We Lost, the Store Grand Opening to Be April 10th, 2013, 7:30am
The Controversial So. Milwaukee Walmart Makes National News! Please Read: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/al-norman/warren-buffett-walmart_b_3002244.html
Welcome to our site. Something stirred your curiosity about an upcoming Walmart in South Milwaukee. The purpose of this site was to help prevent the store from being built. But we lost. It is extremely difficult for a small community to organize an effective oppostion to the world's most powerful real estate developer. Even though the majority of our community was opposed, they literally bulldozed over us. This website will stay up so that other communities can learn from us and do better. Please read all the topics on the left and feel free to ask questions or leave comments at the Contacts page.
Now our mission has changed. If you read the article above you can see that our community essentially got hustled into paying millions of dollars to two of the wealthiest families in the world. Yet we wound up with a store we didn't even want on land that is still contaminated. We think they should refund our hard earned money. To us it works out to about $300 per taxpayer, yet to them it would be like you or me paying a single dollar.
We still need your help. Please read the Latest Updates section at left and reach us at the Contact Page.
The rest of the site will remain just as it was when we were still opposing the store from being built.
What is all the fuss about? To put it bluntly, it was a lopsided deal favoring Walmart that was pushed onto the Citizens with minimum warning. It will cost us nearly $3mm of our taxpayer's money for a store at a lousy location that will negatively impact our community for several reasons.
Why did we think we could stop it? Because we had statistical results from 1,200 households indicating that 70% of the City is opposed. Both the TV news and Walmart’s own attorney said they've never seen such fervent opposition. See these news reports. TV News1 TV News2 Also, even Walmart knows it's a poor location, they stalled the project for over six months. It's the only Walmart we can find to be located on a two lane road. We could not understand why they would select such a marginal site with so many better ones available. Why did they push for a store where it was so obvious they weren't wanted? Possibly because they culdn't resist the sweet deal the City caved into.
What can you do to help? They're used to vocal opponents giving up easily and doing nothing. If you’re one of those folks, you are helping their cause. If you’re not, then please go to the Contacts Page to get involved and help us. We're up against a Goliath, the largest and wealthiest corporation in the world. When the store opens, please continue to shop and support our existing local stores. The Walmart motto "better living through low prices" is a con, unless you live in China.
The Issues A 3/4 majority of the aldermen thought a Walmart was a good use of the vacant lot. see map Sounds good, right? Sell land, collect taxes and create jobs. But wait, that's not what's really going on here. They're actually selling the land for a $1.25mm loss! details Then, borrowing up to $1.8mm to help Walmart (whaaat?!) see page Plus, many experts insist we will have a net loss of jobs from the Walmart store! see page Don't believe us? Please read on carefully.
But It Gets Even Worse The most visible problem is traffic; 5,000 cars/day, another stoplight and we lose a street. see page Then, there will be the strain on our police department, blowing litter, millions of gallons of runoff flowing into a creek that already floods. see page There will be increased cost of City services and decline in property values. Then, consider that many economists question Walmart's impact on our US economy with cheap Chinese goods. documentary
Walmart Is Constantly In the News And not for good reasons. Recently the New York Times released a story how Walmart USA covered up a huge bribery scheme they used to grow their Mexican market at such a rapid pace. Read it here: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/22/business/at-wal-mart-in-mexico-a-bribe-inquiry-silenced.html?_r=1&hp
And There are Environmental Issues Too They claim Walmart will be sharing the costs to clean up a site that has toxic waste. In reality, they planned on doing the absolute minimum of merely capping over the waste. That means despite paying them $1.8 million, we still have a toxic site that the City may be ultimately responsible for. When Walmart pulls out in a few years, as they surely will from that lousy site, we taxpayers will be right back where we started!
We Can Do Better We've got it so much nicer than other communities precisely because we're not stuck with "Big Box" stores. Lucky for us, the Lake and Grant Park shield us from the maddening traffic of retail sprawl. Many other businesses could have fitted nicely at that location. They would have paid a fair price, brought real jobs and wouldn't have choked our roads with traffic. see page For example, take a look at the plans our Community Development Authority (CDA) displayed for that land as recentl as a few months ago! photo
Racism? Baloney! It is ridiculous to claim we are opposed to the Walmart due to racsism. We suspect Walmart coached the aldermen to use that as a comeback when local citizens object. The only racsim issues are the ones Walmart employees have lodged against management.
