Ethnic Retailing and Implications for Planning Multicultural Communities

This article focuses on the phenomenon of ethnic retailing and demonstrates that city planners play an inactive or reactive role in the context of ethnic retail development. The findings indicate that there can be no templates in planning approaches to ethnic retailing. Planners must respect the local diversity and reject universal treatments of ethnic retail areas. It provides several recommendations for municipal planning, including the incorporation of secondary plans in ethnic retail areas to recreate community focal points, and the establishment of a Multicultural Planning Office within the existing planning system.