Well, at least its not just us

As the article I posted yesterday indicated, Main Streets are struggling in the current economic times. That being said, it isn't just us! Check out this article that appeared on CNN's website.

Malls are hurting too - in fact, vacancies increased 7% this year, the highest since 2001, and the future forecasts are no better.

That being said, it seemed that this was bound to happen, and that the long-term effects could be good for our urban areas. Quoting directly from the article:

"Our country has six times more retail space per capita than any other county," said Ellen Dunham-Jones, director of the architecture program at Georgia Institute of Technology.

"We're just cannibalizing our existing stores by building more stores even when sales aren't increasing," she said. "We were long due for a retail correction and we're going through it now."

So, it seems that there is a large amount of available retail and commercial space available already. Gee, I wonder where that space is largely concentrated....