Give Up Your WalMart Dreams


One Big Box Is Enough
By Kelvin Wade January 17, 2008

Suisun residents, it’s not too late to stop the invasion! Yes, I’m talking about a proposed Wal-Mart Supercenter. Like something out of the movie “Cloverfield” this international giant will come stomping into your fair city and leave the Statue of Liberty’s smoldering head on Main St. Okay, I may be overdoing it with the smoldering head part but it’s not too late.

Look at how much trouble acquiring a Supercenter is. It brings out the Battle-for-Seattle, anarchistic, the Chinese-worker-is-the-new-baby-harp-seal crowd who are convinced after sitting in their mom’s basement googling anti-Wal-Mart websites and repeated viewings of Robert Greenwald’s polemic that the Arkansas based retailer is Armageddon served up through low prices.

If you make it past that initial wave, then you have to get past the review boards and committees. Caltrans' Division of Aeronautics and the Solano County Airport Land Use Commission have written to Suisun officials stating that the environmental documents associated with the project don’t square with the Travis Air Force Base Land Use Plan.

Uh oh. You’ve got Wal-Mart mixed up with save Travis people? That’s not only like stepping in dog poop. It’s like stepping in it and tracking it across your new carpet. Both agencies fear a plane crash into the Wal-Mart would cause more casualties than reports let on. You see, people, this is a legitimate concern seeing how planes crash into Wal-Marts every other…never. Okay, I did come across one plane crash into a Wal-Mart in New Hampshire two years ago.

But despite all of this potential trouble, it looks like city officials are still pushing for a 215,000 square foot Wal-Mart on Highway 12 and Walters Road. And as of this writing, the chairman of the Airport Land Use Commission John Foster is apparently going to get the heave-ho by area mayors, he claims because he opposes Wal-Mart. Hey, when your advisors give you advice you don’t want to hear, get someone else!

Even if city fathers go forward with the Supercenter, they still must face homegrown opposition led by professional Wal-Mart windmill tilters in the form of groups with names like RAIN (Residents Against Improving Neighborhoods) that will sue the city and rain on your parade.

So what’s the answer? It’s simple really. There’s a city named Fairfield right next to Suisun that’s in the process of developing its own Supercenter. That city has been through the to and fro, the up and down votes and lawsuits. And before you know it there will be a spanking new Wal-Mart Supercenter in easy driving distance to all Suisun residents. As I understand it, Suisun dollars will be accepted there.

It saves Suisun traffic woes, lawsuits, and headaches. That way everyone is happy (especially Fairfield city coffers but let’s not go into that.). It’s time to think outside the (big) box. Peace.

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In this week's The Other Side DR blog, i tackled the issue of race in the Democratic primary, a touchy subject.

THE OTHER SIDE DR BLOG

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