WAL-MART'S EFFECT ON LOCAL POVERTY: The next reporter to interview Mayor Campbell, Economic Development Director Greg Huth, or any member of the Cleveland City Planning Commission really should ask them if they read this recent study from Penn State before signing off on a Steelyard Commons plan that's almost certain to include a Wal-Mart Supercenter:

Wal-Mart and County-Wide Poverty
by Stephan Goetz and Hema Swaminathan, Penn State University, October 2004

The presence of a Wal-Mart store hinders a community's ability to move families out of poverty, according to this study. After controlling for other factors that influence poverty rates, the researchers found that those U.S. counties in which new Wal-Mart stores were built between 1987 and 1998 experienced a significantly smaller reduction in their poverty rates than those counties that did not add new Wal-Mart stores.

(Abstract from Hometown Advantage.)