Gilroy
– Five days before City Council makes the most controversial
decision it faces in upcoming months, activists garnered a
disappointing eight picketers to demonstrate against a Wal-Mart
Supercenter in front of Arteaga’s Super Save on First Street
Thursday.
Gilroy – Five days before City Council makes the most controversial decision it faces in upcoming months, activists garnered a disappointing eight picketers to demonstrate against a Wal-Mart Supercenter in front of Arteaga’s Super Save on First Street Thursday.
Due to the low turnout, organizers canceled a march, advertised to the media, that was scheduled to conclude at City Hall. NBC representatives left five minutes after the planned start of the picket because no demonstrators had arrived.
The picketers were targeting City Council before the 220,000-square-foot Wal-Mart Supercenter project goes to a vote Tuesday. If approved, it will be the first Supercenter in Northern California and second in the state.
“Our concern is that the permitting process needs to slow down,” said Rose Barry, one of the picket’s organizers. “We’d like City Council to ask for an Environmental Impact Report, take a serious look at the EIR. There are some various concerns about exceeding the federal and state pollution standards.
“We’d like to see the City Council take some time to look at some possible mitigations.”
An economic impact report for the site does exist, although it does not look at the particular impact a Supercenter would have. It is from 1992 and only specifies that retail stores will go into the area.
Picketers echoed other ongoing worries cited by Wal-Mart opponents; namely, that independent grocers in Gilroy would go out of business.
“We want it to be here; we just don’t want (a Supercenter) to go over there,” said Felicia Rosas, a 73-year Gilroyan.
“We don’t need it, because these guys are going to go,” she said, indicating Arteaga’s.
Miguel “Mike” Correa, Councilman Paul Correa’s father, said he hoped the picket would show Councilmen the faces of people who feel a Supercenter would negatively affect Gilroy.
“I have no agenda for nobody,” Correa said. “It’s not just about union, it’s not just about non-union. … My agenda is ‘Gilroy total:’ Gilroy businesses, Gilroy families, Gilroy senior citizens.”
Wal-Mart Spokeswoman Amy Hill, in town to continue lobbying Council before Tuesday’s vote, discounted the picketers’ charge that a Supercenter will crush smaller grocers.
“Our studies have shown that there is more than enough growth in this area to absorb a Wal-Mart Supercenter and allow all the other grocery stores to continue to compete,” Hill said, speaking in an interview Thursday afternoon.
Wal-Mart’s low prices and underpaid, non-unionized employees unfairly target existing grocers, said Robert Shiraki, president and CEO of Arteaga’s Super Save.
“There’s a difference between free economy and deliberately trying to monopolize a market share with an unfair advantage,” he said. “I’m more than concerned about this.”
Shiraki said that, based on surveys conducted before the second Arteaga’s opened on Tenth Street in Gilroy, the city cannot support another general market grocery store.
Hill pointed out that Safeway has debated opening a second Gilroy store.
“I think that clearly demonstrates that there are other opportunities for growth in this market,” she said.
Bill Lindsteadt, executive director of Gilroy Economic Development Corporation, said Safeway last year was considering opening a second store, but no plans are in the works.
Hill said she met with nearly all Councilmembers individually, calling the exchanges largely positive.
“We definitely are getting very good feedback,” she said. “We are limited to a five-minute presentation, so we really want to talk to the Councilpeople to hear, what do they really want to hear from us?”
Mayor Al Pinheiro said he told Hill he wants to see Wal-Mart establish a partnership with the community and local nonprofits and eliminate the problems with recreational vehicles staying in the parking lot long term. He said Hill would have enough information Monday to allay his worries about the current Wal-Mart sitting empty.
Councilman Russ Valiquette said the small turnout at Thursday’s picket is indicative of the greater community’s feelings toward a Supercenter.
“I think there’s a few individuals, a few groups that are against this,” he said. “But I think the community as a whole either wants it or doesn’t care.”
He expects the turnout at Tuesday’s meeting will be similar to that of the Planning Commission meeting Feb. 5, when the group approved the Supercenter project in a 6-1 vote. Roughly 30 people attended that meeting, with half in favor and half opposed.
“I don’t know if anybody’s going to come up with something compelling, but everybody’s had an opportunity to give us their opinions in favor or against it,” he said, pulling several binders, stacks of paper and published reports distributed by groups on both sides of the issue.
Barry dismissed the picket’s low turnout, saying “it is what it is.”
“My feeling is that the day and the time have more to do with (low turnout) than the strength or the sentiment, and that more people will show up at Tuesday night’s meeting,” Barry said.
Paul Correa said Thursday he wanted to attend the picket but was unable to leave work.
At least one potential picketer was put off by talk of demonstrating in front of Mayor Al Pinheiro’s insurance agency. Chris Coté, who has consistently lobbied city officials to adopt an ordinance that would force Wal-Mart and others to pay fines for violating air quality laws, said he e-mailed about 150 people who had been communicating about the picket to say he would not participate.
“I just didn’t think it was fair. I didn’t think it was the right thing,” Coté said.
