We know where one store ought to go—on that vacant South Side lot in Chatham where Wal-Mart proposed building a 195,000-square-foot supercenter two years ago. That would have brought a Wal-Mart with a full grocery store to an area that really needs such services. The city stalled that proposal.Via CapFax morning shorts!
That 50 acres at 83rd Street and Stewart Avenue is still a big empty lot. Bisio confirms that that's one of the dozen potential sites being considered, which ought to bring cheers from South Siders.
The lone Wal-Mart that managed to win city approval opened two and a half years ago near North and Cicero Avenues. It provides about 430 jobs and pays its hourly workers an average $11.25, Bisio said. As of September, it had collected and paid $10.4 million in sales taxes; half of that went to the city, Cook County and the RTA. Since the Wal-Mart opened, the neighborhood around it has gained a Menards, an Aldi, three new banks, a CVS pharmacy, a movie theater and about a dozen other retail stores.
If the aldermen don't welcome Wal-Mart jobs now, they ought to be sent to the unemployment line.
Dispatches from Chicago's south side.
Monday, February 9, 2009
Chicago stimulus package
This Tribune editorial talks about Wal-Mart's renewed push to open more stores in the city of Chicago. I have only excerpted that last four paragraphs of this op/ed. The first two paragraphs concerned the proposed Wal-Mart location on west 83rd Street across from Simeon High School:
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In light of today's economy, how can we turn our backs on this? Our kids are searching for jobs because their parents have lost theirs. We are talking about food on the table now.
ReplyDeleteThe Observer
In a neighborhood meeting (and the flyers of it), they kept stressing Chtham as a "middle class" neighborhood, implying that Wal-Mart is for the lower class.
ReplyDeleteAt the meeting one, person even stated that there was research to show that disease ridden people hung out at Wal-Mart!
To me, it seems ridiculous to leave it literally a wasteland...
In addition to the land, are the empty stores a good thing for the mall or the community?
Couldn't the Simeon High School students 9or even their parents) use jobs at Wal-Mart?
Couldn't they pressure Wal-Mart to privde security not only AT the mall, but also to the surrounding neighborhoods?
If theyhave any future meetings, I will try to bring this up.
Anyone else hear anything at their meetings or from their neighbors?