Big Box Evaluator
Scenarios E-Journal Reports & Reflections on Innovations in Place
« Back to Winter 2007 - 2008 Table of Contents
Tech Toolbox
Big Box Evaluator
by Doug Walker and Rebecca Sanborn Stone
“Passions Run High”
“Store Wars”
“Neighbor Against Neighbor”
When it comes to development proposals for big box stores like Wal-Mart or The Home Depot, headlines like that are not uncommon and passions indeed run high. The issues with big box development are complex, and the list of factors to consider—jobs, prices, traffic, character, environment, appearance—is endless, but too often people see big box stores as a black-or-white, good-or-evil issue. Advocates both for and against quote statistics and studies that seem to favor their cases. Picket signs sprout up on lawns and roadways, town governments are split down the middle, and once-friendly neighbors eye each other with distrust.
In the midst of the partisan debates that arise when a big box store is coming to town, it’s sometimes hard for ordinary citizens to get a clear, fair understanding of what the store might mean to them and to their community. If residents manage to avoid the polarization, they may still be frustrated enough with the politics and arguments that they throw up their hands and disengage from the process altogether.
The Big Box Evaluator, a new tool from The Orton Family Foundation, aims to help the opposite happen. The website and interactive tool was founded in the belief that residents should be active citizens, and that they should have the information they need to engage meaningfully in the communities’ decision-making processes. Citizens can take charge of their own learning and form their own opinions about big box stores by visiting the site, reading general information about the impacts of large-scale retail development, and running through scenarios tailored to the types of communities in which they live. It’s “just the big-box facts,” as a Grist blog post described it—no hyperbole, and as much reliable information as the site authors could find.
To give users a way of navigating the many issues involved with development proposals, the Big Box Evaluator takes a cue from the Orton Family Foundation’s award-winning visualization software, CommunityViz, and asks users to imagine a local scenario. Suppose a big box store is coming to town: What size will it be? How big is the town? How many jobs will it create? How many parking spaces will it require? Users can set their own assumptions and input their values as they step through a sequence of screens. Next, a series of issues is presented. In the “Economy” section, for example, one page covers “Municipal Costs and Revenues.” A short explanation of the relevant issues is provided, as are many optional links to further information and studies (which often present contrasting points of view) on that subject. In the "Visual" section, photos of different kinds of big box designs are provided. Based on that reading and any other personal opinions, the user can then decide what assumptions to use in his scenario. For example, will average wages go up, or down? And by how much? If a particular topic area is not of interest, the user can always skip it, accepting default values set up ahead of time automatically.
After the user has built a scenario, the tool calculates the resulting effects on the community and produces a report explaining them with graphs and figures. If desired, the user can go back into the scenario, make changes to the assumptions and community type, and get new results. And for those issues that don’t lend themselves to numeric analysis, there are checklists that citizens can use to keep track of issues that touch on personal values and public policies. The tool includes a lot of information and processes many complicated issues, but users indicate that it only takes them about 20 minutes and that the web interface is easy to use. They are also reporting that they are receiving a good overview and fair explanation of the issues.
The Big Box Evaluator is still new and it will take time to track its accessibility and effectiveness. Many people are exploring the website and learning about development issues even if they do not currently live in a community with big box development on the horizon. With time, the Foundation hopes that the website will become a primary resource for communities that are faced with decisions about big retail developments, and that the Evaluator will turn out citizens who are more engaged and prepared to make informed decisions about the future of their communities. Passions will always run high when it comes to big box stores, but if the Big Box Evaluator succeeds, it will be because informed citizens are armed with knowledge and an understanding of the issues—not just because they are swayed by the latest headlines.
Try the Big Box Evaluator at www.bigboxevaluator.org.
Doug Walker is President and Founder of Placeways, LLC, and was formerly Managing Director of the CommunityViz project for the Orton Family Foundation. He lives with his family near Boulder, CO. Rebecca Sanborn Stone is Senior Associate, Communications for the Orton Family Foundation. She lives with her husband in Bethel, VT.