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When Emma Mitts, an alderwoman in West Chicago, was appointed in 2000, retail in her 37th Ward consisted of corner stores. Mitts vowed to upgrade the options. In 2003, at a conference sponsored by the International Council of Shopping Centers, Mitts met with Wal-Mart officials who informed her that they had tried once before to put a store in Chicago but had been stiff-armed. "The unions stopped them," said Mitts. "But the unions weren't an issue...
...Chicago is a union town. But in Mitts' ward--and among many poor blacks--some unions rank only a couple of notches above the Ku Klux Klan. Black leaders in Chicago have repeatedly charged that the building-trades unions, traditionally controlled by whites, are keeping a grip on jobs. While 37% of Chicago is black, only 10% of all new apprentices in the construction trades between 2000 and 2003 were black, according to the Chicago Tribune. The unions that most vociferously oppose Wal-Mart are not in the building trades but represent retail workers, such as the United Food...
What Wal-Mart also found in West Chicago was nothing short of a natural extension of its corporate philosophy. Wal-Mart built a $285 billion corporation by going where its competitors are not. That used to be small towns or underserved suburbs. Chicago's 37th Ward, with its scant retail options, is an urban village, a first cousin to the sorts of communities Wal-Mart had always targeted. Combine the lack of jobs and stores with a strong antiunion streak, and the West Side is perfect for Wal-Mart. "If you're going to pick a spot, why wouldn...
...time it got to Chicago, Wal-Mart had learned something from its bad experience in Inglewood, where the retailer attempted to circumvent the city council by pushing for the necessary rezoning through a ballot referendum. Wal-Mart had then donated $65,000 to the Los Angeles Urban League and mounted a $1 million p.r. blitz. The locals got turned off by the attempted end-around play, and Wal-Mart lost the vote, with 60% of residents rejecting the store. Humbled, Scott changed the company's urban policy from one of remote maneuvering to direct community engagement--and made himself...
...even the willingness of top black politicians to meet with a corporation that only last year was lambasted by Democratic presidential candidates shows that the lines of battle are shifting. In Chicago the unions tarred Wal-Mart with criticism that 10 years earlier would have rallied black leadership against the company. Many of those opposing Wal-Mart in Chicago were black, but the presence of an equal--or greater--number of black supporters took the subject of race off the table. To the extent that it was a topic, race worked to Wal-Mart's favor in that...