studies, retail development created a drain on municipal budgets (i.e., it required more in public services, such as road maintenance and police, than it generated in tax revenue). By Randall Gross, Development Economics, August 2004

Toolkits

• Big Box Tool Kit

  BigBoxToolKit.com provides a variety of tools to help citizens both beat the big boxes and chart a new course for economic development in their communities.

• Friends of Lafitte Corridor Outreach Tool [PDF]

  The long-term vision for the corridor is to develop a trail and park system that spans from the French Quarter to the Cemeteries. Immediate work will focus on securing right-of-way and constructing a trail and park corridor between Basin Street and Jeff Davis Boulevard.

• Planning Tools for Curbing Chains and Nurturing Homegrown Businesses [PDF]

  Learn how small, independent businesses can prosper, when planners use the right tools to manage economic growth.

Articles

• Big Boxes in Our Town? [PDF]

  Great short report by the retail analysis firm Civic Economics.

• Boston Main Streets

  New Orleans hopes to use the National Trust for Historic Preservation’s Main Street model in districts suffering from disinvestment and deteriorated building stock to bring merchants, owners, city officials and residents together to build an organization and workplan to reverse their prospects. Learn how Boston did just that.

• Commentary: When a Giant Retailer Moves On, It Leaves its ‘Big Box’ Behind

  Corporate chains reinvent themselves every 10 years or so, which often means abandoning locales that do not fit the new model.

• How Big is Too Big? [PDF]

  A visual illustration of various store sizes.

• Independent Businesses, Unite! [PDF]

  By forming alliances, independent businesses can regain their central role in our economy - by Stacy Mitchell, InBusiness

• Preventing Vacant Boxes
• Responding to Critics of Local First

  ‘Bookselling This Week’ offers a brief article that outlines common arguments against supporting local businesses and how they are easily refuted.

• San Diego City Council Blocks Wal-Mart [PDF]

  The San Diego City Council voted in late November to ban certain giant retail stores, dealing a blow to Wal-Mart Stores Inc.’s potential to expand in the nation’s eight-largest city.

• The Benefits of Doing Business Locally [PDF]

  Local officials often fall for the seductions and political appeal of luring new national chains…but they often fail to consider the greater losses that occur when the local business base is undermined.

• The Ithaca Journal

  An additional $16 million would flow into the regional economy if everyone in Tompkins County devoted 10 percent of their food purchases to local products.

Directories

• New Orleans Small Business Resource Guide [PDF]

  A compendium of useful information on resources and assistance for New Orleans’ small business owner. Compiled by Seedco and MercyCorps, and last updated May 2007.

Documents

• NOLA Master Plan Charter Amendments [PDF]

  Review the most recent charter amendment recommendations (a collaborative work in progress). Once finalized and approved by the City Council, New Orleans will have an unprecedented opportunity to move beyond the dysfunctional, special-interest-driven planning process that has plagued the city for decades, and to create a visionary one that all our citizens can be proud of. (May 29, 2008)