Hercules City Council: Wal-Mart Watch Person Of The Week
Topics: Community Impact
Each Friday, Wal-Mart sponsors a segment on ABC’s World News Tonight called Person of the Week honoring someone who, “for better or for worse” has an “unusual impact in other people’s lives.” In that spirit, we’re launched our own weekly feature, The Wal-Mart Watch Person of the Week, that profiles an individual or group that exemplifies our goal of making Wal-Mart a better employer, neighbor, and corporate citizen. We always welcome input from our readers, so please send your nominations and suggestions to us at .
This week we honor the City Council of Hercules, California. In order to stop Wal-Mart from building a Supercenter on a 17-acre site near San Pablo Bay – land that was intended to be part of a redevelopment project focusing on small stores and pedestrian-friendly paths – the council unanimously agreed to seize the land by eminent domain.
In defending their decision (Wal-Mart has already threatened appeals), the council noted that every plan Wal-Mart submitted for the 100,000-square-foot store exceeded size limits the city had agreed to enforce. A lawyer for the city of Hercules, Gail Connor, said that:
“A big-box discount store of any kind at the site would undermine interlocking plans that have already produced hundreds of old-fashioned homes across Refugio Creek, and which call for a mixed-use village of high-density homes and shops in the nearby waterfront district.”
Wal-Mart representatives have harshly criticized the Hercules action. Wal-Mart lobbyist Kevin Loscotoff accused city residents of “playing politics” and Wal-Mart lawyer Edward Burg said it would be “wrong” to use “government’s most awesome power.” But while Wal-Mart is protesting the use of eminent domain they are threatening it in another case in Florida.
In an e-mail exchange (PDF) obtained by Wal-Mart Watch and reported in the Orlando Sentinel, shows that Wal-Mart is playing both sides of the eminent domain fence by criticizing the practice in California and employing the practice in Florida. The exchange between the developer and local landowners details Wal-Mart’s threat to use eminent domain to seize local homeowners’ land for an 800,000 square-foot distribution center.
On Wednesday Wal-Mart Watch executive director Andrew Grossman urged Wal-Mart to heed the words of its founder, Sam Walton. Grossman said, “Sam Walton wrote that Wal-Mart should ‘not go where we’re not wanted.’ Walton also said ‘if some community, for whatever reason, doesn’t want us in there, we aren’t interested in going in and creating a fuss.’ We urge Wal-Mart to adopt the principles of Mr. Sam and reconsider their decisions in California and Florida.”
- Click here to read more about Hercules v Wal-Mart.
- Click here to visit the website of the Hercules City Council.
- Click here to visit Battle-Mart, Wal-Mart Watch’s online guide to fighting Wal-Mart in your community.
Posted by Laura Jack on Friday, May 26, 2006
