Marlborough Mesa

To Every Mesa Resident:

A friend of yours has sent this request to you because we need your help. On March 12 the residents of Mesa will be voting on council candidates and the very important Proposition 300. We need your help to stop it by voting NO to Prop 300. A majority of our current city council is opposed to this re-zoning. Councilmembers Jaffa, Kavanaugh, Davidson and Whalen are all on record saying ''Don't Re-Zone''. Wal Mart has spent over 200,000 dollars to buy their way in to our neighborhood. Our group of concerned residents have spent less than 1,500 dollars (all we have). As a grass roots way of getting the word out to you, your neighbors, and the rest of Mesa, we must resort to ingenuity by asking you to copy this entire letter, add every e-mail address of Mesa residents you keep stored on your computer address book, and, forward the letter to them. Hopefully, if each of you will do the same, we will have the opportunity to reach out to great people, like yourself, in all parts of Mesa. We need you to help us spread our concerns, AND, vote NO on Prop 300.

Thanks for your help,
Neighbors helping Neighbors



NO
ON 300
Protect our Neighborhoods


Why are we so against a WalMart in Northeast Mesa? Here are the facts...

?? A business park will create 5618 jobs with annual average personal income of $61 million. This represents more than 7 times the number of jobs created for Mesa residents by the WalMart.*

?? WalMart brings 756 jobs with an annual average personal income of $7 million, and is expected to generate the lowest paying jobs at an average of $17,600 per job.*

?? For every ''full time'' (28 hrs per week) employee hired, 1.5 jobs are lost. WalMart offers job reallocation for current employees - not job creation - which eventually ends up in job loss.

?? WalMart undercuts the competition in the areas they build, thus closing existing businesses causing a loss of sales tax revenue and jobs for Mesa residents.

?? Roughly 60% of WalMart employees do not have healthcare. These costs fall back on the tax payers and crowd our emergency rooms.

?? The site in question is landlocked by Mesa. There are two WalMart SuperCenters within six miles, and a SuperKMart within five miles. This only creates REDISTRIBUTION of sales tax dollars within Mesa?¹s boundaries.

?? A business park development will bring $1.6 million to our school district.* WalMart will bring $500,000 in revenue to our school district in 10 years.*

?? WalMart SuperCenter is bigger than America West Arena.

?? Crime increases in neighborhoods by approximately 20%. This, in turn, requires more police officers, more tax dollars, and reduces our sense of safety right in our own backyards.

?? Other viable options for this site exist. Three prominent businessmen from Mesa offered to
purchase this site from Tally for the development of a business park. Tally refused their offer.
WalMart has the capability of out-bidding our local business leaders budgets.

?? This site does not meet the criteria for the proposed Big Box Ordinance council is considering.

Please join us in voting NO on Proposition 300

Thank you!!

*City of Mesa Megacorp, Office of Economic Development advisory board recommendation
dated 6/19/1999.

Created and Sponsored by NE Mesa Residents for Responsible Growth
www.nemrrg.org














By Mesa Concerned Citizens

no names?

It interests me that the poster of this message chooses to hide a personal name. This always makes me wonder about the valitity of the information posted.

I also do not blindly believe statistics posted by no-named people. In the motorcycle political wars we engage in, we often can debunk the BS numbers thrown out there. I too think that the numbers listed in the post canbe debunked, or at least be shown to be written in a predjudicial tone.

I am not a WalMart supporter, by any means. I also do not dislike a business just because they are succesful. Our country has spent years brainwashing the ignorant into believing that financial success is a bad thing and Walmart, Perot, Forbes and others have paid the price.

If I knew that an industrial park would bring jobs in, I would support that side of the issue. However, I see businesses closing down, not expanding. I dont see Walmart shutting down.

Rick

Outcome?

Interesting discussion. I sent in an early ballot because I am out of the country for business (not for Wal Mart (o;). Would someone be so kind as to let me know how the vote turned out?

Sh-shea! (Thank you!)
C. Reaux

Wal-Mart Won

The headline pretty much speaks for itself, huh? Here is the article from the AZ Republic:

Wal-Mart wins over Mesa voters in unofficially tally

Christina Leonard
The Arizona Republic
March 12, 2002 08:55:00

For the third time in Arizona, Wal-Mart has won at the polls.

Unofficial results Tuesday indicate Mesa voters approved by 67 percent Proposition 300, a hotly contested zoning case to allow construction of a super Wal-Mart at Greenfield and McKellips roads.

''I'm kind of disappointed, of course, because it's been a four-year fight, and when you fight something that long and that hard, it's kind of a bummer,'' said Peggy Phillips, who organized the Northeast Mesa Residents for Responsible Growth, a grass-roots neighborhood organization.

Voters for a Better Mesa, financed by Wal-Mart, spent more than $152,000 during the campaign; its two opposition groups spent about $17,600 combined, according to campaign finance reports.

''We certainly are grateful to the voters of Mesa,'' said Amy Hill, a Wal-Mart spokeswoman.

In February 2000, the Mesa City Council voted 4-3 to approve the Wal-Mart, but more than 4,690 signatures were gathered on a referendum petition to force a public vote because residents feared noise, traffic and congestion from the ''big box'' store.

In May 2001, Glendale voters rejected the retail giant by a vote of 11,438 to 7,692, even though proponents spent almost a half-million dollars. The retailer won elections in Payson and Yuma.

Al Gardner, a 70-year-old Mesa resident who owns 7 acres of citrus orchards at Greenfield and McKellips roads, is angry that the city is considering building a Wal-Mart at the site. He said that over the years, he had tried to develop his land across the street, but was blocked because city officials said the site wasn't safe, citing planes flying to and from Falcon Field.

''I think it's an issue of safety, and a confused issue of where the city stands,'' Gardner said.

Mark Meyers, director of Falcon Field, said Wal-Mart hired an aviation consultant to look at the concerns and found none. Meyers said the parcel of land Gardner owns sits in line with the end of the runway.

''Most airport managers know they have to abide by FAA rules,'' he said. ''Our first and foremost interest is safety.''