The Wal-Mart option

This time Clout City takes a look at development plans in the neighboring 9th Ward. Would Ald. Anthony Beale play host to a Wal-Mart:

One morning last fall I sat in a car in a 220-acre lot off the Bishop Ford Expressway at 111th Street, watching, though billows of white and gray dust, a steel processing plant being torn down.

It was impossible not to feel like I was witnessing a small-scale version of the Rust Belt's industrial collapse of the last several decades. As a bulldozer went to work converting the last piece of the old Ryerson facility into rubble, my guide, Ninth Ward alderman Anthony Beale, talked about his hopes of returning the tract to productive use.

Even before the plant had ceased its final operations in 2006, much of the property around it had sat for years as little more than a contaminated industrial cemetery. Beale said he and the property's owner, Park National Bank, envisioned developing it into an upper-middle-class neighborhood featuring $300,000 to $500,000 homes, a new school and community center, and some kind of economic anchors, possibly light industry, though it was likely that a major retailer would be easier to recruit.

Even that was no lock—Beale had already flirted with IKEA, and of course in the past Wal-Mart had expressed interest. But no deals were ever clinched.

In the months since, the economy has eroded, and Wal-Mart, despite some troubles of its own, appears ready to capitalize. Despite the storm it kicked up in Chicago a few years ago, the company has recently been talking about wanting to open some more stores here, and Beale’s City Council colleague Howard Brookins Jr. said it's got its eyes on several parcels, including the Ryerson steel site in the Ninth Ward.

But get this...

But Beale said he isn’t sold on the Wal-Mart solution just yet: "We’re looking at all the possibilities and inviting all interested parties to talk to us." Beale said he'd really been hoping to land the city’s first IKEA, but they pulled back as the economy went in the tank. He said Target and Lowe’s had also expressed interest. And of course Beale wasn’t ruling anything out with Wal-Mart, though he insisted that the company would have to meet several conditions.

"They’re going to have to prove to aldermen and the unions that they have seen the errors of their ways—not paying a decent wage or offering benefits to their employees and discriminating against women," he said. Beale’s recent conversations with company officials hadn’t touched on any of those issues, he said, but he was optimistic that it would be possible to reach agreements. "I’m a firm believer that there’s always common ground."

One question. How do we determine who is or isn't paying their employees a "decent" wage? Politicians often hike the minimum wage with the idea that poor working people and families can make more money. Still a minimum wage is an artificial price floor set by a government. With a price floor comes a consequence and that consequence could be hiring slows down because the law decided to up the wages for entry-level unskilled workers.

Benefits, I'm sure many can argue in favor of that. There are single-mothers out there working minimum wage jobs who could use some health insurance for their little children. Although I would have to shy away from saying companies must pay benefits when employing workers. Let's not forget that costs money as well. My only deal is we should be careful about these things.

If anyone can justify the whole Wal-Mart should pay their workers a "decent" wage and benefits are more than welcome to make their case here. I want to hear what is considered a decent wage and what that amount should be. In addition to that I want you to consider how this might affect how many jobs any company can offer when you taking the minimum amount of wages and salary a company should pay their new or entry-level workers.

BTW, normally in discussing Wal-Mart on this blog the focus has largely been on our neighbors in the 21st Ward. Ald. Brookins is quoted in this blog post, however, he is not the focus.