Should Walmart Come to Remington?
Posted by Sarah McCann on Monday, March 8, 2010 Under: Politics
I would prefer that a Walmart not be built in Remington. There seem to me enough Walmart stores around Baltimore City, but I have a car and I can drive half hour in just about any direction and hit a Walmart. For people without a car however, I see the draw of having a Walmart within city limits. What is most important in the discussion about whether to open a Walmart on the corner of 25th and Howard is what the people that live there think about it, whether they have a place to voice their thoughts, and whether developers listen to them. I have come to accept that Walmart exists, that people shop there, and that they do have some terrible business practices that allow them to maintain the lowest prices. I see a huge potential in this moment of debate surrounding the Remington Walmart. Whether or not it is built the discussion about it can be one that informs people of the negative impacts Walmart has on local business, wages and workers. It can also be a moment of power for the community. If the community is given the right to weigh in on what happens, even if people decide that they do want a Walmart built, it can be used as leverage to ask or rather to demand of Walmart that they pay workers a living wage, that they supply local products, and implement fair business practices.
It is possible that I am being too hopeful. I lived near the site of the proposed Atlantic Yards project in Park Slope, Brooklyn before moving to Baltimore. I am not sure what is happening with the project now, but the development there started much like this one seems to be. A shopping center was built that included a Pathmark and several other stores, it was a ghost town for several years until a Target moved in. Now it is a fully functioning mall. There is a proposal to build a stadium near the site and people were removed from their homes through eminent domain, plans for luxury apartments are included in the drawings and the neighborhood has already transitioned into a much more expensive market. It would be sad to see this happen in Remington, and if the Walmart is built, I imagine development will not stop there. Whether or not people are heard in this step of the process will say a lot about the future of not only Remington, but Baltimore City as well.
It is possible that I am being too hopeful. I lived near the site of the proposed Atlantic Yards project in Park Slope, Brooklyn before moving to Baltimore. I am not sure what is happening with the project now, but the development there started much like this one seems to be. A shopping center was built that included a Pathmark and several other stores, it was a ghost town for several years until a Target moved in. Now it is a fully functioning mall. There is a proposal to build a stadium near the site and people were removed from their homes through eminent domain, plans for luxury apartments are included in the drawings and the neighborhood has already transitioned into a much more expensive market. It would be sad to see this happen in Remington, and if the Walmart is built, I imagine development will not stop there. Whether or not people are heard in this step of the process will say a lot about the future of not only Remington, but Baltimore City as well.
In : Politics
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