Opponents rally against Walmart

fatrat , that's a job i've got my eye on.  i can walk there maybe we can work the same shift

 

    Welcome Walmart shoppers!

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Since these people that are fighting against Wal-mart will probably shop there once it open's, instead of saying "Welcome to Wal-Mart", you could say "Get the Hell Out!"

(Lighten up folks, it's a joke)

haha....so funny.  Not to be disrespectful at all but obviously those who are adversely affected by this are not laughing.  We will certainly be forced to shop at Walmart if the competition is eliminated. 

 

I understand that for many, convenience is of utmost importance no matter who gets hurt to save you a few minutes travel time.  For your sake, I hope the Walmart is built near the proposed location.  But for those of us who travel these roads multiple times a day, would it hurt the rest of you to help us to get the entrances to be re-routed to Cox Creek to protect our families?  If you really think this is positive growth, don't you want it to be safe, positive growth?  Don't throw us under the bus to save you a few minutes drive time.  It could be you or your family member that is in the other vehicle of one of the many accidents that will occur on Cloverdale Road. 

When the Wal-Mart goes in, people will wonder how they lived without it.  

 

The picture painted of Wal-Mart is that of a prison with criminals inside scaling the fences to get out.  It made me chuckle.

 

If 8,000 - 10,000 cars daily added because of Wal-Mart, that is 8,000-10,000+ people going there.  If they only spend $20 each that is an extra $16,000 sales tax a day. 

 

The one thing I've noticed about the local planning commission is that every plan of theirs is open to amendment.

 

If rats are a concern, get a cat.

ShoalsGirl you are so correct.

Isn't it amazing that the residence in Heathrow, Winborne and Forrest Hill, have no complaint about the accidents (some fatal) at the traffic light placed at Heatrow Dr or the inconvenience caused by their added traffic to all those who where native to the area before they arrived. Yes some of us remember when those neighborhoods were just covered in cow dung instead of overpriced homes.

Crusty, I seriously doubt very much of an increase in tax revenue since I've never heard of the Fire Marshall turning customers away due to being over capacity.

I'm guessing the current building cost has now or will be completely written off in in tax deductions before the new building is finished. And now the reality property values due to the build up of the area have vastly increased form what was once a cow pasture and cotton patch, the old building will be sold or leased a great profit just as the first location. This same circle of event will quite likely take place in the furture of the Cloverdale Rd location.

In business "PROFIT" is not an ugly word, it's what all successful businesses strive for, and the #1 retail business in the world and in the history of the world is Wal-Mart, so now they have made a valuable purchase of inexpensive undeveloped property near several up-scaled neighborhoods and all the ranting of these residents I predict will have no bearing on the out come.

 

Welcome to Wal-Mart Shoppers..... 

hmm...FatRat, I do remember the days before that traffic light.  As a matter of fact, I remember when about the location of Fred's, was a little store of some sort.  I believe it was called Moomaw's Furniture or something (obviously I'm old). My mom was trying to pull in there when Cloverdale Rd was just 2 lanes, she was rear ended before she could turn. I got a fat lip, my brother was born 2 months premature and we almost lost him and Mom both. I also remember a couple years before the light, when my husband and I were traveling north on the 2 lane Cloverdale Road and we stopped for someone to turn left into a driveway and we were rear ended while sitting still. Only a year or so later, while traveling south on Cloverdale Road, I slowed down for someone to turn right into a driveway and was rear ended in what caused a 5 car chain reaction.  I am definitely not in favor of anything which has or will cause traffic fatalities or even injuries.  That's why I want the entrance to the proposed Walmart to be placed on Cox Creek Parkway.   The portion of Cox Creek Parkway between  Cloverdale and Savannah Hwy is much less traveled than the area between Rasch Road and Cox Creek on Cloverdale Road.  By the way, I live in one of those so called over priced houses in Heathrow.  I've lived on or near this road from Underwood to Cox Creek almost my entire life.  I love the growth we've experienced in our quaint river town I call home.  I know it won't always be quaint and that's ok.  I want my children and grandchildren to have jobs at home.  In order to do so, we must have a plan.  We must have strategic planning, a responsible government, and smart minded people who make decisions based on the betterment of the citizens and community rather than the good ole boy politics and back room deals made privately for personal gain.  The "done deal" mentality is killing our city!!

