Every two weeks, I get a copy of emails sent to city council members, mostly through a city comment webpage. This week, there were over 500 messages to the nine council members, one of the heaviest ever.
The hottest topic? Wal Mart. Or at least incentives going to the developer of a shopping center that would hold a Wal Mart.
Leaving out messages sent by the same person to multiple council members, there were 18 messages against the incentives and 9 in favor. Keep in mind this is a tiny fraction of the phone calls, letters, conversations on the street that council members get. But I'll post some messages so you can understand what each side was arguing.
It may not surprise you that they were arguing about different things.
On the opposition side, you had people saying they didn't want their tax money "wasted" bailing out Linder, or given to an immensely profitable multinational corporation:
"The city of Greensboro has bailed Mr. Linder out enough, and for the life of me I cannot figure out why we would give a multi billion dollar company like Wal-Mart money at all! What are you thinkg? It is time that all the members of the council begin spending our money responsibly and quit giving every company or orginazation that puts out their hand money!"
"This is a very bad idea and his business needs to run on its own abilities and not depend on the city to bail him out. Keep the funds in the budget for the golf greens at Bryan Park."
"I was outraged to read today that Walmart (one of the richest companies in the world) wants the City of Greensboro to give it $300 thousand in incentive payments for it to build a store at the former Carolina Circle Mall property. That amount of money is a drop in the proverbial bucket for Walmart but is a large amount of money for our city, especially in light of the fact that the City Council wants to cut back in expenses that our citizens really need."
On the pro side, there was little talk about Wal Mart and a lot about the inequity of development in East Greensboro.
"it speaks to the "intent" and commitment of the Council to "act" in a manner of support for the citizens of the Northeast Corridor. This development will also attract other businesses to the Northeast corridor..."
"I am sure, over time, the benefits will out-weigh the Cost. It will also bring rejuvenation into an area of the city that has so much untapped potential. I envision it creating new jobs, spurring more business development, while reducing traffic congestion on Wendover and Battleground."
"The investment of $300,000 is a small price to pay for economic development in our city that will create a better lifestyle for people in the community,particularly in the job market."
Comments (2)
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Linder obviously has no political aspirations or he would not have run this loser up the flagpole.
However, the city has squandered more and gotten less in plenty of other situations. I don't think that either Wal-Mart or Linder needs the money, but neither did Dell. Look at what they got!
The complaints about jobs at Wal-Mart and the other retail places that would be built, being low quality jobs are groundless and ignore the realities of both life and the marketplace. Not everyone is going to be a computer programmer, lawyer, or engineer. We still need people to wash dishes, stock shelves, sweep floors, cook meals, serve food, etc. For someone who is unemployed that $7 or $8 an hour job looks pretty good.
The wages that Wal-Mart employees earn are determined by the price that the consumer is willing to pay. If you want cashiers at Wal-Mart to make $11 an hour, then you have to pay more for your purchases. Let's see a show of hands!!
Wal-Mart sells all that cheap stuff from China and the Third World because American consumers want cheap goods more than they want their friends and neighbors to have jobs in manufacturing. Ask anyone in textiles, tools, or furniture.
Posted on June 10, 2005 11:05 AM
Hmm, that's great. FOR REAL CUTTING EDGE NEWS, cutthroat reporting, etc. go to http://greensboronews.blogspot.com
Posted on June 12, 2005 6:04 PM