Wealthy people hire lawyers, and that may be the lesson for Wal Mart in the case of the affluent Hercules. Back on 6 May I wrote how the town’s city council wants use its power of eminent domain to stop the construction of a Wal Mart.

I thought it was a bad idea then and I still think it’s a bad idea. But the city council is going ahead with its plan.

From the Associated Press:

The City Council in the affluent Bay Area suburb will hold a hearing Tuesday [today, 23 May, JH] to consider using the power of eminent domain to seize the 17 acres where Wal-Mart intends to build a shopping complex. It’s a novel approach to a fight that has taken place in communities across America.

“We want something good to take that place,” said Jeffra Cook, a Hercules resident since 1988. “There aren’t a lot of good stories about Wal-Mart.”

I’m sure that Cook indeed does want something good to take place, but this use of eminent domain is not the way to ensure that.

Jeff Hess: Have Coffee Will Write.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, May 23rd, 2006 at 1340 by Jeff Hess and is filed under Local, News, Politics, Western U.S.. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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