N. Tonawanda, NY. Wal-Mart Emotions Run High
Shouting match over Wal-Mart [Tonowanda News (NY)]
Tensions were high as Wal-Mart supporters and detractors packed a public hearing Monday to respond to the environmental impact survey of the proposed superstore, prompting the North Tonawanda Planning Commission to call police officers to control the public.
Some residents in the standing-room only crowd wore stickers that said “Wal-Mart: Yes.” One woman brought a cardboard sign with black marker written on it: “Wal-Mart is #1.” Some booed and heckled speakers who criticized the draft environmental impact statement as incomplete.
David Seeger, an attorney representing North Tonawanda First, a residents group opposed to the building of a Wal-Mart superstore, said he was “puzzled” by some parts of the survey analyzing traffic impact.
The survey states traffic at the Erie Avenue/Walck Road intersection, among others, would improve if the Wal-Mart was built, despite a surge in cars using the route daily and without mitigation from the company, he said.
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Posted by Alex Goldschmidt on Wednesday, September 12 | 0 comments | Permalink
N. Tonowanda, NY. Hearing Comes to Blows
North Tonawanda city clerk calls police when Wal-Mart hearing gets rowdy [Buffalo News (NY)]
Both opponents and supporters of a proposed Wal-Mart supercenter pushed their messages during a public hearing on the project’s environmental impact in City Hall Monday evening.
The fiery debate prompted City Clerk Thomas M. Jaccarino to call for assistance from city police 20 minutes into the session as verbal disputes erupted simultaneously in the front and back of the room.
The two uniformed officers maintained their presence among the more than 90 people who packed Council Chambers, but did not remove anyone from the room.
The Planning Commission held the public hearing to take comment on a proposal to build a 185,000-square-foot store near Niagara Falls Boulevard and Erie Avenue on the sites of the former Melody Fair and Bluebird Bus garage.
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Posted by Alex Goldschmidt on Wednesday, September 12 | 0 comments | Permalink
Wauhesha, WI. Wal-Mart Plans Introduced
Neighbors introduced to Wal-Mart’s plans in Waukesha [Greater Milwaukee Today]
When Betty Maass on Monday asked representatives of Wal-Mart when they plan to build a new Supercenter because she can’t wait to shop there, her comment was greeted with a round of applause.
More than 50 people attended a meeting Monday at Prairie Elementary School to hear details of the 184,100-square-foot store proposed for the site of the vacant Cretex Concrete plant at Highway 59 and South West Avenue.
“They aren’t going to build it fast enough for me,” Maass said before the meeting started.“I’m looking forward to having him learn how to go to the new Wal-Mart,” she said, motioning to her seeing-eye dog, Chance, a 5-year-old golden retriever who was resting his head on her lap.
Not everyone at the meeting was enthused about the project.
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Posted by Alex Goldschmidt on Wednesday, September 12 | 0 comments | Permalink
Yucca Valley, CA. We Don’t Need Another Wal-Mart
Reader’s letter: We don’t need another Wal-Mart [Hi-Desert Star (Calif.)]
In response to Karen Perry’s article on Aug. 22, she is right, we don’t need a Wal-Mart in this area. I don’t know why the city powers to be did not put it up to a vote of the people in the area like other cities did. Except for more money coming into the town. I know several people that do not want a Super Wal-Mart. We don’t need another grocery store, 16-bay service station and another bank. The Wal-Mart that we have is just fine. We don’t need this type of store taking over the whole town and putting other businesses out of business.
What we do need is more good restaurants, a Trader Joe’s, Target and maybe a Costco.
I was in the new Super Wal-Mart down in Rancho Mirage the other day to just see what it was like, and it was awful, way too big and things all over the floors. I could not find a thing I wanted or a sales clerk. The whole store was a mess. I swore that I would never go back into another Super Wal-Mart. I don’t like Wal-Mart the way they used the employees at such low wages. As it is I would keep going down the hill to do my shopping, I make fun day out of it.
Penny Wright
Yucca Valley
Posted by Alex Goldschmidt on Wednesday, September 12 | 0 comments | Permalink
Wal-Mart Re-Uses Flawed Reporting Methods
In a report released today (PDF), Wal-Mart claimed that it saves families $2,500 a year. Citing generic drugs and in-store banking centers, the new report sings the “low prices” gospel, but it fails to take into account the hidden costs of having a Wal-Mart in town: higher taxes, lower average wages, and fewer local businesses.
In June of 2006, the Economic Policy Institute issued a report attacking the flawed methodology Global Insight used to calculate customers’ supposed savings. It is the very same methodology Global Insight used again in this year’s study. The “research” glosses over a whole host of problems the company creates, not to mention the fact that Global Insight - far from independent - was comissioned by Wal-Mart to conduct this study. Legitimate, independent reports not commissioned by Wal-Mart show that when the company comes to town, poverty levels go up, wages go down and small businesses go away.
