Twelve years ago the Neighborhood Retail Alliance started its multi-year coalition building effort to defeat Mayor Giuliani's proposed relaxing of zoning laws which would result in the proliferation of megastores without proper review.  With the help of over 104 merchant groups and close to 75 different civic organizations, we overcame a popular mayor, powerful real estate lobby and a stream of antagonistic editorials.  Helping our effort was a number of neighborhood site fights that underscored the dangers of a unregulated development.  In the end, we were able to convince the City Council that the mayor's plan was a serious threat to both their zoning oversight and to the viability of New York City's neighborhoods.

Click here for numerous articles on the fight against allowing megastores into New York City, our multi-year organizing efforts, the plan's resounding defeat and the various site fights that were part and parcel of the greater anti-rezoning campaign.

The Neighborhood Retail Alliance has crafted a number of memoranda dealing with the all the issues surrounding Mayor Giuliani's megastore rezoning proposal and its eventual defeat.  View and print these positions papers here.