It's About Wal-Mart


Suisun should welcome Wal-Mart

By Kelvin Wade | | March 27, 2008 15:58
The people pushing the Suisun City Council recall who say it's not just about Wal-Mart remind me of the Republicans in the late '90s who tried to convince us that Bill Clinton's Lewinsky scandal wasn't about sex.

Don't be fooled. Suisun Mayor Pete Sanchez is absolutely right when he says that the recall effort is about Wal-Mart. This is about Suisun's city fathers who approved the galaxy's largest retailer to sink its tentacles into Suisun.

When Suisun residents are faced with the petitions for the recall, they should ask themselves some of the questions that Suisun resident James Underwood posed in a letter to the editor on March 14. Have all the dire predictions of what a Supercenter would bring come true in other communities? Have they brought crime? Unmanageable traffic? Have revenues not met projections? What are their wages in comparison to other retailers? Don't their competitors also import cheap goods from China?

Suisun isn't the first community in the country to approve a Supercenter. And the hundreds of cities that have approved them haven't turned into hollowed out, crime-ridden, gridlocked hell holes.

Have you ever shopped at a Wal-Mart Supercenter? Instead of listening to all the naysayers about the traffic problems, why not see for yourself? I've shopped at three different Supercenters and haven't noticed the traffic to be a problem. Traffic is much more of a problem in a downtown area like Fairfield or Vacaville's downtown. Why? Because every time Wal-Mart goes into an area, traffic mitigation is always a part of the package.

The recall effort is getting a lot of play. Bloggers are blogging about it. Of course, the groups who think Wal-Mart is incubating the anti-Christ are watching it closely. Newspapers as far south as San Diego are covering it. Other communities battling Wal-Mart, like Fontana, are taking notice.

Does Suisun City just want to be another skirmish site in the big box wars? Does the city even have the luxury of turning down large scale projects like this because they have so much economic development going on?

The backers of the recall need to convince a little more than 2,000 Suisun residents to sign petitions for a November recall. Is that what Suisun wants? In an economic downturn, a City Council that would vote against bringing jobs and new revenue into the city? A City Council that basically tells residents to take their money to Fairfield? A City Council that tells businesses to locate elsewhere?

That's one of the messages a successful recall will send.

Fairfield has slayed its anti-Wal-Mart demons. And we're welcoming a new Orchard Supply Hardware and Staples store to town. Tesco Fresh and Easy grocery chose to locate here even knowing a Supercenter is in the wings.

With so much negative economic news these days, you'd think bringing jobs and revenue to a city would be a cause for some celebration.

There'll be a lot of eyes on Suisun City come this November. With a lawsuit trying to stop the Supercenter, a recall petition and possible recall election, it's not every day you get to see a city deliberately shoot itself in the foot. Peace.
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NOTES: First. I'd like to say that I'm not a shill for Wal-Mart. And in this case, I really don't care if Suisun lets Wal-Mart build there or not. Like I've said many times, it's better for Fairfield if Suisun blocks the Supercenter. That said, I think it would've been political malpractice for the Suisun City Council to block the Supercenter because it would've lost revenue for the City.

I'm not debating the merits of a Supercenter. This group that wants to recall the Council is doing so because of the Wal-Mart. THey can dress it up any way they want to but it's lipstick on a pig. This fight has been waged and the city has made a decision. Now a small group of peopl e want to trade out the city officials who made the decision in order to thwart what the majority wants.

On my DR BLOG, I expand on last week's column on race.

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