Marathon Pundit: Ex-Black Panther wants to keep "Walmart plantation" out of Brooklyn

Tuesday, December 21, 2010

Ex-Black Panther wants to keep "Walmart plantation" out of Brooklyn

The state of New York will lose two congressional seats because of decennial reapportionment. With public officials like New York City councilman Charles Barron, a former Black Panther, serving the public, it's easy to see why people are leaving the Empire State.

Walmart, the nation's largest private employer, hasn't even committed to building a store in a new Brooklyn shopping center, but that hasn't stopped Barron from using emotionally-charged words like "plantation."

From the New York Post:

Several local lawmakers say they will hold a giant parcel of state-owned land hostage until they get a guarantee that Walmart won’t ever be allowed to lease space atop it.

The 20-acre plot behind a shopping center off the Belt Parkway and Erskine Street is needed by Related Companies if it intends to bring in a Walmart the size of three football fields as the centerpiece of its planned Gateway II plaza.

But that land won’t be available to Walmart, vowed one pol.

"The governor should not sign off on this until they get an agreement that Walmart isn’t coming in,” said Councilman Charles Barron (D–East New York), one of the most outspoken opponents to the big box chain. "[Walmart] doesn't have a contract with Gateway II, but they’re trying to sneak in behind the curtain. We don’t want the Walmart plantation in East New York."

Vacant lots employ no one.

It's easy to dismiss Barron as the biggest nut on the tree in Brooklyn, but perhaps his wife, state Assemblywoman Inez Barron has more common sense than her husband. "In communities across the country, Barron says, "Walmart stores devastate local businesses and destroy more jobs than they create."

Then again, maybe not.

The New York Times had this to say about the Barrons' neighborhood last year:

The situation was worst in East New York, Brooklyn, where the unemployment rate for the third quarter of this year was 19.2 percent, according to the study, which was conducted by the Fiscal Policy Institute. That means that almost one-fifth of the adults living in East New York could not find jobs; it does not account for those unemployed residents who did not seek employment.