With Wal-Mart pushing to open its first New York City store, in Rego Park,
Queens, and reportedly eying a site in Downtown Brooklyn as well, legislation
has been introduced in the City Council that could place a moratorium
on big box stores.
“Wal-Mart is eager to make New York City its next retail frontier,”
Wal-Mart spokeswoman Mia Masten said in written testimony submitted to
a Jan. 6 hearing of the Committee on Economic Development. “While
we haven’t finalized any agreements for sites within the five boroughs,
there are several store sites that we are now considering.”
She said each store would generate “more than $5 million in property
and sales tax revenue” and more than 300 local jobs.
In a telephone interview with The Brooklyn Papers from her Washington,
D.C. office, Masten said while no plans were in place to set up shop specifically
in Downtown Brooklyn, the retail giant was indeed looking.
“We don’t have any particular sites,” she said. “We’re
just looking, not just throughout Brooklyn, but throughout the other boroughs.
“Red Hook is not a site we’re interested in, and we don’t
have any [specific] sites in Brooklyn that we’re looking at. As we’re
coming into Manhattan and the boroughs we’re looking for opportunities
to expand,” she said.
“We haven’t ruled out anything, we just don’t have any
plans at this time.”
At the Jan. 6 committee meeting, various labor organizers and business
groups urged the council to impose a moratorium on accepting any more
big box stores. According to Queens Assemblyman Brian McLaughlin, president
of the New York City Central Labor Council, doing so would provide time
to examine how allowing the massive outlets affects other retailers, workers
and the surrounding communities.
“If we allow companies like Wal-Mart into our city, we run the serious
risk of setting alarmingly low, poverty-level wage and benefit standards
for the city’s entire retail industry,” testified McLaughlin.
“We cannot allow [them] to tram New Yorkers into overwork and poverty.”
Sitting on the committee throughout the hearing were Councilwomen Letitia
James and Yvette Clarke, who both vocally supported the moratorium. At
the other end of the panel was Sunset Park-Red Hook Councilwoman Sara
Gonzalez.
Though an ardent supporter of bringing Ikea to her Red Hook district citing
job creation and revenues as the draw, Gonzalez was mum throughout the
hearing.
For James, the findings of illegal surveillance and discrimination against
women employees were the reasons she stood against Wal-Mart.
“I’m glad it’s not coming to the 35th Council District,”
she said, noting the rumors had her scared. Until further exploration
could be done, she said she’d support the moratorium.
Interviewed this week, James stood firm on the commitment and said she’d
based her stance against Wal-Mart on a study released by Rep. George Miller
(D-Calif.).
“The report that I read raises some serious concerns with the way
Wal-Mart treats its employees — the failure to supply benefits, gender
discrimination and just overall human rights violations,” James said.
Clarke agreed, saying, “Is there something that’s happening
in the climate, that’s on the economic horizon, that may mean letting
a Wal-Mart in opens the floodgates for similar exploitative businesses
to open here?”
Ducking out of the meeting, Gonzalez briefly responded to questions about
the controversy surrounding Ikea.
“As far as I’m concerned they continue to have dialogue with
my office,” she told The Papers. “This is not the end of this,”
she said, “and we continue to remain vigilant.”
But environmental engineer Brian Ketcham thinks it’s already too
late.
“The cat’s out of the bag as far as I’m concerned,”
he told The Papers. Ketcham testified at the hearing, sharing his tallied
impacts of traffic accidents, health problems, road wear and tear and
air pollution costs per borough in 2005 — Brooklyn’s came to
$6.9 million — but felt his cries were going unheeded.
“We already have 250 big boxes in the city,” he said. “It’s
sort of after-the-fact to be talking about it now. I certainly think they
should put a moratorium on Wal-Mart, which is sort of a different animal.
All of a sudden they’re going to come in with a 300,000-square-foot
box store. Watch local communities wither and die. That’s the tragedy
of coming to New York.”
Red Hook activist Lou Sones, who protested Ikea, still has hope the store
being built at the former New York Shipyard will be subject to heavy scrutiny
throughout the development process. The moratorium, he said, was a great
idea, and he was glad the two councilwomen supported it.
“I love them for that,” he said.
