Dems Say No Thanks to Walmart Offer to Eliminate Food Desert

By Peter Wilson

A recent Boston Globe headline reports: "City won't back a Walmart in Roxbury, Sees it hindering Dudley rebuilding." (An offer to rebuild "hinders rebuilding"?) According to the story: Menino administration officials declined to endorse a plan to open a Walmart Neighborhood Market grocery store at the former Bartlett bus yard, a shuttered MBTA maintenance facility near Dudley Square, where food-shopping options are few. In a sane world, politicians would jump at Walmart's offer to invest private capital (as opposed to Obama's "investments" of our money) into Boston's Roxbury neighborhood, which is 80% black and Hispanic, low-income, with high crime. Actually, in a sane world, politicians wouldn't have the power to reject a commercial real estate project, so long as it conforms to basic safety standards. Antipathy toward non-union Walmart is not new among Democrat pols who receive hefty union campaign donations. The Globe reminds us that Walmart is seeking to open a store in Somerville, and that "that city's mayor, Joseph Curtatone, has raised questions about the retailer's labor policies." .... (Read Full Article)