Patrick’s Rants

Flagstaff Arizona.
Site of the upcoming fight against “Super Walmart”. The city decided that we needed an ordinance that makes it illegal for a Super Walmart to be built within city limits. They did this by limiting the size of allowed retailers, limiting the amount of floor space a retailer can devote to groceries to 8% of total floor space, and requiring a “conditional use permit” for retailers over a certain size.

Supporters of the proposition that will be voted on in a special mail only election include “friends and neighbors” and what? who? as the commercial states “major funding by UFCW”. hmm…. not a labor union, not one of those “outdated, outmoded, once served a purpose when there weren’t child labor laws but now exists mostly to line the pockets of the union leaders by forcing workers to go on strike whether they agree with labor leaders or not”
And the UFCW openly hates Walmart. I don’t personally care whether there is a SuperWalmart in Flagstaff (I don’t think we need one myself but that’s not a reason to write an ordinance that targets a specific business), but this is a city that can’t manage to get the business they “want”.
As long as I have lived here Flagstaff has done its best to prevent conference and convention centers from moving here. In the ’90s it was the building height limit that forced a major convention center to look elsewhere, just this month it’s the fact that the city can’t (or won’t) put up nearly $26 million to subsidize a 4 or 5 star hotel plus convention center. Not that I really blame them… the developers want the money without an interest in the property from what I understand - perhaps not the best use of tax dollars, but there has to be a compromise that will work.
Interestingly enough the same city council wants to create an automall and expand the current mall, on the same land that Walmart has been rumored to be eying. From what I hear, there has been a fair amount of arm twisting to get the auto dealership owners to agree to a “centralized” location and the afformentioned convention center started the ball rolling on the purchase of downtown property currently owned by Babbitt Ford. That deal will still happen even though the land will not be used for a convention center and the dealers who really don’t want to be at the mall will end up there anyway.
No on 100 (yes to Walmart)
Yes on 100 (no to Walmart)