Main Street retail is vanishing under pressure from online shopping and rising rents. There are good reasons to save it.

Shop Small/ Lloyd Alter/CC BY 2.0

Urban activists and environmentalists should be serious about supporting small businesses; as I wrote in my first post on Small Business Saturday, “Dense, walkable, resilient towns and cities are a key component of getting off oil, and viable main street retail is the key to having vibrant main streets.” Peter Calthorpe has written:

Lloyd Alter/Support my son; He sells cheese here./CC BY 2.0

I make the case that you should support Small Business Saturday every day, because that’s where our kids work.

Lloyd Alter/ Storefront on Dupont Street, Toronto/CC BY 2.0

There are other factors; in many cities, gentrification has caused a serious increase in retail rents. In Toronto, where I live, politicians are afraid to raise taxes on residential voters so they pile it onto businesses, which is why so many stores are turning into apartments.

Lloyd Alter/ on a high street in Edinburgh/CC BY 2.0

In the UK, they are calling it a retail apocalypse. When I was in Edinburgh last year, I noticed that every second store was some social service second-hand store. Sarah Butler writes in the Guardian:

Lloyd Alter/ some small businesses are fighting back/CC BY 2.0

Writing in The Atlantic, Derek Thompson notes that the businesses that are left are mostly service.

This is why Small Business Saturday should really be Small Business Everyday. Alex Steffen once wrote:

The businesses are changing/ Lloyd Alter/CC BY 2.0

Key to eliminating the need to drive is giving people places to go that are pleasant and walkable and fun. That’s what small businesses can provide. That’s where the innovation is, that’s where the good beer is, that’s where you can get things fixed instead of having to buy new. That’s why people want to live in cities instead of suburbs. And for these places to survive, we all have to support them.

So go out and shop on Small Business Saturday, and think about making it Small Business Everyday. And if American Express feels too corporate to you (although they deserve great credit for starting Small Business Saturday and the Shop Small campaign), there is always the more radical Reoccupy Main Street.

Reoccupy Main Street/CC BY 2.0