MERCED COUNTY, CA: WE’LL SETTLE FOR WAL-MART JOBS

Our View: Let Wal-Mart build center [Merced Sun Star (Calif.)]

Distribution facility may not offer high-paying work, but Merced County can fill the jobs.

There’s not a city in California—or the nation—that doesn’t covet lots of high-paying jobs in clean industries. Simply put, that’s the brass ring we’re all reaching for.

It’s even more important here in the Valley that we attract these types of jobs as a way to battle our chronic poverty and increasingly polluted air.

Wal-Mart, the world’s largest retailer, wants to build a facility in Merced to distribute goods to stores in the region. Wal-Mart isn’t known for paying high salaries and the trucks used to transport the merchandise spew pollutants into our already dirty air. In short, this isn’t the brass ring.

But let’s be practical. Our work force doesn’t qualify for brass-ring jobs. Yes, folks can move here to work in those high-paying, environmentally friendly jobs but there aren’t any of those on the horizon. What about the people already living here who need work?

Merced suffers chronic high unemployment and low education attainment, which adds up to crippling poverty. We need to roll up our sleeves and get to work. We have plenty of people willing to do so. Let’s build the distribution center.

Our civic leaders need to do a better job at attracting those high-paying jobs in clean industries. But until that happens, companies like Wal-Mart should be permitted to set up shop here.

We don’t want growth at any price. We don’t want just any jobs. We don’t want to become a sprawling metropolis. Merced should be judicious in what it allows and doesn’t allow. The land where Wal-Mart wants to build is zoned for this use and has been for years. It’s part of the University Industrial Park. Other distribution and manufacturing facilities have been operating in that neighborhood for years. Wal-Mart’s center would be a good fit.

We’ve lost too much recently. The Air Force left 13 years ago and the shock waves still reverberate in the region. Farmers Insurance moved out years ago and the wounds are still felt. The Ragu plant shut its doors recently. This makes our situation even more dire.

Yes, thankfully, the University of California is here and growing with those great, high-paying jobs every city wants. It’s our brass ring. We’re fortunate for that.

But what about the folks who don’t qualify for those jobs? Is it fair for a few Wal-Mart critics to say those people can’t work?

The trucks moving goods in and out of the distribution center would be traveling through our Valley anyway because the stores are here. How much more pollution are we talking about if Wal-Mart builds here? Shouldn’t a distribution center be centrally located, as we are? Isn’t that more efficient?

Wal-Mart didn’t become the world’s largest retail outlet without being innovative. Giant companies are always looking for ways to be more efficient. With the price of fuel so high, we can expect the company to look at ways to lower those costs, which in turn should equate to less pollution.

Over time, education is the key to opening the doors to those high-paying, environmentally efficient careers. But that’s not the reality of today. We need a practical approach to attracting jobs.

This summer and fall, the Merced City Council faces crucial votes on the Wal-Mart proposal. We urge the council to let Wal-Mart build its distribution center.

Posted by Joel Nezianya on Monday, July 28, 2008

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