Wal-Mart and Its Foes Vie for Support
Three days before Inglewood voters decide if Wal-Mart can build a Supercenter in their city, store backers tried to bolster support Saturday with a street fair offering free food and entertainment, while opponents, including elected officials, spoke against it on a street corner.
The initiative on the Tuesday ballot sidesteps local officials and allows the world’s largest company to erect a Supercenter at the Forum and Hollywood Park without the traffic studies, environmental reviews and public hearings required of other developments. To qualify for the ballot, Wal-Mart had to collect about 6,500 signatures.
The move has angered city officials and community leaders who say the retailer is trying to bully its way into the city.
“Wal-Mart is coming in here and they want to be treated as a sovereign nation within our city,” said Inglewood City Councilwoman Judy Dunlap. “They want to write the law for us. It’s very offensive.”
The retailer wants to build a shopping center the size of 17 football fields on what is now an empty lot at Prairie Avenue and 90th Street. The development would be anchored by a Supercenter, which sells groceries as well as discount merchandise.
At the proposed site Saturday, more than 150 people strolled through carnival tents, filling their plates as kids took turns climbing a giant air-filled slide and had their faces painted by clowns.
Development representatives handed out job applications while residents who needed a ride to the polls on Tuesday wrote their names and addresses on a clipboard.
More than a dozen employees from the Crenshaw Boulevard store attended the event, wearing their Wal-Mart vests and name tags.
On Market Street, several blocks west, protesters stood outside small businesses that they said could suffer if Wal-Mart opened the store. They held signs that read, “Don’t sell your vote for a clown,” while officials admitted they’d been outmatched by the corporate giant.
“They’re spending millions on free meals when we know there are no free meals in life,” said Assemblyman Jerome Horton (D-Inglewood). “It’s very difficult to compete against that.”
If the measure passes, Horton plans to push for legislation requiring developers to comply with local building and safety codes.
The law also would keep companies from sponsoring initiatives that would exempt them from following local regulations.
Marcia Thomas, 50, regularly shops at the small businesses on Market Street. She had planned to vote in favor of the measure but changed her mind after hearing the speeches from city officials.
“I don’t think this is fair without getting approval from Inglewood City Hall,” Thomas said. “If Wal-Mart can just come in an take over, then anyone else can, too.”
Community concern about the Wal-Mart measure has united city, county and state officials, as well as religious leaders who have spoken out against Wal-Mart. Leaders from the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, Nation of Islam and St. Michael’s Catholic Church have been among those who oppose Wal-Mart.
The company plans to open 40 Supercenters in California. Taking future projects directly to voters could become a new strategy in Wal-Mart’s campaign to expand into the grocery business in California.
The ballot measure’s supporters say a Wal-Mart would create jobs and generate $3 million to $5 million in sales tax revenue for the city.
Mayor Roosevelt F. Dorn, the only council member who supports the measure, brushed off concerns that Wal-Mart stores are anti-union. “I am a union man; my entire family belongs to the union,” Dorn told the cheering crowd. “But with this development, the union is wrong.”