From the report:
- A widely quoted figure from a study by the consulting firm Global Insight (GI) indicates that Wal-Mart’s expansion has resulted in $263 billion in savings to U.S. consumers. We find this to be implausible. The statistical analysis generating this highly influential result fails the most rudimentary sensitivity checks.
- A robust set of research findings shows that Wal-Mart’s entry into local labor markets reduces the pay of workers in competing stores. This effect is greatest in the South, where Wal-Mart expansion has been greatest.
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Posted by Alex Goldschmidt on Wednesday, September 12 | 31 comments | Permalink
Ontario, CA. Wal-Mart Puts Lipstick On A Pig
On January 20, 2007, Sprawl-Busters reported that residents in Ontario, California were organizing to fight a Home Depot project. Now they’ve got a second big box store wanting to get in. Ontario calls itself the “gateway to Southern California.” The city is located 35 miles east of Los Angeles, and has a population of roughly 173,000 people. Ontario says it has been one of southern California’s fastest-growing areas over the past 25 years. The city boasts that it has “superior convenience” within Southern California which “enables local businesses to capture taxable sales from residents of surrounding communities.” Ontario even has an official song, “Beautiful Ontario.” The resident customer base within a 10 mile radius is more than 800,000 people. The per capita taxable sales of $30,336 is the largest of the region’s cities of over 100,000 residents. So the city has been heavily retailed already.
According to the Daily Bulletin newspaper, residents of northwest Ontario have organized to do battle with a proposed Wal-Mart supercenter at Mountain Avenue and Fifth Street. The project was approved by the Ontario Planning Commission on August 30th. But several days ago, a group called the Ontario Mountain Village Association, together with resident John Logue, filed an appeal to overturn the Planning Board vote at the city council. The group is represented by Attorney Cory Briggs of San Diego. The appeal charges that Wal-Mart’s environmental impact report did not adequately describe the project and all of its environmental impacts, and was based on outdated or incorrect information and lacked sufficient evidence. The residents claim that the city did not come up with sufficient “findings” to show that the positives outweigh the negatives of the project. The proposal is also inconsistent with the city’s General Plan for land use. The group is challenging the development plan and the granting of a conditional use permit. The appeal also charges that the city has a financial interest in the project and the applicant, therefore any favorable decision would be a conflict of interest. Attorney Briggs has asked for a copy of all city records dealing with the Wal-Mart application. The citizen’s appeal is expected to be heard soon by the city council. “We think the severity of the traffic and air-quality impacts have been understated,” Briggs told the newspaper. “As bad as they were reported in the Environmental Impact Report, we think they’re even worse. They’re still trying to put lipstick on a pig.”
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Posted by Al Norman on Tuesday, September 11 | 0 comments | Permalink
Johnson City, NY. Board to Decide on WMT
Wal-Mart’s impact focus of hearing [Press & Sun-Bulletin (NY)]
The Johnson City Planning Board expects to make a decision later this month that could pave the way for a Wal-Mart Supercenter at a brownfield site.
About 75 people attended a meeting Monday night at the village courthouse for a public hearing concerning subdividing the site at 90 Lester Ave. into two parcels.
Developer Marc Newman would like to divide the site into a 12.38-acre lot for the proposed Wal-Mart, and a 1.287-acre lot for retail/restaurant space. The planning board also discussed the project’s environmental impact.
Planning board Chairman Gerald Putman told the crowd he expects the planning board to rule on the project’s environmental impact at the planning board’s next meeting at 7:30 p.m. Sept. 25. The board is still waiting for the state Department of Transportation to finish reviewing the planner’s proposed changes to the traffic signal timing.
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Posted by Alex Goldschmidt on Tuesday, September 11 | 1 comments | Permalink
Muldoon, AK. Wal-Mart/Sam’s Club Moves Ahead
Plans for Wal-Mart, Sam’s Club in Muldoon approved by city [Anchorage Daily News]
Love it or hate it, Wal-Mart now has permission to build a new supercenter and a Sam’s Club in Muldoon.
The city planning commission on Monday Oapproved plans for the company to put the stores along DeBarr Road, just west of Fred Meyer. Construction is expected to begin next year.
The decision wasn’t easy, considering neighbors’ worries about the size of project, said commissioner Nancy Pease.
Pease added a requirement that Wal-Mart include more landscaping in the store parking lots. Still, she said, the design is a step in the right direction for big retail development in the city.
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Posted by Alex Goldschmidt on Tuesday, September 11 | 0 comments | Permalink
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