Yes, I too remember Moomaw's, slept in bunk beds as a child that were purchase from the used ( now known as recycled or pre-owned) furniture store. I agree with you in all that you have stated, but due to the price of the land needed to egress from the preposed site I don't feel optimistic that until after the new store is built will we see a Cox Creek entrance/exit, we didn't see a Florence Blvd entrance/exit when the current location was opened. But now look at all the changes and different methods to get to and from that locale. Wal-Mart with all their political cloutand business savy will build as they have proposed and then the local and state government will spend taxpayer dollars to refine the egress to the proposed new store several years down the road just as they have in the current  Wal-Mart in Florence and just recently in Muscle Shoals.

As to smart minded elected people doing what is best for the good of mankind I share that dream as well, but politics got the traffic signal at Heathrow and the 3 way stop at Glen Mary, the traffic signal at Chisholm and E Rasch, and Creekwood and Cox Creek (I could go on & on), not for the betterment of all mankind, but for a politically connected chosen few and at the expense of all the rest of mankind that are not connected. So if history repeats, I fear no real changes coming that will cause our dreams to become reality.

Now some call me a pessimist and others refer to me as a realist, but I real do share your dream.....

In my opinion, the main entrance should be from Cox Creek Pkwy. The reality is that there will be an entrance from Cloverdale Rd. whether there is one on Cox Creek or not. Why would they not want that access?

It's not that we don't want access from Cloverdale Road.  The concern is the danger of having the only access points being on Cloverdale Road.  The infrastructure is not in place to safely handle the high volume of traffic.  Property and lives are at risk.

Neither of you is educated enough to work at Walmart.

Jimi you remind me of your username : who was a true waste of talent and overdosed......and since you list your location as the land of sexual abuse and molestation, please keep out of public places and maybe there will be nothing reproduced with your DNA.....

Why does the rat think I live at his house?

Jimi, there's no room at my place for a sniveling little mouse the likes of you. You would only be a small stain and lingering stench in moments... you best stay with your kind and those other occupants of Franklin Co You know the ones you surely must refer to them as undocumented .....

I agree. I am simply saying that Wal-Mart will most likely capitalize on Cloverdale Rd. as a point of access.

 

 

Maybe he found Pop-tart crumbs and a Britney Spears cd in the basement?

This subject has gotten very long and unproductive.  Time to go on to another issue.

No Roland, Jimi's just dreaming he could move from the den of evil child molesters and sexual abusers and those dear undocumented chicken pluckers.... Delusional as usual..... You don't think he could be self medicating ? 

the access should be on Cloverdale road and speed limit reduced. an entrance on COX CREEK

would be disastrous.  the semi trucks going West along withe teen girls cross that intersection at blazing speeds and don't touch the ground until nearly Crosspoint Church.

 

Welcome Walmart shoppers

lexum what you meant to say is the speed limit should be doubled..... They ride side by side at 15- 20 mph from Hendrix Rd to Norwood Pk now, then they accelerate to 65 mph for fear some one will pass  and get ahead of them..... 

Since we just bought a home in Heathrow, I would like to see a study on how Wal-Mart will negativly impact our neighborhood.  In our soon to be former town we had an opportunity to get a Home Depot which would have taken the place of a defunct K-Mart.  Some residents banned together to stop Home Depot from coming in and unfortunately they won.  So now we have a decaying building which is getting worse and an eyesore to the community.  BTW We are really looking forward to our new life in the Great State Of Alabama.

Welcome Bob.

 

It's called "privatization." There are some who think there should be nothing public left off the chopping block, because there is nothing that government can do better than the private sector. But, if everything is left up to the private sector, there are some things worth having that won't be done because there isn't enough profit in it.

 

Take that public park. It is a space that is open to all without having to buy an admission ticket each time you want to use it. Oh, yes, you do pay in a small way if you pay taxes. But it isn't like having $2 in front of a $3 gate fee with excited children who want to go play on the swings.

 

Or public libraries. Or, yea, even public fire departments. Did you know that there was once a time in this country when you couldn't count on your house fire being put out unless you could pay the price?

 

In colonial Philadelphia, firefighters were employed by private insurance companies which, of course, had financial incentives to minimize damage to their clients’ properties. Plaques with the insurance company’s insignia were placed on buildings, so that the fire fighters would know whether or not it was their “business” to put out the fires on the premises. (These plaques are often found today in antique shops). If the “wrong” plaque was on the building, well, that was just tough luck. Of course, with their attention confined to a single building, fire fighters were ill-disposed to prevent a spreading of the fire to adjacent “non-client” structures.

