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Introduction <br />Over the past five decades, retailing in urban neighborhoods has hollowed <br />out, leaving most cities and inner -ring suburbs with too little to support <br />healthy neighborhoods and strong communities. The results are apparent to <br />anyone living in or visiting a 21st century city: commercial streets with deteri- <br />orating buildings, empty storefronts or marginal month -to -month tenants, an <br />undersupply of essential goods and services, social problems, poor pedestrian <br />environments and amenities, and untended streets and sidewalks. <br />The decline of neighborhood retailing has had a profound effect on the desirabil- <br />ity of many urban neighborhoods and communities. The convenient availability <br />of goods and services is a key factor that people consider when choosing a place <br />to live, and neighborhoods without suitabLe retailing are dramatically weakened. <br />Residents who can afford it, leave, and potential new residents choose to live <br />somewhere else. In this type of environment, communities cannot be sustained <br />over the long term. <br />The challenges of rebuilding persist not only in low-income neighborhoods, but <br />also in many other urban locations where retailing never recovered from the <br />shift of buying habits that led people to suburban shopping centers. Even in <br />some of the most affluent communities —where first -generation, auto - <br />oriented shopping streets have begun to urbanize and take on characteristics of <br />urban shopping districts —redevelopment efforts are often stymied by NIMBYists <br />Orenco Station, Hillsboro, Oregon. <br />iv <br />