Here’s a report just submitted from sprawl-busters in southwest Ohio: “About 40 activists are now involved in the biggest sprawl battle southwest Ohio has ever witnessed. Our Sierra Clubs and a just-forming Smart Growth Alliance are strategizing to slow down a proposed 340 store mega mall known as “Cincinnati Crossings”. The project was announced in October of 1999 for farmland between Dayton and Cincinnati. The Ohio highway department is the present focus of our attacks because they are attempting to bypass public scrutiny of the state’s subsidization of a new freeway interchange and other massive infrastructure improvements to support the mega mall. This outrageous corporate welfare plan will mean the reversal of our efforts to revitalize our downtowns, and will generate a tidal wave of spin-off development if not stopped. There is no population growth in SW Ohio, only growth in traffic, air pollution, urban abandonment and consumption of farmland. There are several semi-vacant hulks of former large malls and many big box dinosaurs — the result of an extreme overcapacity of retail space in the marketplace.
For more details about the movement to stop the Cincinnati Crossings mall, or to find out how you can help local activists, go to http://www.interaxs.net/pub/mikemonett. Contact: [email protected].