Occasionally, when the building’s insurance affiliation was in some doubt, competing fire companies would fight each other for the privilege of putting out the fire, resulting in more water aimed at fire fighters than at burning buildings.

Eventually, the absurdity and outright danger of this system led one prominent Philadelphia citizen to come up with the idea of a publicly funded and administered fire department.

His name was Benjamin Franklin: America’s first anti-free-enterprise commie pinko nut-case.

Franklin’s subversive left-wing ideas were extended to include libraries, post offices, and public schools, and, if we are to believe some of today’s self-described “conservatives,” it’s been downhill ever since.

The issue turns on the question of whether or not there are such things as “public goods” – in fact, on whether there is such a thing as a “public” (or “society&rdquo at all. Dame Margaret Thatcher, Ronnie Reagan’s favorite Brit, apparently didn’t think so when she famously wrote “There is no such thing as society, there are only individuals and families.”

But is it just possible that old Ben Franklin had a point? Are we not all better off now that the fire department doesn’t look first for the insurance medallion on our homes before they turn on the hoses?

 

http://www.crisispapers.org/Ed...ls/privatization.htm

 

 

 

Ah, yes, the old "government is the problem" syndrome.

If the ghost of Reagan is saying to you that there is nothing that government does that private enterprise can't do better, then we should tell all the U.S. military to go home, sell off all the aircraft carriers, and hand it all over to Blackwater clones who will protect us if we meet their price. How safe will you feel then?

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Amen!  I lived and commuted for a total of about 9 years in Atlanta and Washington, D.C metro areas. In Florence, a "rush hour" is a time when you just might occasionally have to wait for more than one light change. The idea that the proposed Walmart will produce some kind of unbearable gridlock is totally bogus and paranoid.

 

There are still people in this town who are offended if they fail to get a parking space directly in front of the downtown store where they intend to shop.  It is an unjustifiable inconvenience to them to actually have to park in the next block and walk across an intersecting street to get where they are headed. The small-town-ness  of it is just laughable.

Perhaps we don't like the possibility of traffic becoming like Atlanta. Auto insurance is much higher, maintenance cost more and so does gas consumption due to stop and go traffic.  If Those things didn't concern me, I would pack up and move to Atlanta. So why would you move to this much slower lifestyle if that were your preference?  Just wondering.

Coming from an extremely large city, I am looking forward to what I preceive is no traffic, where a traffic jam is 4 cars ahead of me :-)  June 1 can't get here fast enough

2 pages of bickering over a freaking Wal-Mart? When I hear that this is the big buzz about town these days it makes me realize how happy I am to not live in Flo anymore.

Welcome to our neighborhood, Bill.  Hope you will get to enjoy it.  It truly is a great place to live.  I honestly feel that the proposed Walmart will be detrimental to our community in many ways.  I hope I'm wrong, for all of our sakes.

 

Kenny, if core values and community safety isn't important to you, we're glad you didn't come back, too.  

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The answer to your question is simple.  I moved here to accept a job that paid more and offered a greater challenge than the one I had in Washington, D.C. and  along with that permitted me to live much closer to  my aging parents.  It had nothing to do with traffic or lifestyle. Before moving to the Shoals, I  lived in a town of 500, a small city of 19,000, another of 30,000, and three large metropolitan areas, each with over one million residents.  There are advantages and disadvantages to living in any of these settings, but a mature and thoughtful person will learn to adapt. Life is good.

Bloom where you are planted.

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I think you meant Bob?

 

Welcome to our community, Bob, & to the forum. You have to have a tough skin to hang out here.

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Do you honestly believe that putting a Wal-mart there will make that area another Atlanta, Georgia??

Oops, you're right, I did mean Bob.  Sorry about that, Bob.  Again, Welcome to the Neighborhood!

 

Do I think Walmart will make our area like Atlanta?  No, of course not.  

