1. Register yourself.

2. In the right column, a new menu will appear, with an item in it "create content". Click on that.

3. On the page that appears, click on "personal blog entry."

4. Write your test story, and hit "preview".

5. If it looks okay, scroll all the way to the bottom, and click on "submit."

Senate Bill 1056 is State Senator Richard Alarcon's big-box legislation. (It passed from the Assembly on August 16th. Judy Chu voted "aye" on it.)

The proposed law mandates that a "big-box" retailer (not just Wal-Mart) must prepare an study of the economic impacts of a project on the local economy, and that this report be open to public comment. Click on that link above for more details.

This is another article that's not an SOC opinion, by a long shot. (These blog entries I write are not SOC, they're me.)

There were people on both sides at the Planning Commission hearing night who expressed some, let's say, distate, for Asian malls. On the PRIDE side, one person griped about the old Ole's site and having to smell food, another made some veiled remarks about how there were no protests as businesses like Ole's, Target, and Builder's Square became converted into Asian malls. I don't think anyone in SOC said anything about them, but privately, there are some who don't find them that inviting.

The meeting structure that the city has proposed is biased to favor Wal-Mart.

The normal way to have a hearing is to have every person go up and say their issue. There are no "sides", just individuals stating their issues to their representatives.

The proposed structure is to have a 30 minute period for "SOC", a 30 minute period for "Wal-Mart/PRIDE", and then open it up to other speakers. This will give the false impression that SOC is the same size as PRIDE. SOC is larger than PRIDE.

This is taken from the August 13th SGV Tribune, the Opinion page. My opinon follows, in the comments.

Supervisor offsides

SUPERVISOR Gloria Molina showed up in the San Gabriel Valley last week. She wasn't here on a county business -- to apologize, say, for her role in the county seal debacle. No, on one of her infrequent stops in the region, she came to interfere in the redevelopment plans of a local city.

Big Box Retailer

A large store around 200,000 sq ft with a lot of departments. Imagine the old Gemco or Fedco on steroids, or Home Depot sized Target crossed with a supermarket. There's a big Albertsons in, I think, West Covina, that might qualify. A Big Box is like the old idea of the "city center" where shopping is concentrated, except in this situation, Wal-Mart owns almost all of the businesses, and is the landlord.

The proponents of Wal-Mart in Rosemead keep bandying some $500,000 in sales tax revenue that's supposed to result from building the store. If that money is so important, why not levy a simple utility tax to raise the money? People shouldn't rely on an unreliable retailer to be the "tax collector."

I calculated that if houses were taxed to raise that mythical sum, the burden would be around $35 annually, per house in Rosemead, more or less. That's guaranteed new revenues. In contrast, the Wal-Mart revenues will come from recapturing revenues lost to other cities, but also by cannibalizing the existing market. That's not new revenues. That's blight.

The Costco in La Habra has been stalled for 18 months. Residents cite traffic as their main issue. They filed a lawsuit, and according to the judge, the issue of shortcuts is relevant. I note this because Applied Planning dismissed my assertion that shortcuts were overlooked in the traffic study.

After City Council members approved the Costco project last year, residents sued. In November 2003, Orange County Superior Court Judge Steven Sundvold ruled that the city needed to do some more environmental review.