Wal-Mart: they're baaack. Using sneaky, underhanded tactics, developers working on a project called Steelyard Commons bypassed Cleveland's City Council (and, by proxy, everyone who elected them). Cleveland's highly unpopular mayor, Jane Campbell (aka Queen Jane), helped them pull it off behind closed doors. Bloggers and grassroots activists are organizing yet again to take on the Bentonville bullies.
Like Fox Mulder on the X-Files, I want to believe. I want to believe Cleveland can rise from the ashes and live up to its potential. This meeting is the first step.
Democracy Guy and Brewed Fresh Daily are monitoring local links to posts about the controversy, and the meeting(s) taking place.
What's Steelyard Commons? It's a proposed development (read: giant suburban-style shopping mall) in the former steel-producing industrial area of Cleveland, a section of town that can only be called "depressed." No one debates that new development and jobs are a good thing. But when contrasted with a promising redevelopment now underway by a local developer in the Flats (another formerly industrial area, located on the infamous "burning" Cuyahoga River — it used to have lots of bars and nightclubs in the 80s and early 90s), Steelyard Commons comes up way short.
The Flats redevelopment is the kind that brings people in from the suburbs instead of making them flee there. (Ok, the Cleveland Orchestra and art museum rolled into one, it's not, but it's better than a kick in the eye...)
Developer Scott Wolstein is carving a whole new neighborhood out of the Flats' east bank, with retail, new housing, businesses, a riverfront boardwalk, parks...it'll be like Crocker Park, a popular new "lifestyle center," but without the suburban hell-sprawl. It will bring money, jobs, and positive economic development. Also, the RTA (metro / subway) already has a stop on the east bank, making it easy to hop on the train and go a mere 2 or 3 stops to your job downtown if you choose to live there.
Article comments
1 - Matt
On the other hand, I see the Flats proposal as putting city money in the developer's pocket and providing nothing to the residents of the city, while WalMart will provide jobs (maybe not the best jobs, but jobs) and lower priced merchandise, raising the standard of living for everyone. Having WalMart will help the Steelyard Commons survive. The Flats development will disappear within 10 years.
Making Kamm's Corners look better will not make it a shopping destination. The businesses there will do no better than they are now.
2 - Shannon
The Flats proposal will create construction jobs during the building phase, retail jobs in the new shops, office space that will be (presumably) attractive enough to keep businesses in the city instead of moving out to the suburbs and more. That sounds pretty good to me.
I have nothing against Steelyard Commons per se -- though I favor having more locally owned businesses there, I wouldn't mind seeing something like a Costco go in. Costco pays a living wage (even you admit Wal-Mart jobs are not the best) and doesn't rely on the local social services net to cover its employees.
Kamm's loses business now because of its looks. It's run down, there's nothing to make you want to stick around (unless you like punk rocker kids and coffee that tastes like an ashtray -- sorry, Common Grounds). But it has great potential -- close to all the major highways, on bus routes, etc. Why couldn't it be the next Coventry or Madison Village?
3 - Eric Olsen
excellent information and energy Shannon, thanks! I am a classic suburban ostrich and didn't know all that much about either of these situations. I'm not sure what the answer is but I understand that it matters.
4 - Shannon
Eric, I hope you'll come to the meeting next week in Tremont, and invite the other local Blogcritics to come, too! I'd like to see as much discussion and debate as possible. Not to mention, we're all rather good at raising a fuss, no? ;)
5 - mike
how much support is there for city council reduction from 21 to 11? anyone with their finger on the pulse? please respond. thank you
6 - Eric Olsen
when's the meeting Shannon? I encourage all to go: do as I say and not as I do.
7 - Craig Lyndall
If you think the value of Wal Mart to the city of Cleveland is the jobs, you are mistaken. We aren't worried as much about Wal mart as a provider of jobs. We should be worried about them as a provider of groceries, electronics, cheap clothes and other things that Wal Mart sells.
Do you get concerned that employees at Denny's don't have good benefits as they serve you a Moons Over My Hammy?
Then why do you worry so much about Wal Mart employees instead of the 10's of thousands who will benefit from shopping there?
8 - Shannon
The meeting is Wednesday the 25th, 7 p.m. at the Treehouse in Tremont. Keep an eye on democracyguy.typepad.com or brewedfreshdaily.com for details.
And Craig, I don't worry about Wal-Mart's benefits package because I feel sorry for the poor little dears who work there. I worry about it because city after city has had their social services net plundered by Wal-Mart in the name of higher profits. The net loss to the city of Cleveland in terms of Wal-Mart employees relying on public assistance, etc to get by needs to be taken into account, too.
I've said this multiple times -- I have no problem with the Steelyard Commons project as a whole. I have a problem with Wal-Mart. Stick a Costco in there, a Home Depot...hell, put an IKEA in there, I don't care.
But Wal-Mart is bad news. Read factchecker.purpleocean.org, for example. Lower-income households tend to be disproportionately headed by women, right? So great, sign 'em up for a job at the new Wal-Mart...where they'll get paid less than men, have their hours screwed with so they never get healthcare or other benefits, never get a promotion, and qualify for the class action lawsuit against the Bensonville Mafia! Sounds fun to me.
Do you really need to save $1 on your grocery bill for that?
9 - sydney
Craig,
Thats a really short cited comment you made. Theres a stratagy behind offering low prices and undercutting the competition. It;s a complicated process and I don't know it well enough to describe it, but in the end the consumer loses with big box stores.
And the sad part is that, it isn't just the walmart consumers that loose, its the whole community.
10 - FilteringCraig
I agree with you in a lot of cases, but we are talking about a community that doesn't have many stores period. The net benefit right now is that people flee to the suburbs to shop, if not buy houses. The net benefit of keeping people and their consumer dollars within city limits is worth something too.
11 - Shannon
I'm in agreement with you there, Craig, which is why I won't come out against the development as a whole. I'd rather see more people living in the city and spending their money there, too. I just can't rationalize that selling out to Wal-Mart is the only way to make that happen.
Bring in some other national retailer who doesn't need to rely on the government to take care of their employees as an anchor store. What's so freaking special about Wal-Mart that we'll whore ourselves to them but not to Costco, or Target, or any other big store you can name?
12 - FilteringCraig
I think they all backed away. I thought Target was going to and then decided not to take a chance on Cleveland. I could be wrong.
13 - Don Kaliszewski
It's not all about Wal-Mart - it's about what the character of our hometown is and will be. If they're going to do this, demand that they open their Target under an existing rolling mill shed; demand that they build a parking structure to preserve the site instead of creating a sea of surface parking lots; demand that they integrate live/work lofts and create streetscapes like those in the warehouse district - demand great design and reject the formulaic retail program that is the lowest common denominator. Stand up for your hometown! By all means deny this:
One Happy Big-Box Wasteland
(Article from the SF Gate Linked - DFN)
14 - Dave Nalle
Please don't quote entire newspaper articles, it's a violation of copyright. Use a link. I'll fix it for you, but in the future keep it in mind.
Dave