It was standing room only on January 25th at a Monieson Centre seminar on The Creative Economy given by Dr. Betsy Donald, Queen’s Geography. With about 60 attendees, plus two remote sites linked in by videoconference, it was abundantly clear this is an enduringly hot topic. In fact, the subject proved attractive not only to professors and grad students from planning, business and geography, but also to municipal economic developers, consultants, provincial and federal government officials, CFDCs and sustainability activists.
In my urban geography courses at Queen's University, the impact of big box retail stores on the community always guarantees a heated debate. The naysayers claim that there is no evidence that big-box retail stores affect historic downtowns, but their argument seems akin to those of people who still claim that there isn't evidence of global warming.
It was standing room only on January 25th at a Monieson Centre seminar on The Creative Economy given by Dr. Betsy Donald, Queen’s Geography. With about 60 attendees, plus two remote sites linked in by videoconference, it was abundantly clear this is an enduringly hot topic. In fact, the subject proved attractive not only to professors and grad students from planning, business and geography, but also to municipal economic developers, consultants, provincial and federal government officials, CFDCs and sustainability activists. 
In my urban geography courses at Queen's University, the impact of big box retail stores on the community always guarantees a heated debate. The naysayers claim that there is no evidence that big-box retail stores affect historic downtowns, but their argument seems akin to those of people who still claim that there isn't evidence of global warming. 
