Walmart Supercenter At 111 Yale St.

[TGM]

Uh - the 380 links the bridge and Walmart. We get to reimburse the nice new balusters, lights and paint on the bridge 15 months after the Walmart opens via the 380.

Ah yes, the "We all bundle" argument.

[heights]

a Walmart supercenter that no one wants and no one needs

This is your fundamental problem s3mh, you like to assume that what you think is what everyone thinks or should think. If you look at the poll at the top of this thread, I think you'll see that there are people that want this Walmart. And I am one of them.

THAT ----> Your Pipe ----> Smoke.

[samagon]

Hi, my names no one and I'm a walmart shopper.

[TGM]

Pre-Wal-Mart grand opening: "Stop the Heights Wal-Mart"

Post-Wal-Mart opening: "It's not really in the Heights, and we'll hereby refer to it as the Washington Wal-Mart"

[Leonard]

TGM - it's not an "argument" - it's a fact. The Yale Street Bridge is in the Ainbinder 380 and so is the Walmart.

[fwki]

Hi, my names no one and I'm a walmart shopper.

Almost everybody I know in the neighborhood will be shopping there and has no overt opinion about Wal-Mart as a company except that it is a Buyer Beware retailer. Luckily they take returns on most items, and the cost benefit plus convenience is what will drive sales to the majority of shoppers in our neighborhood. Every now and again a Nouveau riche will show up at a social gathering with overt negativity, but I find it rare. The real-world number of those with real-life reasons to shop there and who appreciate a convenient location overwhelm the number of elitists who overtly hate the company.

However the real objects of the elitists' hatred are the 46 million Americans (14.8%) on food stamps and others suffering from the ongoing recession/depression. Walmart didn't make this mess, they are just satisfying a real-life need of modern America. Looking for dogs to kick? Start out with the political establishment (both sides) and their financiers. But lay your boots on a hard working American trying to raise a family, and you will have to face the wrath of the common majority who have worked hard enough and are lucky enough to live in this neighborhood. We laugh in your faces because your sham arguments are duplicitous and transparent, but thanks for the entertainment.

William Simon, Wal-Mart CEO, said in September 2010 "on the last day of the month, it’s real interesting to watch. About 11 p.m., customers start to come in and shop, fill their grocery basket with basic items … and mill about the store until midnight. Our sales for those first few hours on the first of the month are substantially and significantly higher. If you really think about it, the only reason somebody gets out in the middle of the night and buys baby formula is that they need it, and they’ve been waiting for it.”

[J008]

However the real objects of the elitists' hatred are the 46 million Americans (14.8%) on food stamps and others suffering from the ongoing recession/depression.

This makes no sense, considering the demographics of where the store is and how many food options there are with in 5 miles. If this were north east of downtown or any of the other food deserts, I would agree with you.

Low income housing was literally replaced with a starbucks.

A poor person is much more disadvataged by the reducion in cheap central houston housing with access to transport than saving 10 cents on milk.

[luciaphile]

William Simon, Wal-Mart CEO, said in September 2010 "on the last day of the month, it’s real interesting to watch. About 11 p.m., customers start to come in and shop, fill their grocery basket with basic items … and mill about the store until midnight. Our sales for those first few hours on the first of the month are substantially and significantly higher. If you really think about it, the only reason somebody gets out in the middle of the night and buys baby formula is that they need it, and they’ve been waiting for it.”

Was that Walmart CEO hired for his excellent fearmongering skills? It totally worked. The thought of all those babies eating cat food toward the end of the month is alarming, especially when it would be so easy for their non-breastfeeding mothers to sign up for WIC:

http://www.fns.usda.gov/wic/

Wikipedia: Currently, WIC serves 53 percent of all infants born in the United States.

Bit if not enough people are finding it, perhaps Wal-mart with its greater reach should administer the program - as it is probably receiving a good percentage of those WIC and SNAP dollars anyway.

[Leonard]

If this is true, this William Simon guy sounds like a real creep. Standing around watching hungry babies wait another hour for some formula that they have "been waiting for" so he can enjoy "substantially and significantly higher" sales. And he thinks it's "interesting".

Really disgusting.

[fwki]

Wikipedia: Currently, WIC serves 53 percent of all infants born in the United States.

