WalMart’s Coming to Town - Newtown That Is

A recent "neighborhood workshop" gave WalMart representatives the opportunity to explain to the Newtown community what might be in the cards. WalMart is considering a Super Center at the NE corner of 301 and MLK Way.

An article in the SHT described the confab in these terms: "Wal-Mart hasn't presented a formal offer to the city. Thursday night's meeting at Booker High School was part of the company's research process, to ensure any store built is a reflection of the community."

Attorney Brenda Patten, the local WalMart development rep, painted a pretty picture of what WalMart could be. "What would you like to see Wal-Mart do for this community?" she said. Wal-Mart would "kick start" the Newtown revitalization process, working to "draw people into your community," Patten said. "They'll come with their dollars."

Every suggestion was answered with something like "that can be done" or "we’ll look into that", although no commitments were made.

This group of interested residents had done their homework and much skepticism was expressed. Job training, jobs for Newtown residents, health care benefits, child care, traffic and many other issues were brought up. The issue of using the 18 acre brown-field site and its clean up cost was also discussed.

In the end it seemed that while most could see some benefit (after all the picture was pretty), the sense was that it would take a lot of community involvement to get real benefit for the Newtown community. There are potential pluses and there are definite minuses in the WalMart equation. To tip the balance to favor the community will require much effort, involvement and creativity. The community made a good start by showing up in force and asking tough questions.

Commissioner Fredd Atkins closed the meeting with an animated summation: "this is the beginning of a process "... he referred to as "a negotiation with a gorilla." " This struggle is going to require all of us to get ropes around it, so it works for us."

Amen, Fredd!