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  1. #1
    Senior Member butterbean's Avatar
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    Heated public debate in Duluth over proposed Wal-Mart

    Published on: 07/12/07

    *IMO, Wal-Marts destroy nice neighborhoods. There is nothing uglier than huge cement mega-stores that sell cheap Chinese products and employ illegal immigrants providing bogus id's to get jobs.*
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    Nearly every one of the Red Clay Theatre's 280 seats was packed Thursday night, and people willing to stand lined the walls.

    Duluth residents who live in the neighborhoods closest to the proposed Wal-Mart Supercenter on Peachtree Industrial, slated to open in 2009, were out in force to ask questions of company spokesman Glen Wilkins.

    "Why do we need another Wal-Mart when we have two within 8 miles?" was a question that came up several times. To take pressure off the other two stores, Wilkins repeatedly said, and meet the needs of customers who live here now and continue to move in every day.

    It was not an answer the crowd liked.

    Local pastor Jack Wolf, said he'd been asked to moderate the conversation. He addressed his task at the evening's start, acknowledging "there's a lot of emotion in the room" but he suggested that residents needed "as much information as [they] can get" and urged the crowd to stay as calm as they could.

    He asked that questions be written on index cards and passed up front for Wolf to read and Wal-Mart's team — which included legal counsel and traffic engineers — to answer.

    But passions were high, and the crowd continued to send up shouts, "Amens" and fervent applause to each other's questions. Especially the one that was sent up from the back, once the format switched to a looser open forum.

    "As a community, we don't want Wal-Mart! Whether variances are met or not, we do not want Wal-Mart, as a community!"

    A woman wanted to know "if any of our elected officials are hearing us?"

    Mayor Shirley Lasseter called down from the balcony that she and council members were "upstairs listening to you" and said "the best decision could be made after both sides came together."

    "Although the city council wants to hear your thoughts," said city attorney Lee Thompson, "it's really a matter for the zoning board of appeals."

    Before the meeting began, red-shirted opponents lined West Lawrenceville Street with "No Wal-Mart" placards and signs, and were greeted with honks from passing cars.

    Not everyone in Duluth feels that way. Early Thursday morning, the breakfast crowd at Duluth's Rexall Grill had other thoughts. Wilbur Brooks, who lives on the other side of town from Peachtree Industrial, said he was for it.

    "Something's coming in," said Ed Livingston, who lives in River Plantation, just north of the proposed site. "And it may as well be something that I shop at. If it's not going to be Wal-Mart, it will be something else."

    http://www.ajc.com/metro/content/metro/ ... ab_newstab
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  2. #2

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    "Although the city council wants to hear your thoughts," said city attorney Lee Thompson, "it's really a matter for the zoning board of appeals."
    so basically the decision is made and and having the public hearing was just to fulfill the obligation. I used to live near Duluth. Illegals are Rampant there now. You can drive down half the streets there and the business signs are all Spanish or Koeran. This was an almost over night change. That is why Wal-Mart thinks it needs a new store. The illegals have over burdened the infrastructure.
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