Tucson not listening to its citizens in big box battle

In the 1970s, one of the towns next to the one I grew up in was making the transformation from semi-rural to completely suburban. That town had one grocery store--an independent operation.

One of my cross country team mates was a bag boy there, and he used to tell me that the owner of the store used to brag that because he was on that town's board of trustees, he was keeping the large supermarket chains out of the village.

But the town continued to grow--it's still growing--and eventually the town relented--realizing that one medium size grocery store serving the entire town wasn't in the best interest of its citizens.

From southwest suburban Chicago we move on to Tucson, Arizona. There's a law there that banning stores larger than 100,000 square feet from selling groceries.

A massive Home Depot is okay in Tucson, but Wal-Mart Superstores and Super Targets are not.

Recently Wal-Mart organized a petition drive to overturn that law via a ballot initiative, 22,000 people signed it, more that double what was needed.

But Tucson's City Clerk wouldn't accept the petitions, citing what city attorney Mike Rankin told her, "Arizona law clearly states citizens cannot use the initiative process to change zoning laws or modify them."

If that's the case, it's a stupid law. Besides, a lawsuit may follow, costing the people of Tucson a lot of money in legal fees.

Now why does Tucson have the anti big box grocery bill on the books? Is there a person on Tuscon's city council, like my one-time team mate's boss, who wants to keep Wal-Mart and Target from building big stores there?

Or are members slavishly following the Leftist mantra--one that I believe is false--that the big-boxes are bad for communities?

However, a lot of Tucson residents want big boxes there? Will their government listen?

Related post:

Tucson big box ban may be put to a vote

Technorati tags: law Wal-Mart Business Target Big Box retail Arizona Tucson