Bit if not enough people are finding it, perhaps Wal-mart with its greater reach should administer the program - as it is probably receiving a good percentage of those WIC and SNAP dollars anyway.

That's the point. Those peolple aren't paying cash! Once the WIC/SNAP runs dry, it's wait until first of the month.

[J008]

Note that the west end service center (new Koehler extension and heights) provides a lot of these services in one place for free.

While there may be some overlap (using the service center day dare while going to work in the new development), I still struggle to see the new development as some great affront to the elitist contempt of the poor. Considering they have been coming to Heights\Yale St for food and services for years the only change is that less of them live there too.

http://www.houstontx.gov/health/MSC/westendmsc.htm

[fwki]

If this is true, this William Simon guy sounds like a real creep. Standing around watching hungry babies wait another hour for some formula that they have "been waiting for" so he can enjoy "substantially and significantly higher" sales. And he thinks it's "interesting".

Really disgusting.

I must refer you to post #2430 . "Excellent!"

[TGM]

Low income housing was literally replaced with a starbucks.

A poor person is much more disadvataged by the reducion in cheap central houston housing with access to transport than saving 10 cents on milk.

So now they have replaced the ratty places they could live with new places they can work at. The access to transport is still there. Not sure how that is a bad thing.

[fwki]

This makes no sense, considering the demographics of where the store is and how many food options there are with in 5 miles. If this were north east of downtown or any of the other food deserts, I would agree with you.

Low income housing was literally replaced with a starbucks.

A poor person is much more disadvataged by the reducion in cheap central houston housing with access to transport than saving 10 cents on milk.

I agree and it was my mistake to emphasize the poorest citizens rather than those just trying to make ends meet in this economy. The former middle class is the key demographic and why investors flock to WalMart during recession, shares hit an all time high July 27 this year.

[luciaphile]

If this is true, this William Simon guy sounds like a real creep. Standing around watching hungry babies wait another hour for some formula that they have "been waiting for" so he can enjoy "substantially and significantly higher" sales. And he thinks it's "interesting".

But however Machiavellian it may be, you have to appreciate his unusual gift of insight - to have noticed that people tend to shop on payday (!), and to recognize that this is a completely new phenomenon, and to posit that Walmart is thus all that stands between these folks and the abyss. One may as well profit from alleviating misery as anything else, and get credit for it.

And the more women who pick up formula at Walmart the better, because they forgo the natural birth control associated with breastfeeding: more hungry mouths, more government transfers!

[RedScare]

TGM - it's not an "argument" - it's a fact. The Yale Street Bridge is in the Ainbinder 380 and so is the Walmart.

Are you suggesting that the City of Houston should have put reconstruction of a bridge that will be paid by the State of Texas into a 380 agreement that must be repaid by the City?

This is exactly my point. Your attempts at fiscal conservatism fail miserably because you are so unfamiliar with the concept of fiscal conservatism. You also have a nasty tendency to complain before thinking about what you are complaining about, causing you to contradict what you had said previously. This is a symptom of ideologic thinking. Your ideology...in this case, that you hate Walmart...overwhelms logic, and you spout unsupportable theories and statements.

It is almost too easy to pick apart your arguments, though I'll say that you are not as bad as your alter ego s3mh, who simply makes things up as he goes along.

[kylejack]

Even the most rigid fiscal conservatives believe that government has a legitimate purpose to invest in infrastructure like bridges and roads. If the bridge needs to be replaced now and Texas seems to be dragging their feet, maybe COH should pay for it. I see no reason to make it part of the 380, though.

[TGM]

Wal-mart also ships increased numbers of strawberry pop-tarts to Gulf Coast stores that are within a named storm's "cone of uncertainty" during hurricane season. Their research indicated that there was big demand for non-perishables, and even more specific, this flavor variety. Wal-Mart does some incredible things with their business intelligence data, which is why they are extremely successful. From the products they offer to when a truck is allowed to dock, they have it down to a science. My guess is that they have already calculated their B & C options after the bridge weight changes.

Meanwhile back in mom & pop land, Pa kettle is still selling salt-water taffy for $.50 each when his true cost is $.65 each. *Pa scratches head, still can't figure out why they are not breaking even*

But somehow the haters see Wal-mart as the knuckle-dragging hicks and mom & pops as the noble geniuses that were forced out of business.

