Wal-Mart scorecard: Niles 2, Chicago 1
Crossposted on Marathon Pundit.
Niles, Illinois is a village of 30,000 people located on the northern border of Chicago, a city that has a little bit under 3 million residents.
This afternoon I took this photo of an under-construction Wal-Mart on Golf Road near the Golf Mill Shopping Plaza.
This store will be the second Wal-Mart for Niles.
To the south, Chicago's first Wal-Mart should be welcoming customers through its doors sometime next month.
That's right, Chicago, which has almost 100 times the population of Niles will have double the Wal-Marts of Chicago.
Why is that?
Alderman "No Foie Gras for Me" Joe Moore, whose ward isn't too far from the original Niles Wal-Mart, is a big part of the answer. Moore has been on the anti-Wal-Mart bandwagon since at least 2004.
Moore tried to push a "Living Wage" ordinance that would only apply to "big box" retailers such as Wal-Mart and Target that was opposed almost unanimously by Chicago business leaders. An amended version was proposed late last month that seems to be more palatable to those interests.
Meanwhile, the jobs Wal-Mart provides, as well as the sales tax revenue, flows to the suburbs.
Chicago will see its first Wal-Mart open soon. The suburbs that surround Chicago have 18.
Previously on Marathon Pundit:
Chicago's "big box" anti-jobs ordinance
Chicago alderman accuses unions of strong-arming colleagues over "big box" ordinance
13 comments:
Perhaps it has something to do with Walmart's history of hiring illegal aliens. Last year, INS obtained $15 million in settlements from an investigation of Wal-Mart and 12 subcontractors.
Low wages is not the only method by which Wal-Mart harms American workers.
I believe it was the subcontractors.
So now something is wrong with iring illegals? coming from a city where the police have a don't ask policy about citizenship status, please
I wonder how many people in Ald. Moore's ward care about this issue? Do they want Wal-Mart or would they rather support existing retailers in the community. I'd like to hear from them, not just outsiders.
I've also noticed that residents in many cities and towns around the country have fought Wal-Mart. So Ald. Moore apparently isn't alone in caring about how this retail giant can affect a community.
I'm also puzzled why Ruberry is singling out Moore.
Regardless, as a Chicago resident, I'll gladly let Niles have the Wal-Marts. Economic development that is based on a race to the bottom -- such as attracting low-cost monopsony retailers -- is not sustainable in the long term. Wal-Mart doesn't compete in the global economy; it bottom-feeds on it.
Recently, the New York Times reported that Manhattan is once again attracting corporate headquarters. I'll gladly stake my tax base on a diverse, cultured, and cosmopolitan city attracting rather than on cut-rate retailers that drive local businesses under.
I'm in the 49th Ward, and I can tell you that this is just the latest of the issues where our Alderman seizes upon a popular press item with no regard for how it would actually impact his community.
Retail sales in Chicago generate city of chicago sales tax, the state match on the state sales tax, and cta sales tax. Every dollar spent by a Chicago resident outside of the city loses that $$ -- $6 billion a year, according to Crain's. I don't know all of the math involved, but lets say that roughly 5% of that could be new revenue for the city -- that's $60 million down the toilet. Thanks Joe.
Everyone in RP shops at the Target in Evanston or the Walmart and the Costo in Niles. Ald. Stone is trying to get a Target to come to West Ridge, which would keep sales tax dollars in the city, but Moore is pulling the rug out from underneath him. It drives him crazy. Target's trying to be the anchor of the Wilson Yards development in Uptown, and now that's on shaky ground too -- thus Moore endangers a great low and mixed income housing project that's going to clean up an environmental disaster. For 10 to 15 years, businesses have been coming back to Chicago and housing has boomed. But interest rates are rising, and if Ald. Moore's silliness continues, you're going to see an exodus like we saw in the 70s and 80s.
The retail situation in the 49th Ward is not so good. The Gateway shopping area on Clark and Howard is the only decent shopping plaza.
People in the 49th Ward do care about city services, which Moore isn't too good at delivering. Maybe he cleaned it up, but up till two years ago on the way to my Sunday running club meet-up, prostitutes would waive at me--single white guy in a car regularly.
Crime is out of control in Roger Park--gangs, drugs, vandalism.
They'd rather have an alderman fixing potholes that parroting the line from such union-financed groups as Wal-Mart Watch.
More from the Morse Hell Hole.
Then there's his foise gras crusade....
Yes, we all know you don't like Ald. Moore. But you don't live in the ward any longer. I would like to know how the Alderman's constituents would feel about Wal-Mart locating a store in their community.
I've known Joe Moore for 8 years and I've been his constituent since moving to Chicago. Wal-Mart and foie gras are symptoms of a larger issue: he's not covering the basics at home in the 49th Ward. Now that he has a seat on the DNC, he's pandering to their interests and forgetting people here. Crime is a big problem, and he's blowing it off. We're some of the worst-served in the city for healthcare services and he's accomplished squat for us here. Duck torture? Wal-Mart hiring? Okay, they're both great issues - for someone who has already dealt with the basics that the ward needs.
What seems to get left out of this picture is JoMo's connection to the DNC, and the colossal donations from Wal-Mart to the RNC. Wal-Mart is exclusively a Republican funding source, and this is one small way the DNC is attempting to punish them
John, you got one vote for Wal-Mart and one resident who thinks Ald. Moore is a problem. It sounds like they are ready for a new alderman. Are you going to sit on the sidelines and take potshots at Moore or do you want to make the community a better place to live and work?
If the latter, why don’t you move back and run against Moore for Alderman? Take your case to the people and tell them how you would stop prostitution, improve the infrastructure, fight crime and bring jobs to the community.
Perhaps the above two posters will help you fundraise, organize and campaign. If you really care about the community, you’ll return and take leadership responsibility.
Walmart is not great economic development morally or in the longterm
BUT if it is going to go in Niles or Chicago, why not Chicago
or in Oak Lawn or Chicago, why not Chicago
RIGHT NEXT DOOR
deal with the reality as it is
Did Blase sell the Walmart the insurance
You all realize of course, that because of Walmart, your taxes go up.
Walmart provides low paying jobs with no (or minimal) health care benefits.
Who do you think is going to pay for that healthcare?
Do you want a system where employers pay for healthcare, or a system where the government controls?
Take Walmart, and take government funding for healthcare.
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