The City Council has made giant national retailer Walmart feel unwanted. Many Unions have lobbied long and hard to keep the largest employer in the United States from opening even one store anywhere in the five boroughs of New York.
Pro and Con studies have been done, polls have been taken. Columnists and editorial writers across the nation and throughout the media in this city have laid out the case for and against Walmart.
Our own "unofficial poll" of Queens residents showed over 70 percent want one opened somewhere in the borough.
One quiet little tactic – intimidation – being unleashed by the opponents of a Walmart plan came to light in Crain’s New York Business magazine.
Their story laid a nasty little scenario whereby Walmart opponents would ratchet up pressure on a developer, The Related Companies. Related Companies has had contact with Walmart about leasing a site at its 650,000-square-foot Gateway II shopping center in East New York, Brooklyn. The shopping center has already received the City Council’s approval.
The anti-Walmart factions including some unions, small storeowners and councilmembers plan to "persuade" Walmart’s local partners with threats of pickets outside their headquarters or homes and with future difficulties when dealing with the council.
Related Companies is one of the 29 developers that is considering bidding on the redevelopment of Willets Point near Citi Field. Someday it will be a new destination point for all of Queens featuring hotels, a convention center, stores, parks, office space and new Queens housing.
According to Crain’s Councilmember Julissa Ferreras, state Senator Jose Peralta and Assemblymember Francisco Moya – will send a letter to Related Chief Executive Stephen Ross, pressuring him to shun Walmart or chance losing a shot at Willets Point.
Another threat, more intimidation!
Ross told Crain’s, "We’re not going to back down, and we’re going to do what’s good for the city of New York in the long term.”
Robert Knakal, chair of Massey Knakal Realty Services, says he has several as-of-right sites that he’s trying to market to Walmart. “It gets very dangerous when politicians start saying who you can rent space to and who you can’t,” he said.
We hope Ross and Knakal stay the course and fight for what is good for the city.
