The good Advertiser story yesterday (page B3) was only the thick end of the wedge. I sent the message below to Catherine Toth.

It seems clear that Wal-Mart is getting a sweetheart deal from the City in exchange for bailing the City out of the Sandy Beach arrangement, and Kamehameha Schools is in this thing up to its neck.
Wal-Mart reportedly plans two more superstores in Hawaii Kai and Kaneohe, both on KS land.
That means a total of 10 Wal-Marts in the State, six on Oahu, if the one in Pearl City materializes and the world's largest box store on the keeaumoku Superblock doesn't get stopped.
Ten Wal-Marts would be the rough equivalent of 150 supermarkets. It would mean some 10,000 employees, about half part time with no benefits, the rest with minimal benefits or benefits shoved off on spouse's employer (a WM specialty; they even issue employees with instructions on how to do it), all at lowest possible wages, all non-union.
It would mean the destruction of who knows how many small and large businesses (Costco is a favorite WM target), a sharp reduction in the State and City tax receipts, and a sharp increase in State and City unemployment and health costs.
I do not think it too fanciful to suggest that this would suck the life out of our community, destroy at least some if not most of the gain made by 70 years of union effort and reduce the quality of life to those of decades ago. These guys work under the radar. The City Council members have been advised to keep quiet lest the City get slammed in court. A figure of $100M in possible damages has been publicly stated.
It seems to me to be time to sound the alarm.
Hawaii is famous as the place where you can turn off the sound in a movie theatre and it will be 20 minutes before anybody gets up to complain. We may not have 20 minutes this time.
Jim

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Date: Mon, Feb 3, 2003, 1:50 PM


Dear Catherine E. Toth

A superb piece of political reporting. It reveals why we who are so vigorously protecting in various courts the world's largest box store on the Keeaumoku Superblock, in the midst of a densely-populated area with mostly narrow residential streets for access, smelled a rat.

Was it part of the Manana deal to give Wal-Mart a free hand in the Superblock area?

Although every one of the six previous projects announced for the Keeaumoku site required public hearings and environmental impact studies, the City Department of Planning and Permitting decided neither was required of the world's largest box store, on land zoned for mixed business use. Odd?

Wal-Mart was granted Minor Conditional Use Permits in August within seven days of applying. Fishy? (You normally couldn't get permission to erect a lemonade stand in seven days. More like seven weeks if you're lucky.)

Among the questions (third of four) asked on the application for these CUPs is: "Will this project alter the character of the surrounding area?" The DPP answered: "NO"

Good God, a 317,000-square foot retail/wholesale establishment, drawing 20,000 cars a day and 100 diesel-spouting delivery trucks into the city center, with pollution, lights, noise around the clock wouldn't alter the character of the surrounding area?

Yankee Stadium would be less destructive: It doesn't draw as much traffic and they don't use it 24 hours a day.

Wal-Mart still does not have its building permit for Keeaumoku. Is Wal-Mart holding up the $18M payment until it gets its permit, or is the City holding up the permit until it gets the money?

Meanwhile, there is a suit in Circuit Court before Judge Gary Chang for a temporary restraining order on the project. Attorney Bartlett Drand of Bickerton, Saunders & Dang (Tel. 599-3811). Wal-Mart's motion to dismiss will be heard Feb. 19 at 10 a.m. Judge Chang already has put Wal-Mart on notice that it is proceeding on the site at its own risk. If he denies the dismissal, he has set March 13 as the date to hear arguments for the Restraining Order, with continuation to March 18, if required.

This could be a landmark court case for Hawaii, and the nation. The Dallas City Council recently voted 15-0 to kill a similar-sized Wal-Mart project on the grounds it would "smother" the area.

We are also challenging the zoning before the City's Zoning Board of Appeals. That case will be hear Thursday, February 27, at 12:30 p.m.

We in the case are Citizens Against Reckless Development (CARD) which was organized on my back lanai, and now has 1,260 members, all people who live, work or shop in the area, all of whom have signed onto a specific invitation, spelled out in detail on forms duplicated at Kinko's and carried door to door, condo to condo and in front of supermarkets by several extraordinary women of the neighborhood..

Democracy in action. Can David actually slay Goliath? The last time was many years ago.

Regards,
Jim Becker