by Jim Wilkinson , The Empire Report
Sep 02, 2009 06:25 PM
It turns out we have a pro-business City Council, strongly supportive of our local entrepreneurs and family establishments. In the epic battle of Lowe's vs. local business, the Santa Rosa City Council's progressive majority came down firmly in favor of the latter. That was the right thing to do, although regrettably some bad ideas linger on about how to plan for the 21st century.
Yesterday (9/1), the Council heard – over and over again – the many strong arguments against adding a Lowe's store to the Santa Rosa Ave. strip mall. The list of adverse impacts included worsening traffic congestion, loss of affordable housing sites, lowering of wage scales, reduced revenues for local charities and financial out-flows via big corporation headquarters back east. In the end, however, the Council's decision turned on whether Lowe's would really bring in new money or just siphon it away from existing stores in a saturated market, killing off home-grown businesses in the process.
City Manager Kolin sounded almost desperate when he unabashedly affirmed his passion for city revenue. Council Members Bender and Olivares joined him in blithely turning aside evidence there will be little or no net gain in jobs or sales tax. They were on the one hand seduced by Lowe's self-serving assertion that untold numbers of Santa Rosans now drive to Cotati just so they can shop at Lowe's; and on the other hand haunted by the dubious "threat" that Lowe's might go to, say, Windsor.
City Manager Kolin sounded almost desperate when he unabashedly affirmed his passion for city revenue. Council Members Bender and Olivares joined him in blithely turning aside evidence there will be little or no net gain in jobs or sales tax. They were on the one hand seduced by Lowe's self-serving assertion that untold numbers of Santa Rosans now drive to Cotati just so they can shop at Lowe's; and on the other hand haunted by the dubious "threat" that Lowe's might go to, say, Windsor.
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