By Tim Faulkner, ecoRI.org
News executive editor
2013 is shaping up to
be a year of activism. Planning is underway for a massive Presidents Day rally
in Washington, D.C. Union supporters are striking and taking to capitals.
College students are calling for divestment. Even those happy with the outcome
of the presidential election aren’t taking the year off.
Perhaps a new
consumerism will also be part of this burgeoning activist movement.
Environmental degradation aside, the economy is improving; shoppers are
spending; new stores are opening.
This wave of growth
presents an opportunity to transform the physical look of retailing, the
livability of our communities and the health of local economies.
Simply put, you can’t
buy stuff for cheap and also expect to earn a respectable income and live in a
nice place. In our consumer-dominated economy, shopping sets the standard of
living. If you patronize big-box stores and strip malls, then your community
begets retail sprawl, and low-paying retail jobs dominate the workforce.
Shopping centers and malls create fields of pavement, threaten wetlands,
increase flooding and make driving stressful and dangerous. You are where you
shop.
Contrast this
ever-growing image with the goals of Grow Smart Rhode
Island, the nonprofit group advocating for revitalized and walkable
city and town centers. Grow Smart RI promotes the development and preservation
of unique communities through the advancement of small businesses, public
transportation, rehabbed buildings and access to local agriculture. It seeks a
quality of life based on sustainability, not low prices.
But smart growth
doesn’t make consumers less wealthy. A recent report from Civic Economics showed that $45 of every $100
spent at a local retailer stays in the community, while only $13 from a
national chain stays local. Clustered and transit-oriented development
also increases property values and reduces transportation costs. It creates work
in construction and transportation, careers that are more likely to weather a
poor economy. These projects also
create proportionally more
medium-wage jobs and fewer
low-wage jobs, according to Grow
Smart RI.
The principles are
slowly proving true in cities such as Cambridge, Mass., and countless smaller
communities and neighborhoods across the country. Both North Kingstown and
South Kingstown have already embraced the idea in order to preserve open space
and manage growth. And Rhode Island has 21 towns and villages identified as
candidates (pdf) for such development.
The good news is that
the economy has the momentum to make smart-growth principals take hold. Local
public policy also is advancing the cause, with the passage of the complete streets legislation (pdf)
by the General Assembly. Consumers, however, must support this development for
it to succeed. Shop your values at places where employees earn respectable
wages with benefits, in stores and restaurants that use local food and products
and sustainable packaging. Avoid retailers engulfed in a sea of pavement.
It may not be a
full-blown march or protest, but practicing sustainable consumerism during a
resurgent economy drives the change required for a better Rhode Island.