KANSAS SITE FIGHT: VOTE ON WAL-MART

Vote on Wal-Mart [Lawrence (Kan.) Journal-World]

The new majority on the City Commission has agreed to hear Wal-Mart’s proposal to build a second Lawrence store at Sixth Street and Wakarusa Drive. The old majority opposed this store.

How does the public feel? To answer this question, Grassroots Action (of which I am a member) conducted a scientific phone poll of 205 registered voters. These voters were called from randomly generated lists for the city’s 49 precincts, and we called a balanced numbers of Democrats, Republicans and independents.

We asked: “Do you favor or oppose building a second Wal-Mart at Sixth and Wakarusa?”

Of these 205 voters, 53.2 percent said “oppose,” 26.8 percent said “favor” and 20 percent said “no opinion.”

In other words, an absolute majority said “no” to a second Wal-Mart. For every respondent who said “yes,” nearly twice as many said “no.”

The most often cited concerns were traffic congestion, commercial overbuilding at the expense of existing Lawrence stores and Wal-Mart’s low wages.

We consider these results significant, and we ask the City Commission to take heed.

On an issue as contentious and long debated as this one — given the level of public concern and the gravity of the issues under consideration — we believe the city should take the public’s views very seriously. In fact, we believe the city should hold a public referendum to decide the matter. Let the voters decide this hot-button issue. A referendum would be the most democratic way to proceed and would show that the city truly values public opinion.

Posted by Beth Gostanian on Monday, August 06, 2007

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