The journal of the New Rules Project

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Local Retailers Hit the Web
In the flurry over the runaway growth of electronic commerce, one fact is rarely addressed: e-commerce is attracting consumer dollars that used to go to local stores. Now independent businesses are collaborating to bring online profits back to Main Street. By Stacy Mitchell

Paving Our Electronic Dirt Roads
Although the Telecommunications Act reduced local authority, there are still many steps a community can take to ensure its citizens have an accessible, affordable information infrastructure. By Miles Fidelman

Keeping the Minors Home
Home Teams are pulled up by their roots as owners cash in on stadium deals: it happened to the majors and now it's happening to minor league sports teams. Buying the team is one way to keep them at hometown's home plate. By Daniel Kraker.

This Isn't Your Father's Free Trade
It wasn't tariffs that brought 50,000 protestors to Seattle's streets in November. It was concern over issues like living standards, social justice, environmental protection and political freedom. Free trade, as administered by the WTO, is no longer about how much tax to slap on an import. By David Morris

Footloose and Label-Free
Labeling laws allow vendors to sell apples without telling consumers whether they're from Washington or Australia. Congress is looking at several bills that would require stricter labeling of produce and meat. By Simona Fuma Shapiro

Departments

editor's note
Policies of place should be a priority in the November 2000 election campaign.

place rules
FCC okays microradio. West Virginia sues Wampler. San Francisco bans ATMs, banks sue. Boulder proposes local ownership preference. Dairy compact revived.

[editor's note]

The Place of Place in the 21st Century

The election campaign is in full gear. From now until November, candidates will bombard us with zillions of words about taxes and deficits, military spending and health care. These are all important issues, to be sure. But no candidate or party has yet to address what may be the key issue: what is the place of place in the 21st century?

When President Clinton told us in 1997 that he wanted to "build a bridge to the 21st century" he was metaphorically telling us he was going to rely on old ideas to fashion policies for the new millennium. Do we really need more bridges? The idea that mobility is our highest good, and the distance from producer to consumer an important measure of success, is outmoded and increasingly destructive.

This journal takes issue with that single-minded focus. It discusses politics and policy from the ground up.

An information economy is inherently global in reach. But can information technologies be harnessed to strengthen geographic communities? Stacy Mitchell, author of ILSR's well-received book, The Home Town Advantage: How to Defend Your Main Street Against Chain Stores . . . And Why It Matters, addresses that question in her hopeful analysis of the new .com ventures of the small business community. "Buy via the web, if you must, but buy from your local store," is their motto.

Miles Fidelman, president of the Center for Civic Networking, persuasively argues that cities must and can play a key role in designing a telecommunications system that serves the public interest. Yet Congress and the courts are increasingly stripping citiesæand statesæof the authority to act on behalf of their citizens in this arena.

Sometimes the contempt that policymakers feel for place verges on the absurd. Simona Fuma-Shapiro discusses one such area: country-of-origin labeling. Free traders like Bill Clinton criticize such labeling as protectionist. After all, why on earth would someone need to know where a product was made unless they wanted to favor domestic and local producers?: a tendency viewed as downright subversive in a world governed by the World Trade Organization.

Globalization pervades all areas of the economy. Charles Dolan's Cablevision owns the New York Knicks and Rangers, as well as Madison Square Garden. Rupert Murdoch's vast communications and entertainment empire owns the Los Angeles Dodgers. Their relationship to the place their teams inhabit is tenuous. Most readers of this magazine live in cities where major league sports owners have threatened to leave if residents didn't cough up the dough for a new stadium/arena/ballpark. At the major league level the sports owners, with the acquiescence of Congress, have established rules that give communities only two choices: pay up or see their teams depart. But as Daniel Kraker notes, the minor leagues are an entirely different ball game. When minor league owners demand subsidies greater than the market value of the team, a growing number of communities are saying, "Why not own it ourselves?" Wouldn't we prefer to root for a truly rooted home team?

This is the year we debate policy. Or should. Who knows? If enough of us ask these kinds of questions, maybe our candidates will be forced to tell us where they stand on the important issue of place. What policies would they propose if community really mattered?

As always, we welcome your feedback, and your support.

-- David Morris

David Morris
Vice President, Institute for Local Self-Reliance
© 2000 Institute for Local Self-Reliance

Questions directed to info@ilsr.org

phone: 612-379-3815