Please Introduce Yourself What's your connection to St. Paul public schools? mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] _________________________________________ Actually Dan, We spoke with the city councilperson representing the ward where the Home Depot was looking to build and pointed out that city policy in St. Paul required that companies recieving business from the city provide for nondiscrimination on the basis of race, sex, sexual orientation, etc.
At the time, Home Depot was subject of a national campaign to get the company to add sexual orientation to their nondiscrimination policy. Both current and former employees alleged that their was a definite need to address such discrimination within the company. Blakey staff stated that they would bring this argument against the development forward among other reasons to oppose the project. Other city council people were called about this issue. I did not say that the nondiscrimination issue was decisive. It did however play a role. Having a city ordinance that required that any companies recieving city business or subsidy of any notable size needed to provide domestic partnership benefits would disqualify Walmart from recieving such subsidy as Walmart does not offer domestic partnership benefits as Target, and many other retailers do. I am not saying this would be the reason such a project would be stopped cold as the company could always proceed without subsidy. However, this would provide another tool against undesireable developments such as Walmart. David Strand --- Dan Dobson <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > I don't want to argue with David Strand, but I > thought > the Home Depot at University and Lexington was > stopped > because community activists wanted affordable > housing > at that site, Home Depot wanted substantial city > concessions and the defeat was due to those factors, > and not due to Home Depot's sexual orientation > policies. > > Ordinarily, I am opposed to any city subsidies to > large corporations. But this is how I see this. At > the > time Home Depot wanted to build at University and > Lex, > I owned three apartment buildings. I was spending > between $250 and $1,000 a month on materials and > supplies at Home Depots in either Bloomington or > Maplewood. I had to drive further, was spending $ > outside the city and couldn't help St. Paul. > > Here it is now 4 or 5 years later and there is still > nothing on that site. Was that a victory? > > If a Home Depot were to be build there, that would > be > between 150 and 200 well paying jobs, close to the > heart of one of St. Paul's poorest neighborhoods. I > wouldn't be spending my hard earned dollars in > Bloomington or Maplewood, burning up gas to drive > there, but I would be spending my $ right in our own > neighborhood. > > I thought at that time that a Home Depot could be > built, with housing above it. I thought why not make > it, a win-win. > > But today, the site sits as an decaying eyesore, it > is > so bad, the owners have had to block off entrances > to > the parking lot, and this space is adding nothing to > the city tax base. > > I am not sure keeping Home Depot out was such a > great > "victory". > > Dan Dobson > Saint Paul > > ==================================================== > Date: Sat, 21 Feb 2004 13:03:15 -0800 (PST) > From: David Strand <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > > I know that a couple of years ago when Home Depot > wanted to build on University Avenue in St. Paul > using > a city subsidy to fund part of the expense, myself > and > numerous other Lavender Greens contacted city hall > and > reminded them that they had a policy that did not > allow such funding to go to companies that did not > include sexual orientation in their > nondiscrimination > policies. > > IT WORKED! > > It played a role in blocking the Home Depot > development project and eventually Home Depot added > sexual orientation to their nondiscrimination > policy. > > Home Depot and Wal-Mart have since added sexual > orientation to their policies. > > However, Wal-Mart does not offer domestic > partnership > benefits like Target and other retail companies > do(it's just yet another human cost factor in the > long > list). > > If St. Paul had a policy saying that city subsidies > would not go to companies that did not offer > domestic > partnership benefits and (name some other desireable > things for the community) then they could not > recieve > a subsidy to build. > > David Strand > > > __________________________________ > Do you Yahoo!? > Yahoo! Mail SpamGuard - Read only the mail you want. > http://antispam.yahoo.com/tools > _______________________________________________ > GPM mailing list > [EMAIL PROTECTED] > http://lists.mngreens.org/lists/listinfo/gpm __________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Mail SpamGuard - Read only the mail you want. http://antispam.yahoo.com/tools _____________________________________________ NEW ADDRESS FOR LIST: [EMAIL PROTECTED] To subscribe, modify subscription, or get your password - visit: http://www.mnforum.org/mailman/listinfo/stpaul Archive Address: http://www.mnforum.org/mailman/private/stpaul/ _____________________________________________ For state and national discussions see: http://e-democracy.org/discuss.html For external forums, see: http://e-democracy.org/mninteract
