Results tagged “walmart”

While we've been busy watching just a few of the many fine films screened at Reeling this year, a mighty lot of gay-centric news has come across our desk. Consider this little round-up a crash course in the past two weeks in the world of LGBT Chicago, headlined by a gay couple that now faces perhaps the most far-reaching denial of equal rights in our modern world: A lifetime ban from Wal-Mart.

With the Olympics out of the way and Mayor Daley's imposed delay on a vote over the proposed second Wal-Mart store in Chicago, 21st Ward Alderman Howard Brookins has decided it's time to up the ante on bringing the global mega-retailer into his neighborhood. Setting a stuffed hound in front of 14th Ward Ald. and Chairman of the council's Finance Committee Ed Burke, Brookins vowed to "hound" Burke until the issue was brought to a vote. “Not after 40 years,” Burke said. “Woof, woof.”

• Sonia Sotomayer has been confirmed to the Supreme Court.
• Gov. Quinn signed the Texting-While-Driving ban into law today.
• DuPage County State's Attorney Joe Birkett has decided to not run against Lisa Madigan for Attorney General next year.

Part of the argument in favor of bringing a second Wal-Mart into Chicago, at 83rd and Stewart in Chatham, is that the neighborhood is a "food desert". This argument has been bandied about a lot lately, most recently by a certain Sun-Times columnist. But if you've spent any time around Chatham, you'll know that it isn't the desperately poor black neighborhood that much of the South side is characterized as. In fact, as Rich Miller over at Capitol Fax and this Google map show, there are quite a few food stores near the proposed location.

Wal-Mart certainly raised the stakes this week in its bid to open a second store in the city. But the results of the push-poll notwithstanding, setting up shop in Chatham may not be the slam dunk the Arkansas-based mega-retailer thinks it will be. That's because, as the city council was passing the buck on the Wal-Mart vote by sending it from the Rules Committee to the Finance Committee, committee chair Alderman Ed Burke (of the 14th Ward) told the Sun-Times that Wal-Mart would have to step up to the plate to play ball in Chicago.

It seems like the controversy over Wal-Mart's attempts to open a second store in Chicago won't go away. And it seems like the massive retailer is helping to fan the flames of contention. From the Chicagoist tipline: "I just got what I think was a 'push-poll' about building a Wal-Mart at 83rd & Stewart. Basically, it only asked one question (a true sign of a political push-poll) and was heavily weighted in language towards Wal-Mart and Mayor Daley. It was something similar to the following: 'Mayor Daley says that a Wal-Mart at 83rd & Stewart would bring 400+ jobs to the city and make fresh food available to the neighborhood; others believe jobs are not enough. Press 1 if you believe a Wal-Mart should be allowed to be built or Press 2 if you believe it should not." A quick check of the phone number the calls are originating from - and a check of that tipline inbox - indicated that quite a few Chicagoans got the same call, as well.

With all the hubbub over Wal-Mart going on in these parts recently, we're not surprises there's more news to add and this time it'll raise even more eyebrows. According to WBEZ, Dr. John Agwunobi, a senior vice-president of the company whose unit includes the company’s health clinics, spoke in Chicago at this weekend's National Council of La Raza and said the company supports a part of President Obama's healthcare proposal that includes coverage for all workers. But Agwunobi also said the company wants healthcare for illegal immigrants. When asked if they support healthcare for illegal immigrants, Agwunobi answered, "We believe strongly that everyone should have access to affordable health insurance. Everyone." [WBEZ]

Erm, we'll let the man speak for himself.

Although it seemed that Da Mare wasn’t about to step into the fray of (yet another) Wal-Mart in Chicago a few months ago, he’s come out behind Howard Brookins and his efforts to bring the massive retailer into the South side’s Chatham neighborhood. Claiming that Wal-Mart jobs are aren’t meant to provide long-term stable employment in a community, he took a shot at the United Food and Commercial Workers union, who’s members work at Jewel and Dominick’s stores across the region. “When they hire, you know, a couple of thousand people - you know, these are beginning jobs,” the mayor told WBEZ. “People want to just start some place,” he said, adding that he doesn’t understand why unions get upset when Wal-Mart wants to open in Chicago, but not in the suburbs. Mayor Daley’s staff may be updating his YouTube page, but they don’t seem to be checking the rest of the internet much.

