We're Mad and We're Not Going to Take it Anymore

Every resident living south of Madison Street should be in an uproar! Many of our neighborhoods are suffering in well documented food deserts and increasing violence, yet we are slamming our doors to the one food retailer who is ready, willing and able to invest hundreds of millions of dollars in our poorest neighborhoods without asking for any financial incentives?

Walmart wants to build a store with fresh groceries in my ward, at the new Chatham Market development - a development that currently houses a Lowes and Potbelly but the remainder of this large site sits empty. The proposed store will create at least 400 new jobs, stimulate economic development, and generate millions in new taxes for the CTA/RTA, County and City. It will also assist in bringing other new retailers who have expressed interest but will not commit without the Walmart bringing additional jobs and tax revenues to the community.

In a poll conducted by McKeon & Associates in June, 2007, 82% of the residents in my ward wanted a Wal-Mart Supercenter built at Chatham Market so they could purchase their groceries, fresh fruits and vegetables and prescriptions at low prices - year round and in their own neighborhood.

If we are so worried about the escalating violence in our communities, why are we exporting to the suburbs the needed job opportunities and sales tax revenues new retail stores will provide? Every year, Chicago residents purchase more than $500 million worth of goods at Walmart stores outside Chicago. The residents of the three zip codes that comprise my ward spent $80 million at suburban Walmarts last year alone.

The City, economists and business organizations are all studying ways to eradicate the Chicago food deserts by luring grocery retailers to these under-served areas. We wouldn't need to provide any incentives to retailers to build stores in Chicago if we simply encouraged economic development the correct way -- provide a competitive retail environment without the threat of unreasonable and unfair wage mandates.

With approval from my colleagues, thousands of South Side residents gain access to fresh, affordable groceries, fruit and vegetables, 400-plus jobs, millions in tax revenues, a willing and generous community partner for our schools and charitable causes, a stimulated business environment and better property values. I encourage and implore each and every member of City Council to ignore the threats from the unions and listen to their heart and the voices of my constituents.

When Walmart's West Side store was approved in 2004, they asked us to judge them by their actions and not their words. They kept their promises and worked closely with Ald. Emma Mitts to ensure that the first Chicago store reflects the community. In addition to providing a nearby retail location for her constituents to shop, they have done what no other retailer has done in Chicago: the store was built with union labor, by an African-American female general contractor and a majority of minority subcontractors; they reached out to minority-owned Chicago businesses and developed a program to provide regional opportunities for local products; they have supported both Chicago and local West Side charitable and community organizations; they have provided over 400 new jobs ; and finally, they have provided over $10 million in new sales tax revenues for the state, city, county and CTA/RTA in just two years of operation. In addition, the store has become the economic engine for the community helping to land a new Menards, CVS, Bank of America, Harris Bank, Food4Less and Aldi - and more is coming.

Unlike most retailers including those under UFCW contracts, Walmart's workforce is comprised of about 60% full-time and 40% part-time associates. Walmart's average hourly wage in Illinois (not including management positions) is $12.00 an hour, and the health care plans and additional benefits offered to their full and part-time associates compares more than favorably to any union or other retailer's plans.

My constituents want a Walmart in our community - they spoke loud and clear in the last Aldermanic election when the unions worked tirelessly and spent hundreds of thousands of dollars to try to defeat me. Less than 14% of Chicagoans are members of organized labor -- why are we allowing a few to stall the quality of life and good health of so many Chicagoans? What a price so many will have to pay, for a long time.

If you are as mad as I am, call your Alderman and let him or her know that we're tired of others dictating what we can and can't have in our communities, and we're not going to take it anymore. We simply can no longer afford the cost.

Comments

[littleripples]

We teach powerful corporations how to treat us. If we continue to buy from them and invite them in to our communities, we convey to them that we like how they do business. Apparently, many folks feel that it is perfectly acceptable to buy goods from a powerful company that has been instrumental in dismantling our manufacturing base here in America. Wal-Mart has made billions off of exporting American jobs. This same company has also been instrumental in replacing those higher paid jobs that Americans used to have with their lovely job offerings of Wal-Mart cashiers and greeters. Americans have less employment choices for good quality jobs now, thanks to greedy companies like, Wal-Mart. Now, with high unemployment, we are to a point where there are no alternatives except to put in a Wal-Mart.....it has become a sad situation. Personally, I vote with my pocketbook. I do not give my hard earned dollars to Wal-Mart so that they can line their pockets and continue to discount America.

[madmilker]

Cheap items from a foreign land will not bring jobs to your neighborhoods. The company with that star in the name publicly states on their China web page that 95% of the items in their stores in China come from China.
Sam Walton didn't take the hyphen from the Wal-Mart name nor did he move the Purchasing Department to Hong Kong and than to China. Having 95% made in China for the nice people to buy in China doesn't make one job in America. Having 40% to 70% made in China in their stores in America is one of the main reasons 7 million jobs are gone in America.
Think about your town first. Yes, a supercenter can bring 200 to 300 jobs to a community and that same community will spend $200,000 to $400,000 dollars each day at said supercenter. Trouble is those dollars leave your town each and every day to corporate headquarters in Bentonville which is in Arkansas not Illinois.
The only way any community can have jobs is for the community to support from within not from thinking cheap is chic or a $10 an hour job is better than none. Made in America is what made this great union a powerhouse of the world and until each and every town that make up each and every state get back to thinking with just a little common sense that made in America icon will be only a fawn memory of the past.

[ranchero42]

WalMart is not your friend. Maybe for a minute or two while Sam was still alive. WalMart can milk the publicity it gets for a while, promoting themselves as the good guy. They will provide no security in their parking lots, and when the police give them notice to start dealing with it, chances are pretty good that will be their excuse to throw up their hands in fake horror and announce store closing. This kind of behavior is how they try to get more tax relief from municipalities or the county. Quinn knows this, it's all preordained.

[BobLablah]

The unions don't care about poor people, they care about themselves. Their goal is to suck as much out of the system as they can. They don't care where it comes from, as long as they get it.

[ranchero42]

Sorry, I left the outskirts of YOUR Fantasyland a LOOOONG time ago.

[1nessinall]

aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa thumbs down. Walmart is a big reason wages stay so low and why our manufacturing has been force to go to other countries because they want cheap stuff to sell They also put Mom & Pop out of Business. Do some research.

The Fonz was always a little slow.