SARASOTA – Dozens of residents packed a meeting in a Sarasota City Hall Tuesday evening about placing a new Walmart in the Ringling Shopping Center.
The meeting lasted over 4 hours, and we still don't know how the commissioners feel about the issue, nor will we hear about how they feel about the issue this week.
They heard from Walmart officials, as well as those appealing the plan to build the store. On one side, you have people arguing that the proposed 98,000 square foot supercenter is a department store. Under the zoning code, a department store cannot be built at the site, located at the intersection of Ringling Boulevard and Lime Avenue, the former site of Sarasota’s first Publix.
Then there were the Walmart supporters, claiming that it's not a department store and since the city’s planning board approved the idea, the store should be built.
More than 40 Sarasota residents signed up to speak, but none of them got their voices heard. And because the meeting is continued on into the night, city commissioners decided to hold a special meeting Tuesday, February 26th at city hall at 6:00pm. That is when the residents will be able to speak, and that is when we expect to finally get a vote from the city commission on the fate of the proposed store.
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Geobliss posted at 1:04 am on Wed, Feb 20, 2013.
I am in shock sitting up here in Chicago
And reading about a possible Walmart in town.
This will go down as the worst decision
In years for your town! Walmart is a town
Killer. Within 3 years every single small
Business in your lovely town will
Be eliminated. Walmart is the culprit
In illegal price fixing and unfair labor
Practices from top to bottem. You have built
A most wonderful Main Street. You did
A wonderful job with the Ritz Carlton.
Do you think Rodeo Drive or Worth Ave
Would EVER allow it???? You have
A jewel there on the West Coast, a real
Treasure. My town of Chicago is considered
Among the beautiful downtowns in America.
We have no Walmart here on Michigan
Ave. They Exploit people across the
World with low wages and ZERO benefits.
May I remind you they are the single largest
Gun Seller in the Country? Some of the Guns
Used in the Newtown Shootings came right
Out of a Walmart. My friends in SRQ, you
Live in a Paradise of Art and Culture. Do
Not allow the bullies from Arkansas to
Ruin yet another American town.
Geobliss posted at 12:33 am on Wed, Feb 20, 2013.
Walmart will kill every single small business for miles!! I'm shocked
That this is even being considered. What is it that you good people
In Paradise don't see? Your neighbors up in Chicago can tell you
That Walmart is frowned upon by our City council. I am so happy
For social media so that we may warn you. Single biggest Culprit in
Price Fixing at ALL levels in American Business History. It is a
Minimum wage factory that will cheapen your Glorious town.
You built that beautiful Ritz Carlton and have spiffed up
Main Street , and now you are going to allow their stores to ruin it
All?? I'll leave you with this, Do you think Palm Beach or Rodeo
Drive would allow it?? You have a jewel there. Don't ruin your
Lovely town.
George Bliss
Chicago, Illinois