Now our mission has changed. If you read the article above you can see that our community essentially got hustled into paying millions of dollars to two of the wealthiest families in the world. Yet we wound up with a store we didn't even want on land that is still contaminated. We think they should refund our hard earned money. To us it works out to about $300 per taxpayer, yet to them it would be like you or me paying a single dollar.
We still need your help. Please read the Latest Updates section at left and reach us at the Contact Page.
The rest of the site will remain just as it was when we were still opposing the store from being built.
What is all the fuss about? To put it bluntly, it was a lopsided deal favoring Walmart that was pushed onto the Citizens with minimum warning. It will cost us nearly $3mm of our taxpayer's money for a store at a lousy location that will negatively impact our community for several reasons.
Why did we think we could stop it? Because we had statistical results from 1,200 households indicating that 70% of the City is opposed. Both the TV news and Walmart’s own attorney said they've never seen such fervent opposition. See these news reports. TV News1 TV News2 Also, even Walmart knows it's a poor location, they stalled the project for over six months. It's the only Walmart we can find to be located on a two lane road. We could not understand why they would select such a marginal site with so many better ones available. Why did they push for a store where it was so obvious they weren't wanted? Possibly because they culdn't resist the sweet deal the City caved into.
What can you do to help? They're used to vocal opponents giving up easily and doing nothing. If you’re one of those folks, you are helping their cause. If you’re not, then please go to the Contacts Page to get involved and help us. We're up against a Goliath, the largest and wealthiest corporation in the world. When the store opens, please continue to shop and support our existing local stores. The Walmart motto "better living through low prices" is a con, unless you live in China.
The Issues A 3/4 majority of the aldermen thought a Walmart was a good use of the vacant lot. see map Sounds good, right? Sell land, collect taxes and create jobs. But wait, that's not what's really going on here. They're actually selling the land for a $1.25mm loss! details Then, borrowing up to $1.8mm to help Walmart (whaaat?!) see page Plus, many experts insist we will have a net loss of jobs from the Walmart store! see page Don't believe us? Please read on carefully.
But It Gets Even Worse The most visible problem is traffic; 5,000 cars/day, another stoplight and we lose a street. see page Then, there will be the strain on our police department, blowing litter, millions of gallons of runoff flowing into a creek that already floods. see page There will be increased cost of City services and decline in property values. Then, consider that many economists question Walmart's impact on our US economy with cheap Chinese goods. documentary
Walmart Is Constantly In the News And not for good reasons. Recently the New York Times released a story how Walmart USA covered up a huge bribery scheme they used to grow their Mexican market at such a rapid pace. Read it here: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/22/business/at-wal-mart-in-mexico-a-bribe-inquiry-silenced.html?_r=1&hp
And There are Environmental Issues Too They claim Walmart will be sharing the costs to clean up a site that has toxic waste. In reality, they planned on doing the absolute minimum of merely capping over the waste. That means despite paying them $1.8 million, we still have a toxic site that the City may be ultimately responsible for. When Walmart pulls out in a few years, as they surely will from that lousy site, we taxpayers will be right back where we started!
We Can Do Better We've got it so much nicer than other communities precisely because we're not stuck with "Big Box" stores. Lucky for us, the Lake and Grant Park shield us from the maddening traffic of retail sprawl. Many other businesses could have fitted nicely at that location. They would have paid a fair price, brought real jobs and wouldn't have choked our roads with traffic. see page For example, take a look at the plans our Community Development Authority (CDA) displayed for that land as recentl as a few months ago! photo
Racism? Baloney! It is ridiculous to claim we are opposed to the Walmart due to racsism. We suspect Walmart coached the aldermen to use that as a comeback when local citizens object. The only racsim issues are the ones Walmart employees have lodged against management.