• Walmart Open House

It wasn't what I expected. I thought it was going to be more of a "town hall" meeting, with an audience and a power point presentation, but is was as the sign said, an Open House.

No speeches, no public comments, no protests just several stations with knowledgeable people to listen to questions and give answers.

They also had some snack trays... best way to curry favor is by offering food... if they really wanted to get a groundswell of support, they should have offered margaritas too.

I asked about the time table for beginning the project. The question I asked to more than one of them was, "Will the first shovel hit the dirt before Hillary leaves office?"

They looked at me, then rolled their eyes as they got the reference, and one guy told me, "I sure hope it doesn't take that long."

Under the best of circumstances, it will be YEARS before they begin construction. It could be longer if the Wildomar *APEs have their way... as it seems they must protest every project that comes across the city's desk. As predictable, none of the APEs or Cantankerotti showed up... and neither did their dream candidate, Gary Andre.

Oh, on a side note, the retail Subway project, near Jack in the Box and AM/PM off of Bundy Canyon, is now under construction... it is only years behind schedule due to frivolous lawsuits foisted upon the project by the APEs.

The facts of this case are truly sickening, and perhaps I'll be able to get the straight dope from someone and be able to post a blog about it in the future... now back to the Walmart Open House →

After being there two hours I asked the greeter, this greeter looked college aged to me, what the head count was. She told my that 175 had signed the register, but that about 20% chose not to. So it's safe to say that 200 guests came to their open house tonight.

As the meeting was winding down I went and talked to the people at the various stations to ask what the feedback had been. I heard estimates between 80-90% positive depending on which person I asked. The key concerns that people had were traffic on Bundy Canyon, though some mentioned concerns over increased crime too.

Don't worry, you can count on the APEs to act like this is a sporting contest and I'm sure they are already drawing up their Flea Flickers in the dirt.

Now if I were a betting man, would I take a ragtag group of people that lose every time they enter the arena, or the deep pockets of Walmart? 

Here is a poll where you can vote if you want Walmart, don't want it or are on the fence.

At the last count, after 154 votes, it's 52% for it and 44% against it. You can only vote once. I'm one of the "I don't care" votes... because I don't care. I shop by mail or I'm already used to driving to Murrieta for all my Walmart needs... but I can tell you that our city sure could use a Walmart, as can its residents. 

This was one of many large displays on easels.

I only seemed to run into people that were generally in favor of the project. I was chatting with George Taylor, long time resident at The Farm, and he is for Walmart coming to town. He sites the revenues to the city and the jobs that will be coming with a Walmart as his reasons for his position.

Also present tonight, were many people from the city. Planning Director Matt Bassi, City Manager Gary Nordquist, Assistant City Manager Dan York, Planning Commissioners Bobby Swann, Gary Brown, and Stan Smith, along with council members Bridgette Moore, Tim Walker and Ben Benoit.

They were there as private citizens, but were also there to hear from the people of Wildomar too. All were completely accessible to anyone wanting to chat about Walmart, or any other topic for that matter.

I hate to harp on this, but we are only 6 weeks away from the City Council elections and neither challenger showed up. You don't have to vote for one of the incumbents, but you'd better not be preparing to vote for one of the two guys that don't have time for things important to our city such as this.

There will be a ton more about Walmart as the calendar pages hit the circular file... so stay tuned.

A couple of definitions... if you were wondering about these terms.

*APEs is the self chosen name of a group of malcontents that sue the city every time they can scrape two nickles together to hire their high priced legal eagle. They spell it differently than I do, theirs is AIP... but an AIP is an APE, clumsy and destructive no matter how it's spelled

Oh, and "Cantankerotti" is a portmanteau of Cantankerous and Glitterati... basically those that haunt Wildomar with their cranky discontented ways, never having a decent thing to say about anything, especially if it's under the purview of the city, and/or the city council.

♠

What'cha gonna do
when they come for you?

Who else misses the Blue Light Specials from Walmart's

predecessor? 

Yeah, me neither.