I do think that there will be bumper to bumper traffic at many times on a street that I travel multiple times a day.  There will be accidents and injuries, property loss and road rage because of the situation.  Look at the area between Aldi & Lowe's.  It takes 5-10 minutes to travel a mile during peak times.  I avoid that area during those times.  I can't avoid the area where I live.  I have to travel this road to get home, to get to work, to go to the store, to go to church, to go to the bank or the doctor.  There is no back way to go around it since I'm right in the middle of the 3/4 mile stretch.  I realize, to some, it seems no big deal.  To those of us who live here, it's huge.  Yes, we want progress.  Yes, we want development.  We would just like some restrictions put on the development to make it residential friendly.  Why can't it be B-1 which would allow business and stores but not the type that have 100's of cars per hour.  Not the type that stays open 24 hours per day 364 days a year.  We just want some restrictions.  We did move into a neighborhood with restrictions.  We live by them and just wish others would have to do the same.

Our Proper Progandist left out most of the story, as he usually does.  Ben Franklin started voluntary fire departments, much like our present day ones.  Government wasn't involved.  He also spearheaded the desigh of fire proof and fire resistant buildings, all in the name of enlightened self interest.  Old Ben also founded one of the first fire insurance companies.  He had a vested interest in keeping the cost of fires down.  As to Ben's lending library, that was an outshoot of the Junto club, as was the firefighting companies.

 

 

Old Propie states conservative beliefs incorrectly, of course. Propaganda is his stock in trade.  Conservatives believe in keeping government responsibility to the lowest level possible.  If the republic was organized as originally designed defense, ensuring legal contract across state lines were followed, chasing criminals who go across state lines and international trade and relations would be the provenance of the federal government. 

 

Whether to have public healthcare, welfare, unemployment insurance, and all other such would be the provenance of the states, as laboratories of democracy.  Don't like what one state does, then move. Mistakes would be limited to that state and all would not suffer.

 

Police powers should be kept as local as possible -- keep city police and county sheriff control to the local areas. Limit state police to areas which cross county lines.  No national police, of course, but such entities as federal marshals, FBI and Secret Service limited in scope and powers to interstate crime. 

Contendah,

 

I rather sympathize with you about traffic and some small mindedness. However, I also remember when downtowns in Tuscumbia, Sheffield and Florence were so busy there were real parking problems.  I used to circle the block several times waiting for my mother to finish shopping as there were no spaces within several blocks and the spaces had meters.

 

I'm glad to see some signs of life in all three towns. 

 

There was a small international flavor, as well. TVA and the industries brought immigrants (legal) and visitors from all over the world.  A couple of older Italian men used to sit and drink coffee at the Sheffield Walgreens -- now closed and last a lady's dress shop,  I learned to use chop sticks at the Methodist church, a skill much used later in life.   

Does anyone remember the controversy that took place when Wal-mart in Florence was being planned? Much like it is now with the one y'all are discussing.

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Agree.

1.  Sidewalks don't roll up at Walmart, they are open 24 hours a day.

2.  Though I didn't finish my college degree at UNA, I have never had the desire to move away so I'm speaking for myself and not for anyone else.

3.  Yes, our income is lower per capita than many areas; our living expenses are as well.  Many highly desirable places to live are the same way.  I don't know of anyone in this area who wants to cap the income ability in our area.  But if the residents have no place to live, the industry want move here.  They have to have desirable housing for residents.  There are NO new construction homes available under $250,000 in the Florence Area. 

4.  Thankfully, awareness and stricter punishment has made the DUI issue much better than any of us ever thought possible.

5.  Obviously, the powers that be measure our city's growth by the number of Walmart stores in the area.  Makes absolutely no sense to me.  Households will only buy so many rolls of toilet paper and so many gallons of milk.  It's not like Walmart is offering something no one else sells.  If they did, I would be the first to say, it's all in the name of progress!

 

This large space would mean much more productive growth to our area as maybe a Providence type development or a ampitheater or something that would bring folks from other areas here to spend money.  Who is going to drive here to buy something from this Walmart that doesn't already drive 3.5 miles down the road?  I believe in progress. I believe in government.  I believe in sharing responsibility.  I believe in humanity.  I do NOT believe this development is in the best interest of anyone other than those exchanging money.  We all know that we must abide by the zoning requirements of any property that we own.  This property is currently zoned R-1, (Residential - single family dwellings).    It could easily be zoned R-2, (Multi-family dwellings, i.e., condos, apartments, townhomes, etc.) It could easily be zoned B-1 which includes businesses such as stores, offices, restaurants, etc.  B-2 is only required for the largest type commercial buildings.  The only thing more extreme is Industrial.  Does this really make sense?  Think about it.