aberkok

I've seen the soul slowly being sucked out my hometown of Kingston, Ontario because of big box business like Ikea. The strip malls have taken business away from what used to be a vibrant downtown core. What used to be beautiful rolling plains have now been paved over with parking lots and I'm sure the wildlife has suffered.

Peoples' ability to walk has increasingly diminished. These strip malls are generally too far from residental areas to walk so people become increasingly car dependent (since there's nowhere left to walk to). Almost everyone I know in Kingston is shocked when I say I'm walking somewhere, because it seems so far to them. Housing developments spring up around these strip malls and these days it seems like every house is the same, without individual character, like a scene out of Edward Scissorhands.

So no, I don't believe that towns should pay retailers to set up shop.

Sure, Ikea isn't an American business, but that does not exclude them from the "rich get richer" paradigm.

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