DEAR EDITOR:
This letter is in response to Wal-Mart’s,
”
An Open Letter to the Gilroy Community
”
published March 4.
DEAR EDITOR:
This letter is in response to Wal-Mart’s, “An Open Letter to the Gilroy Community” published March 4.
What has happened to, “truth in advertising?” Wal-Mart’s “Open Letter,” was full of maybes, what ifs, innuendoes and half-truths. It would have made a politician proud. The letter read like a poor adaptation of Romeo and Juliet. The problem with Wal-Mart’s sappy and fictitious story was that it conveniently left out the final act, the death of Gilroy and those who work and live in the community.
Wal-Mart begins by describing the monstrous environmental blight it is proposing. They state that their concrete, eyesore store will take 219,000 square feet, then an additional land grab for 1,000 parking spaces would bring their blight to 40 acres. Wal-Mart’s proposal for 1,000 parking spaces indicates the volume of vehicle traffic Wal-Mart expects to generate by itself. How many of us have sat in traffic for several hours trying to get to Highway 152?
The original Environmental Impact Report studied only a generic retail establishment, not one that would carry groceries. Retail establishments, like the Supercenter, that carry groceries in addition to the numerous general merchandise items will generate 30 percent more vehicle traffic than retail establishments that do not carry groceries. The EIR did not account for this increase. With the Wal-Mart Supercenter’s 24/7 operations, traffic that would approach “gridlock” and the extreme amount of diesel truck deliveries would contribute to a lower environmental state of quality. Gilroy will fall victim to numerous “Spare the Air” smog alerts. What will this do to our children, the elderly, the disabled and the sick in our community?
Wal-Mart states that the, “… development is receiving no economic incentives from the city … the Wal-Mart Supercenter will result in money flowing into city coffers.”
Again, half-truths. Wal-Mart is not receiving any economic incentives, but only because Gilroy’s elected officials stood their ground when Wal-Mart tried to strongarm, bully and threaten the city for the same incentives they received 10 years ago. The Wal-Mart Supercenter will definitely cost the community. Wal-Mart estimates that $637,000 in sales tax revenue would be generated. What is noticeably missing, is the fact that Wal-Mart DID NOT state that this would be new revenue. The revenue would be a reallocation of revenue pulled from the hometown businesses that Wal-Mart intends to cannibalize and then put out of business.
The fact is that the Wal-Mart Supercenter’s 500 jobs will have inadequate and unaffordable medical insurance with below poverty level wages. This will cause Gilroy to lose at least 750 living wage jobs that carry full medical, dental, vision and prescription insurance. There will be dramatically less money in the community to spend because of the closed businesses falling to Wal-Mart’s illegal predatory pricing, thus less sales tax revenue. Is this a good trade-off for the community of Gilroy?
Wal-Mart’s letter of half-truths continues with a shallow commitment to find a tenant for the current site. Wal-Mart has stated that an AMC Movie Theater or Chucky Cheese Restaurant would lease the location. Notice that Wal-Mart is not selling the current property, as they want to control what type of business that would move in. If Wal-Mart really cared about generating new sales tax revenue, then why not lease or sell to a retail establishment? The answer is simple, because Wal-Mart wants to stifle and kill all of the retail competition, in order to monopolize the city. Wal-Mart states, “… additional property and real estate taxes” would be generated. The reality is that this is not exclusive to only a Wal-Mart Supercenter, any commercial business will generate the property and real estate tax. A high-end auto dealership would generate the same property and real estate tax, as Mayor Tom Springer has stated he prefers. The half-truths and innuendoes are stretched to the extreme with the claim by Wal-Mart that, “… studies have consistently shown that communities that grow from a standard Wal-Mart to a Wal-Mart Supercenter capture a significant increase in the tax revenue.” This substantiates that the Supercenter will NOT create any new tax revenue.
The vision statement from Wal-Mart should have promised that Wal-Mart would be a good community citizen by taking care of its employees, with a livable wage, livable benefits, to obey all laws and to not burden Gilroy with a loss of its uniqueness and hometown quality. If Wal-Mart chooses to continue its negative and irresponsible business practices then it will still be nothing more than a neighborhood bully. If that is the case, then there is only one way to deal with the neighborhood bully!
Simple research with a little bit of work will help anyone realize why Wal-Mart is not a good neighbor.
John Reese, Morgan Hill
Monday, March 10 to ed****@ga****.com
