Citizens in Bakersfield, California thought one Wal-Mart supercenter proposal was bad enough. But developers are pushing two superstores at the same time, and in so doing have stirred up a grassroots storm. Wal-Mart wants to build a total of 440,000 s.f. of superstores, a combo of two stores within Bakersfield. One location is in developer Castle & Cooke’s strip mall, another would be paired with a Lowe’s home improvement store. These “evil twin” proposals have angered homeowners and union members, who have formed a coalition to fight the over-development of their neighborhoods. City officials are so nervous about the high emotions against the store that they have detailed half a dozen police to watch over the public hearings this week. The city’s planner warned that the hearing would be a “circus”, and municipal officials are trying to make the opponents out to be union radicals. The local newspaper and city officials have suggested that the Bakersfield Citizens for Local Control are being controlled and funded by the United Food & Commerical Workers union. The Bakersfield Californian newspaper highlighted “slick fliers” sent by the citizens group which warned that Wal-Mart would lead to “financial ruin” of some local businesses, create a heightened crime problem, and push down local wages to “all time lows.” “”We’re not going to allow our reputation to be attacked,” a Wal-Mart regional spokesman told the paper. “I’ve seen the fliers. I think the fliers are nothing but a bunch of propaganda.” (As if Wal-Mart’s “information” fliers are not.) The newspaper quoted a local independent grocer who is unionized as saying of his employees: “Right now, they are very aware of the impact Wal-Mart can have on this community. They are having money taken out of their paychecks to fight this. They understand that Wal-Mart will mean a lessening of wages and benefits being paid to retail workers in this community.” The real issue before the city is whether or not these two out of scale projects are compatible with the Bakersfield General Plan and its zoning code. The potential impacts on surrounding properties, the impact on air quality, the impact on traffic congestion — these are the issues that zoning decisions revolve around. But in the meantime, Wal-Mart, the city and the newspaper are all helping to create the atmosphere of a “circus” where the facts are likely to get trampled by the elephants.
I helped stop a Wal-Mart proposal in Bakersfield in 1994. At the time, the Bakersfield newspaper refused to even tell the public I was in town, or cover my public presentation to neighbors. But the Wal-Mart plan was pulled from the eventual site plan in question. Since then, Wal-Mart has added other locations in Bakersfield. Wal-Mart is making a big push into California to add more supercenters to its mix there. But if Bakersfield is any indication, California is not going to be all sunshine and light for the Arkansas corporation.
