The Way I See It!

Okay. Yeah!

Posted by Randy Hollenbeck on June 25, 2009

Cudahy, Blogging, Wal-Mart

Well as I said before, Zach would run to his blog to a quick write something.  So many holes and ignorance in his posts.  So many things just plain wrong!  Literacy does not guarantee comprehension.

There is a lot of information that needs to be disseminated from Zach’s latest post.  So let us look at it.  My comments are in blue and I have included dates to quotes of older blogs I did in red that also pertain to the subject at hand.

Zach: “Instead of a Wal-Mart, why not strive for something better?”

Gasp!  Again, what?  I have been asking Mr. Zach Wisniewski from South Milwaukee for an answer, not just a regurgitation of what Mayor McCue has said.  As expected though, Zach doesn’t have an answer.  In fact, so far none of the anti-Wal-Mart people do!  It would be nice if they had a slew of ideas, but I am just asking for one realistic answer!  Yet again, we ask a simple question “What is your ‘better’?”

Zach: “It’s safe to say Randy Hollenbeck loves him some Wal-Mart.”

Do notice how he talks down to me (loves him some Wal-Mart) like I am some sort of hick.  No, I have said I don’t love Wal-Mart, I would have liked to have had a Target, but remember they didn’t want to come when they were asked two years ago.

2-22-09 Make Wal-Mart pay.  Soak them, but get them on the land.  Push them to make the store something special.  Push them to give the city some land.  Push them around.  Bully them and it will make the people happy including the 10% of those that don’t want Wal-Mart here and just want to see them suffer.  But get Wal-Mart on that land.  There is no other site.  Make Wal-Mart build a bigger store.  Force the issue.  Make them accountable!  But for God’s sake, listen to what the people want for a change, not what some committees want or the Mayor doesn't personally want.  This IS what the people of Cudahy want and need.  We need this economic boost.  Cudahy is dieing a slow economic death.  Breathe life back into it.  Have the CDA perform CPR on Cudahy by allowing this Wal-Mart to go forward.  Don’t let something cloud your judgment like McCue has!  Don’t sentence Cudahy to death, revive it!

6-1-08 Yes.  I would rather have Wal-Mart to save money, more money then Target.  Yes, I would have been happy if it were Target as well.  I don’t love Wal-Mart.  I am a supporter, but to say I “love Wal-Mart” is not correct.

6-15-08 I will state this again for those who choose to not understand or if it was my fault for not making it clear.  I don’t love Wal-Mart, I like to shop there and would have fought just as tough, hard, and loud if it was a Target, Kohl’s, Costco, K-Mart (of course people then would have said I was biased for working at K-Mart) or any big box store.  I think having a big box store in that area which is NOT downtown was fine and is fine.  It is not as if there will be row after row of big box stores.  I have asked many people to define where Cudahy’s downtown was and is and never received a good description.

Zach:  “It seems every chance he gets, he’s blogging about how great Wal-Mart would be for Cudahy, as if Wal-Mart is the end all, be all when it comes to spurring business growth in Cudahy. “

This is funny since I keep saying just the opposite that Wal-Mart is not the end all be all and Zach either cannot read or is choosing not to read it.

6-23-09 Wal-Mart is not and was not the single answer to Cudahy’s problems.  It was and is a spoke in the wheel.  The first thing is that anyone expecting to be some kind of magic bullet has probably got it wrong.

6-15-08 While Wal-Mart is not everything or all things, it is something.

5-7-08Wal-Mart was not a silver bullet, but a piece of the puzzle to recovery.

Zach:  “Randy thinks Wal-Mart would be a catalyst for new business development in Cudahy.”

Yes, I do and so do many other people.

6-1-08 In Pewaukee, a Kohl’s grocery store was built with additional space for several small retail shops.  Only a couple of those small shops were filled and after a couple years, then Kohl’s groceries were gone.  Pick-n-Save took over that store and still only a couple small shops. 

