We just got back from interviewing Stacy Mitchel in Portland, ME. Stacy is "a senior researcher with the New Rules Project, a program of the Institute for Local Self-Reliance that challenges the wisdom and inevitability of economic consolidation and works to advance policies that support strong local economies and vibrant communities."
Her book, Big Box Swindle, is one of the best, most comprehensive critiques out there of the colonization of our small towns by big box retailers. She was a perfect addition to Rocktown, in that she was able to contextualize many of the issues facing Harrisonburg and it's changing economy and loss of open space, within the larger, national pattern of corporatization.
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