Edited October 9, 2012 by TGM

[luciaphile]

Meanwhile back in mom & pop land, Pa kettle is still selling salt-water taffy for $.50 each when his true cost is $.65 each. *Pa scratches head, still can't figure out why they are not breaking even*

Thank you for not posting a video. I used to love Ma and Pa Kettle movies, but I'm pretty sure it's one of those things where I would not now understand why I found them so funny. At least the Little Rascals hold up. I think. The Apple Dumpling Gang does not, sadly.

[fwki]

The haters cannot appreciate anything positive about the company and they are completely blind to the majority opinion. This phenomenom I find to be the most interesting thing in this thread. What would cause reasonable, well-meaning folks to completely miss the boat on this Wal-Mart? And why does the misdirected hatred continue through phony proxies like the bridge? Is it elitism as I put forth earlier? Is it a defense against one's own shortcomings such as "I would like to shop there but doing so would endanger my carefully constructed image."?

[TGM]

Is it elitism as I put forth earlier? Is it a defense against one's own shortcomings such as "I would like to shop there but doing so would endanger my carefully constructed image."?

Most of the Wal-Mart haters envision themselves as the folks in the NY Times Weekender ads.

The rest of the world views them this way:

[luciaphile]

The haters cannot appreciate anything positive about the company and they are completely blind to the majority opinion. This phenomenom I find to be the most interesting thing in this thread. What would cause reasonable, well-meaning folks to completely miss the boat on this Wal-Mart? And why does the misdirected hatred continue through phony proxies like the bridge? Is it elitism as I put forth earlier? Is it a defense against one's own shortcomings such as "I would like to shop there but doing so would endanger my carefully constructed image."?

Oh, I can answer that! It's elitism, yes, I've acceded to that elsewhere; and also this: "I wouldn't particularly like to shop there, and doing so will cost more than shopping at HEB."

{It's our greedy, sharp, smallminded recall for prices, for tiny little sums, that makes women so successful on "The Price is Right."}

But it's a serious charge -- though made with so little provocation nowadays, and so frequently -- that of being a hater. I would like to learn the trick -- comes natural to so many, if they are to be believed, if it is not "part of their carefully constructed image" -- of loving an amorphous group of people unknown to me, and the corporation (yes, "people too," I know) that is said to serve them so well. Your damnable bridge has brought to mind the story that famously begins--

On Friday noon, July the twentieth, 1714, the finest bridge in all Peru broke and precipitated five travelers into the gulf below...

and closes:

But soon we shall die and all memory of those five will have left the earth, and we ourselves shall be loved for a while and forgotten. But the love will have been enough; all those impulses of love return to the love that made them. Even memory is not necessary for love. There is a land of the living and a land of the dead and the bridge is love, the only survival, the only meaning.

Perhaps if I pretend to subscribe to that, I'll start to feel the love, for you, for the babies, for Bill Simon, for the weekenders, for seven billion souls. Why, I think my heart just 'grew three sizes.'

[Leonard]

I don't think anything should have been in the 380. And I've already said explicitly that I don't think replacing the bridge should be in the 380.

Planeing, resurfacing and painting both Yale Street and Heights bridges are in the original 380 list. They took out planeing and resurfacing and added lights and baluster repair. It's a fact - the Yale Street Bridge is in the 380.

How is stating a verifiable fact an unsupportable theory?

[TheNiche]

I don't think anything should have been in the 380. And I've already said explicitly that I don't think replacing the bridge should be in the 380.

Planeing, resurfacing and painting both Yale Street and Heights bridges are in the original 380 list. They took out planeing and resurfacing and added lights and baluster repair. It's a fact - the Yale Street Bridge is in the 380.

How is stating a verifiable fact an unsupportable theory?

If I recall correctly, the 380 Agreement allowed a provision whereby the city and the developer could agree to add or remove items from the original list. They ended up using that provision, although clearly some of the work that ended up being done was of questionable value.

But that's pretty much just the City being the City. (What would the developer care about baluster repair?) The City does lots of things of questionable value, such as building and operating public libraries. If you're pissy about this--and clearly you are because I can't recall you posting anything in any other thread, ever--then why aren't you also getting pissy about other things that the City does?