Then a Wal-Mart was coming!  The small shops began to get occupants as new proprietors banked their success on the Wal-Mart traffic!  An out-lot building was put up for a nice coffee shop and other businesses.  Then the Wal-Mart hate crew showed up and almost put these small businesses out of business.  The “I don’t like Wal-Mart – so you should not have a Wal-Mart” people held up the new store so long, it almost bankrupt at least one store owner that I personally know, others did not make it, likely for the same reason. 

The Wal-Mart is in and the shops are full or almost full.  More strip malls and restaurants keep popping up.  Now an office supply store and large Rec-Room store and Bw3 are a couple blocks away.  Pewaukee is thriving! 

Do you want to know about Delafield at HY83 and I94?  How about Onalaska near Lacrosse or the 2-3 year old store on the south side of LaCrosse, or I94 exit 89 at the Dells.  These are stores that I frequent and have seen the businesses boom around.  Wal-Mart is good for business and the community and Muskego. 

So many of you have said show me a thriving community, the proof is all around us. 

Just look around Germantown, Delafield, Pewaukee, West Bend, Mukwonago, and the list goes on.  As long as you look at the suburb Wal-Mart’s and not the ones in Milwaukee, you will see how well Wal-Mart can work.  Would you call those place dirty non-upscale cities?  I would feel safe living in any of those just as I do in Cudahy.

Zach:  “…but I’m wondering if the folks in Hastings, Minnesota felt the same way until Wal-Mart abandoned its store in that town, leaving an empty shell (and a big one at that):

In Hastings, Wal-Mart moved on to a newer part of town four years ago, turning its old strip mall hub into a “ghost village,” according to mayoral candidate Anthony Price, who lives nearby.”

Again, Zach must not be able to read as in the business agreement this was going to be taken care of.  Wal-Mart would either put money aside to remove the building or find a new tenant for the building.  Zach resorts to scare tactics.

6-2-08 Razing fees for big box stores is something that I brought up at the first Master Plan meeting and is something that should be hammered in to any big deal.  Don’t get me wrong, I want the Wal-Mart in Cudahy, but it needs to be a nice looking store and has to have the right conditions on it.  I think putting in a clause that will either force Wal-Mart to find a new tenant in reasonable defined time or include something, which assesses developers a fee that can be used for demolition if needed, as counterproductive to attracting new business, is needed.

We need to protect the city from unneeded and unsightly vacant sites, so-called ghost boxes, the remains of what are often big box stores left vacant when retailers downsize, relocate or go out of business.

Zach:  “I’ve always believed Cudahy could do better than a Wal-Mart for the abandoned IcePort site,…”

Again, what?  We are still waiting!

Zach:  “…and I’ve never been a believer that the only way to promote business development in the “downtown” part of Cudahy was to bring a Wal-Mart to the IcePort site.”

The Iceport site is not downtown!  Ask the businesses around the site if it is downtown and if they want the Wal-Mart!

Zach:  “In fact, good businesses are already starting to come to Cudahy, as the owners of the Rosebud Cinema have announced plans to convert the vacant Kohl’s food store to a four-screen cinema with sit-down dining.”

Good businesses?  He cites one!  Yes, it has taken 10 years for the site to get someone that wants it.  I am glad they are coming.

Zach:  “I know it’s hard to be patient, but I’ve always been a believer in the notion that good things come to those who wait, and perhaps a little patience is in order when it comes to the IcePort site. Don’t settle for the first proposal that comes your way; instead wait for the right proposal”.

I rationalized this insane behavior by telling myself that at the end of this rainbow I would find a huge pot of gold that just fits.  What if the right proposal is the first one?  It took 10 years and the Rosebud Cinema is the first one to want the building besides the post office thinking of moving.  10 years!!  Wal-Mart was not the first retail asked, but the seventh one.  Zach must not want to remind people of that. 

Zach:  “Wait for something Cudahy can be proud of.”

Cudahy would be just fine with Wal-Mart.  The citizens that is!  Maybe not the elitists and city officials’ hell bent on a personal hatred for Wal-Mart. 

Anti-intellectuals are always demonstrating how desperately they need to invent their own demons to throw stones at.