Carol’s car wouldn’t start, which meant she had to stay up in Cambridge a couple of extra nights. She was supposed to go to a meeting of New Bedford Public Interest, but since she couldn’t, she sent me instead.
A little background for those of you who live outside New Bedford: the Fairhaven Mill building at the head of New Bedford harbor has been in limbo for many years. The first floor houses an antique market, there are a few other businesses, but mostly the building is empty. Given its location right on the Acushnet River with beautiful views of the harbor and the city, and given the fact that it sits right next to an interchange on Interstate 195, the site is ripe for creative development.
What I learned at the NBPI meeting is that Home Depot is trying to push a deal through the city quickly, a deal that will allow them to erect a big-box retail store on the mill site. Of course, their business plan does not allow for such contingencies as utilizing a historic brick mill building that happens to stand in a very visible spot, so they will bulldoze the building. According to Home Depot, decisions have to be made quickly, there is no time for long studies or discussions, the city council has to vote now. The New Bedford city council voted to bulldoze the building.
To be fair to the city council, Home Depot holds out the prospect of 400 jobs coming from this development, which means a lot in a city like New Bedford. But the city councilors forgot to ask if that meant 400 net new jobs for the city; or if, as was the case when Home Depot built a store on Cape Cod, there will in fact be a net job loss for the region.
You know the rest of the story: most of the people in the surrounding neighborhood are not well off, many are people of color, and the nieghborhood looks like it’s unlikely to cause any trouble to Home Depot. So yes, this is a classic ecojustice issue of putting less desirable development in poorer communities.
I hate to see an outside corporation bulldoze a historic building, destroying some of New Bedford’s sense of place, simply because their business plan is inflexible. As a minister, it’s my job to point out when a person or group of people is being less than moral and ethical. Home Depot could be ethical and moral corporate citizens and figure out a way to use the historic mill building, and grace a poorer neighborhood with a more attractive development. This could be a win-win situation — but so far Home Depot refuses to bend. Personally, I think they should be ashamed of themselves.
The NBPI Web site has links to New Bedford Standard-Times coverage of the situation. Read the stories, do some investigating on your own, and tell me what you think.
Comment received via email
Hi Dan –
I tried to post this long response to your Home Depot posting, but it got eaten by cyberspace.
Anyway — suffice it to say that this will not be a win-win. Big box stores have no interest in giving back. They only want to get, and what they want is more profit. That’s it. All bottom line.
The 400 jobs? You are right to question that. Will they be new? Will they be full time? A living wage? With affordable benefits? Training? Opportunity for advancement? Will the people hired be from New Bedford? Even from the neighborhood you mention?
What is Home Depot’s commitment to the community? How long will they stay? What will they give back? What will the effect be on small businesses — we know how that goes. The death of downtown can be traced directly to big box stores. Save a buck here and there, it’s easy: go to WalMart, go to Home Depot. Forget about Joe Shmoe’s hardware. He charges a buck more.
Sure he does. He knows what he’s selling. He sells better quality stuff. He will help you figure out how to fix the wobbly widget and show you the right parts to do it.
Augh. I loathe big box stores. Every semester I teach a unit on Wal-Mart (although, I am so burnt out on it, I am taking this semester off), and invariably a few students vow to never shop at Wal-Mart again.
We vote with our feet. Don’t walk through the doors of big box stores. Every time you drop a dollar in Wal-Mart it drains a dollar — or more — from your own community. Here’s some good links:
http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/102/open_snapper.html
and
http://walmartwatch.com/
and
a forthcoming book: The Wal-Mart Effect to be published by the Penguin Press, © 2006 by Charles Fishman.
In Richmond, Indiana, our city government was pressured to cave in to development. The board of the Hayes Arboretum, a former jewel of the city, was approached by developers. Wouldn’t Hayes like to sell those 33 acres on Route 40. Prime development area. Top dollar for land and trees. Wouldn’t they like that? In 2003, the board said sure. Two years of wrangling later, the city caved, the citizens group lost numerous lawsuits (most never heard), and 33 acres were cleared for development. 100+ year old hardwood trees, gone. The city’s former harness racing track — still visible in the cleared debris — gone.
I think, today, I’ll post what I wrote about this on my blog. Stay tuned. And keep fighting. These big box guys are evil. Pure capitalist evil.
Love, Jean