Saturday, July 24, 2010

3rd Wal-Mart gets OK from City Council panel

Greg Hinz:
With a minimum of debate or controversy, a City Council committee Friday approved what would be Chicago's third Wal-Mart outlet, this one at 83rd and Stewart Avenue in the Chatham neighborhood.

"We appreciate the support from residents and elected officials," the Arkansas discount retailer said in a statement. "In the meantime, we continue to evaluate additional opportunities across the city."

The Finance Committee approval came on a voice vote Friday afternoon and goes to the full council, which meets Wednesday.
I suppose the coming Wal-Mart to Pullman has only proved to be a catalyst.

BTW, this post by Hunter Klauss at Clout City was probably written before that committee vote:
Daley told reporters yesterday that he wants the City Council’s finance committee to take a vote on a proposed Walmart for the Chatham neighborhood at today’s meeting. If the store passes that hurdle, it could go up for a vote at next week’s full City Council meeting. It's not unusual for the mayor to pressure aldermen to approve what he wants at breakneck speed, as was the case with the parking meter lease and the the city's new handgun law. It took two months for aldermen to approve the Pullman Walmart, but Daley doesn’t seem to want the City Council to take its time on the Chatham store, even though he says there’s room for debate.

“As everyone knows, the issue of whether Walmart should be allowed to build or open new stores in the city was debated for a long time, and it was a good debate,” Daley told reporters. “There’s nothing wrong with a debate like that.”

The Chatham store is the ugly stepsister in the Walmart saga. In 2004 the council rejected it even as it approved a Walmart for Austin, and the store’s chief proponent in the City Council, 21st Ward alderman Howard Brookins, has been trying to get his fellow aldermen to revisit it ever since.

But aldermen technically don’t have to vote on the store in order for it to move forward. Daley could have his top city planner sign off on the project. Instead he's letting the City Council take any heat for the store.
And in that article it still boils down to how much Wal-Mart pays their workers. Ald. Joe Moore (49th) was quoted on that and he was quoted in a brief story on CLTV about that. Yet it appears more Wal-Marts will be coming over the protest of those who have a problem with the wages they pay!

Either way, would you support the Wal-Mart that maybe coming to the Chatham community?

OH YEAH, almost forgot that Ald. Moore is the only Alderman who opposed the Wal-Mart store of course for the reasons stated above. He was always a Wal-Mart opponent even going so far as passing that ordinance in 2006 that mandated that big box stores must pay their employees $10/hr in wages and $3/hr in benefits.

There's also this from Clout St:
Ald. Howard Brookins, 21st, said he's confident the full City Council will approve the plan, unless aldermen opposed to it use a parliamentary procedure that would stall the vote until September's meeting.

Moore said he wants more concrete assurances Wal-Mart will honor its wage pledge, and to find out where else in Chicago the company wants to build the more than 20 stores company officials have said they would like to open. Moore said Friday he's undecided on whether to seek to defer the vote, a move that would require at least one other alderman to join him.

Because the Chatham location needs less infrastructure work, the Wal-Mart there would likely open before the one in Pullman.
So by the time next Wednesday arrives we still have a long ways to go. Will it even come to a vote or will it be deffered as it has been on the finance committee. At that it went from the city council rules committee to the finance committee.

If it does get approval by the full city council next week, I can't believe it will open sooner than the Pullman Wal-Mart. Perhaps Brookins has the better deal after all!

1 comment:

  1. I see it as happening, and actually being built and readied before the Pullman one, simply because the area where it will be is already setup for it to go in. As the article stated, it needs less infrastructure work.

    ReplyDelete

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