Photo: Robert Cuthbert
The Lompoc group fighting a Walmart expansion is building its campaign. Thursday night the group held a meeting with two guest speakers. If Walmart was hoping this group was going away anytime soon. They’re wrong.
Elliott Petty, well known community activist, lead a successful campaign in Inglewood, California, stopping Los Angeles’ first Supercenter. In 2004 the community of Inglewood rejected a measure for a Walmart Supercenter the size of “seventeen football fields.”
According to Petty Walmart spent “over a million dollars in a public relations campaign” across the city, using “typical rhetoric that Walmart creates jobs and increases land value” in a community. The Coalition for a Better Inglewood launched a grassroots campaign that “united community activists” opposing the retailer’s ballot measure.
Petty spoke about Walmart’s Inglewood ballot measure, “With land already bought, a shopping center was proposed that included a Supercenter.” “At the beginning, the Inglewood community was two to one in favor of it. By the time we were finished the final votes were two to one against,” reported Petty.
The second speaker Santa Barbara City Councilmember Das Williams said, “Getting the Walmart expansion defeated in Lompoc is all about keeping the town's self respect.” Both speakers encouraged local activists, and citizens, that success was more than possible in Lompoc. Also, both felt the likely scenario would be, given current trends, that a ballot measure defining “big box” development for the City is likley.
Das Williams, who also works as a legislative analyst, is a member of Livable Ventura that in turn is affiliated with Ventura’s Stop Walmart Coalition. Williams explained at length aspects of developing a ballot measure to “put restrictions on Walmart's size.” Williams said he is committed and will continue to help. He suggested, “We need to tell the City Council if they aren't willing to restrict by the ballot process, there will be future City Council members willing to do so.”
In a typical ploy, Walmart seems to be stalling on forwarding information for the Environmental Impact Report (EIR) in the hope opposition will dissipate. The required information was expected by mid-October, failing that, city officials expect the next step in the EIR process will take place in January 2010. Then the public will have a second comment period on the “Draft Walmart EIR.”
With this latest morale booster the Lompoc group is showing no sign of letting up. They have over 2000 signatures, have collected donations, and continue to develop nonpartisan contacts in the broader community.
Read: Lompoc Walmart expansion opposed 9/16/09
Comments
The Walmart expansion is not about unions but about the overall impact Walmart has on our community. The environmental stability of our city is at stake ! When one business dominates the economic stability of a city then they become an environmental detriment to the well being of a city ! The Citizens against the Walmart expansion are not against walmart being here, but are concerned about what the expansion may cause, which would be irreparable damage to our overall business environment. While some believe that no one should control how big a business should become, others believe that a cap on how big and how powerful a business should be before it becomes a liability to the other revenue generating businesses. Walmart must not dominate the cities influences with respect to there unending source of income. No other business welds the power that Walmart has and that is wrong! An example is the amount of money that Walmart donated to the new Hospital,, , should they be so powerful ?
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