Walmart will be hosting a “Fresh Farmer’s Market” Saturday at the site of their proposed store in Chatham, at 83rd and Stewart. Press releases were sent to local news outlets, and the Tribune’s story on the market remained on their site’s front page all day yesterday. Could it be true? Could Walmart actually be getting involved with the community and promoting products grown here, rather than in China or Mexico? Or is this just another shot in the ongoing battle between Walmart and the City Council? (Ed. Note: A Sun-Times op-ed today weighs in favor of a Walmart in Chatham. — CS)

33rd Ward Alderman Dick Mell announced late last Friday that Wal-Mart will get another shot at coming into Chicago, perhaps as early as by the end of this month. “We’ll see what the consensus is,” Mell who is chairman of the City Council's rules committee, said. Archon Group LP, the real estate firm that controls the South side retail center, has been ratcheting up pressure on the city, along with Wal-Mart, to allow the mega-retailer to develop a supercenter store at 83rd and Stewart. A clause in the development agreement of the Archon retail center prevents any store larger than 100,000 square feet from opening without prior approval by the city. Wal-Mart supercenters are typically 180,000 square feet, and sell groceries along with other retail goods.

Mayor Daley put on his judging pants yesterday and spoke out about a few things, though none of it was like Shakespeare. First, he took to the defense of our new governor, Pat Quinn. During a recording of WLS' "Connected to Chicago," set to air Sunday afternoon, Daley said of Quinn:

Crain's Chicago Business is reporting that Wal-Mart, which has indicated recently that it would like to open more stores in Chicago, may not have the support it needs in the city council to move forward with its plans. The Arkansas-based retailer has its sights set on South side communities, including Chatham, Pullman and Washington Park. But while some alderman support the expansion of the retailer's presence in Chicago, the Mayor's office has indicated that unless a veto-proof majority can be mustered, he'd rather not engage in the fight. Wal-Mart "would be welcome to come to Chicago if they gave their workers the right, if they so desire, to organize," 49th Ward Alderman Joe Moore told the publicantion. "We are simply asking them for that level of fairness."

As Wal-Mart gets ready for Round Two of the Retail Wars in Chicago, Supervalu, which owns Jewel-Osco, is remodeling 25 local stores to stay competitive in the market, Crain's is reporting.

Alderman Howard Brookins told WBBM-AM that "with unemployment growing and tax revenues sagging, Chicago needs Walmart." In a separate speech to labor leaders, Ald. Ed Burke said he'd be fine with more Walmarts in Chicago, as long as they allow employees to unionize - which is about as likely as Walmart turning all their stores into marshmallows and sunshine. Are the anti-Walmart tides starting to turn? It was just a couple weeks ago that Walmart started their push back into the city proper - with two aldermen starting to think about what the 'Mart could do for them, could the other 48 be far behind?

We've had a few hours to digest the hundreds of thousands of job-losses announced this morning, so now might be the perfect time to spring this on you: Wal-Mart would like to put as many as 5 new stores in Chicago. The Tribune is reporting that a new push is being put together to start out with a new store in the 21st ward, and take it from there.

Wal-Mart is once again looking into plans to build a second store within the city of Chicago; the chain's first store opened on the West Side in September 2006. Attempts to put in another store have started and stopped before and the chain has long had union issues with opening stores here. Still, the company seems optimistic about its chances. John Bisio, director of public affairs for Wal-Mart in Chicago, said, "We've shown ourselves to be a very viable business and a relevant one in the face of some pretty tough developments in the economy. I would guess as we come out of the holidays, we would want to have that kind of conversation [with the city]." The current store generates sales of $60 million annually. In spite of that failed attempt in Chatham earlier this year, Bisio said, "It makes sense for us to continue to look on the South Side, but we haven't formally begun any dialogue."

The Trib has a reader update page for Black Friday craziness but things seem...relatively tame. Police were called early Friday morning (like, 2:40 a.m. early) to Gurnee Mills Malls to take care of a rowdy bunch of shoppers waiting on the early morning store openings. Still, nothing can compare to the tragedy in Long Island where a Wal Mart worker was killed in a stampede of early morning shoppers and a crush of customers at the same store also injured a pregnant woman. Earlier reports said she suffered a miscarriage but those have been retracted.

Planning and Development Commissioner Arnold Randall told the developers of the 50-acre Chatham Market on the South Side that the city would not approve plans for a Wal-Mart. It's weird that they even asked, because the city zoned the area for retail development only after "then-developer Monroe Investment Partners LLC stated in a letter to city officials that Wal-Mart would not be a part of the shopping center." The City Council then passed an ordinance that the city commissioner would have to approve any retailer who wanted to occupy more than 100,000 square feet of the property.

Londonist prepares a Happy Birthday bath for Buddah this week and then things get all cliched. A madman goes on a rampage while axe-weidling and London's mayor warns an American diplomat to avoid the kitchen if the heat bothers him so much. LAist has finally come around to purchasing tickets for Clipper Train. Hyper local dating sites are spamming L.A. neighborhoods and the fascinating Dame Darcy talks with LAist about art, the city and earthquakes....

There are two ways to determine which posts were the most popular posts on Chicagoist this year: comments and hits. A lot of commenting tells us you've got feedback, you want to talk about things. Either the subject of the post or the way the post was written has struck a cord. A lot of hits means that even though you may not have commented on a post a lot, you went back and read it a lot. Or maybe you forwarded the link to the post to a lot of people.