DEAR EDITOR:
I am writing a letter according to your March 2 article on the
petition now circulating asking the City Council to MORE CAREFULLY
study the impact of a Wal-Mart Supercenter in this community.
DEAR EDITOR:
I am writing a letter according to your March 2 article on the petition now circulating asking the City Council to MORE CAREFULLY study the impact of a Wal-Mart Supercenter in this community. Believe me, THERE WILL BE A NEGATIVE IMPACT. The old study does not address the impact of a Super Wal-Mart at all, and is totally irrelevant.
The report is 12 years old, and does not factor in the impacts of a supercenter.
Other reports are funded by anti-Wal-Mart union leaders or even Wal-Mart itself. These are all serious shortcomings.
The study funded by the “union leader” was actually produced by the Bay Area Economic Forum. This is a very prestigious business, government, university, AND labor research organization, and the Association of Bay Area Governments (ABAG). It was funded in part with union money, but there was a strong firewall between the funders and the researchers. The report was “peer viewed” and approved by a neutral panel, including representatives of Price Waterhouse, the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco, the Bay Area Council and other parties which are hardly pro-union in their orientation. Its conclusions are modest and support Wal-Mart’s positions in certain areas.
In contrast, the Wal-Mart report was produced by the Sedway Group which produces many Wal-Mart reports of this nature, and clearly has a long-term relationship to protect. There was NO outside assessment, or peer review. The report is bought and paid for and surely tells Wal-Mart what it wants to hear.
This is a serious town. We take our future seriously, and if Wal-Mart or any other company can’t handle that they don’t belong here! The only fair and honest thing for a City Council WITH INTEGRITY to do is to commission a neutral party for a final analysis. Honesty is the best policy. Provisions for public comment are truly needed.
Connie Gallegos, Gilroy
Submitted Friday, March 5 to ed****@****ic.com
