November 22, 2009
UTNE READER

The Steady state

(Page 2 of 2)

July/August 1996
By Jay Walljasper, Utne Reader 
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Vermonters still worry that the comforts of home might be trampled by outside forces. Now the chief threat comes not from government planners, but from big business. The state's citizens have seen how chain stores, shopping malls, and unchecked business development rip away at the fabric of local communities, destroy the natural beauty of the region, and suck wealth out of the state.

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In response, Vermont has enacted laws that are firm in their protection of the natural environment and local communities. It is the only state to offer much resistance to the advances of Wal-Mart, a chain of discount stores that has wiped out traditional shopping streets in thousands of small towns. (There is one Wal-Mart store in the state, but it is half the size of most stores in the chain and is located in an old Woolworth building in Bennington. Another is planned for Rutland.) Developers who propose new housing developments or shopping malls must show that their projects won't put a strain on neighborhoods or ecosystems. These are the sorts of regulations now opposed by conservatives, who rail against anything that restricts the activities of corporations. Yet a lot of old-time Vermonters who once thought of themselves as conservatives support these measures in hopes of protecting their familiar way of life.

Special to Utne Reader, July 1996.

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