THE GIANT SUCKING SOUND OF BIG BOX RETAIL: Brewed Fresh Daily links to a Chicago study on the local impacts of big box chains vs. local retailers. Since attracting chain retail into city neighborhoods is a declared objective of the City of Cleveland, this could not be more important.

Local businesses give 70% more back to you than chains

Another good reason why wooing big boxes to the neighborhood ain't all it's cracked up to be:

A new retail study for a Chicago neighborhood discovered that for every $100 spent on an independent business, $73 went back into the local community. However, for every $100 spent on chain businesses, only $43 went back into the local economy.

The study, completed by Civic Economics, the leading firm in the country for conducting these kinds of analyses, found that independents had 26% more of their staff locally, bought more than twice as much of their goods and services locally, kept more profits locally, and spent more on local charities.

OHIO VOTER SUPPRESSION NEWS: Several Ohio bloggers are contributing to a new blog aimed at documenting efforts to keep voters -- especially urban, low-income, minority voters -- away from the polls on November 2. It's organized by Hypothetically Speaking, with several contributors including Jesse of Pandagon and Mark Adams of Dispassionate Lib. And me. Keep watching...