It’s like deja vu all over again. Alderman Brookins is still pushing for another Wal-Mart store in Chicago. This time he is ratcheting up the pressure on his fellow city council members to support the South Side project.

His message is clear: build a Wal-Mart store and soon there will be hundreds of high paying jobs and Chicago will become a retailing utopia.

Unfortunately, most Wal-Mart jobs are low wage and part-time. On our speak out website, veteran employees—some who have worked for the company over 10 years—describe how Wal-Mart is using the recession to cut hours like never before. As in...let’s hire 500 people to inflate our job numbers to the press, while cutting everyone to 10 hours a week.

As we outlined in our urban campaign, Wal-Mart is just not a good fit for the city of Chicago. According to the UC Berkeley Labor Center, “There is strong evidence that jobs created by Wal-Mart in metropolitan areas pay less and are less likely to offer benefits than those they replace.” In addition, analysis by Civic Economics concludes “For every $100 in consumer spending with a local firm, $68 remains in the Chicago economy...For every $100 in consumer spending with a chain firm, $43 remains in the Chicago economy.”

City leaders have done a good job so far of keeping another Wal-Mart out of Chicago. Now is not the time to give in to pressure from Wal-Mart lobbyists and Alderman Brookins.

Chicago Alderman Howard Brookins is bracing for “a floor fight” on an amended redevelopment agreement he introduced Wednesday, which would open the door for Wal-Mart to build its second Chicago store. Last year, a similar request to build a supercenter was rejected by the planning and development commissioner, a fate Brookins hopes to make moot this year. The Chicago Sun-Times has the skinny:

Last year, then-Planning and Development Commissioner Arnold Randall rejected a request for administrative approval to build a 150,000 square-foot Wal-Mart supercenter on the site of the old Ryerson Steel plant at 83rd and Stewart. The developer responded by putting the property up for sale. Brookins’ proposal would strip the commissioner of the power to veto stores over 100,000 square feet.

So, Alderman Brookins is looking to get around commissioner approval by making it ultimately unnecessary - if the planning and development commissioner can’t veto a project, why run a development proposal by the administration in the first place? And Brookins’ reasoning for introducing the measure?

“I’m doing it because I can’t get any other movement any way else.”

Makes sense. In reality, there appears to be much more going on in the Windy City than a simple controversy over a new Wal-Mart supercenter. Chicago is bidding for the 2016 Olympics, and Mayor Daley and his administration seem to want to avoid tackling divisive issues this calendar year while the International Olympic Committee reviews the city’s bid.

“The timing is pretty bad. We’re trying to keep some peace with the unions. We’ve got an October deadline with the [International] Olympic Committee. I don’t think we want to show any problems here with the city and our workforce,” said Ald. Pat O’Connor (40th), the mayor’s unofficial Council floor leader.

Regardless, earlier today Mayor Daley intimated that Alderman Brookins doesn’t have much of a chance for his proposal to go through anyway.

“This is not gonna fly. You know that. They don’t have enough votes,” Daley said.

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