[Leonard]

Again, Niche, before you question how I spend my time, you should spend the exact same amount of time on every other anti walmart fight out there. Your logic, not mine.

I don't know why the developer and Walmart wanted cosmetic repairs on an 80+ year old bridge. Their logic also escapes me. I don't spend my time making up motives for others that I couldn't possibly know. However, I do know why they didn't resurface the bridge. The bridge can't handle the milling equipment.

[TGM]

Mr. Leonard, still on 93Q?

[TheNiche]

Again, Niche, before you question how I spend my time, you should spend the exact same amount of time on every other anti walmart fight out there. Your logic, not mine.

I'm not aware of any anti-Wal-Mart threads that are ongoing. There's another Wal-Mart about to get built inside the loop at Wayside and I-45, but the neighborhood seems to want it there. I would too, if I was still living over in that direction. So yeah, there's just not a debate being had...except for right here.

Besides. I am neither pro-Wal-Mart or anti-Wal-Mart. They're only a business entity. The perspective that I am offering in this thread is threefold:

1) What gets built in our city should be shaped and constrained by market forces and codes and ordinances that are uniformly administered. What gets built in your neighborhood should be compatible with the needs and wants of our city as expressed by the aforementioned forces and constraints.

2) RUDH's officers live a lifestyle that is incompatible with the organization's mission statement and seem to be as much a part of their perceived problem as any sort of solution that they might be offering; and they're dicks for threatening legal action against me for having investigated them and having said so.

3) Some 380 Agreements have been better or worse than others, and in capable hands they have the potential to effect positive change. Ironically, some of the worst among them seem to be the most popular with constituents (i.e. Gulfgate HEB). Whereas I generally distrust the public to understand the implications of 380 Agreements and also that I also generally distrust that local politicians act in the interests of their constituents, and also whereas 380 Agreements are unnecessary in the course of providing essential public services, I therefore believe that the language that enables them should be repealed under state law. This is consistent with my general philosophy of government.

I don't know why the developer and Walmart wanted cosmetic repairs on an 80+ year old bridge. Their logic also escapes me. I don't spend my time making up motives for others that I couldn't possibly know.

I know why the developer would have wanted cosmetic repairs. It's to make the area look nicer. Isn't it obvious?

[s3mh]

Wouldn't a welfare project for traffic engineers entail lots of critical feedback so as to require revision after revision? If so, then that would cause the traffic engineering firms to bid out new projects at a higher fee and to have to hire more traffic engineers.

And besides, it isn't as though the development is located on an island with only one shoddy bridge across to it. There are lots of alternative routes. When I shop there, I'm going to drive across the bridge of despair in my deceptively-heavy passenger car. And I shall not care. When the bridge is tore up, I'll drive on down to Heights and turn right at the new intersection at Kohler. If a one-block detour ruins your day, then perhaps yours is such a charmed life that I should envy you; I shall not allow such a trifling nuisance to ruin my day however.

The TIA process is a joke. The City does not require the recommended mitigations. They give developers a free pass now that they are all scared by the Ashby lawsuit.

Koehler is a lousy detour. The main problem is the 18 wheeler traffic for Walmart. An 18 wheeler cannot make a turn from the right hand lane of Heights to Koehler westbound without swinging out wide into both the left hand lane of Height and the eastbound lane of Koehler. It was never intended for 18 wheeler traffic. I saw an 18 wheeler try to make the turn the other day. It was a joke. They had to sit there and wait for traffic on Heights to clear and would have had to let all the traffic on Koehler go by as the truck drove down the middle of the eastbound lane of Koehler for about 100 feet before it was able to get into the correct lane. If this maneouver were attempted during rush hour with the Yale St. bridge closed, it would cause major gridlock.

[Leonard]

Niche, you're the one who said you didn't know why the developer would care about the balusters being repaired.

[IronTiger]

By the way, the point about Kmart was about how some posters much earlier in the thread were complaining how Walmart was going to destroy the local stores and their way of life, as if such a thing had never happened before. Kmart came and went, and although I had no knowledge of HAIF in 2002-2003, I imagine that there were no joyous sounds from the rooftop (or rather, board) that the monster had been felled and people could return to the way of life they had before.