On Sunday, the Sacramento Bee wrote with great bemusement: "Davis has become the only city in the nation to force Target to win ballot box approval before it can build."The crux of the article though is this statement towards the middle of the piece: "Davis' great Target debate is a little hard for some Sacramento politicians to relate to. Big box stores are so common here that another Target hardly merits attention."
And that is exactly at the heart of the debate--as they say, only in Davis is this such a big issue. Sacramento has tons and tons of Big Box stores. To some this is just a matter of Davis being a quirky, college town. Not surpringly, I disagree with this assessment. To me, I think cities like Sacramento have it wrong.
As I've suggested in several previous blog entries, there are many reasons to oppose stores like Target. We could start with the labor practices of Target itself, move to the sweat shops that produce its merchandise, and finish with environmental concerns. I do not understand why supposedly liberal Democratic politicians in Sacramento DO NOT CARE about these sorts of issues?
If we're talking about conservatives towns in rural American, I can understand it, but why do liberal politicians not care about these kinds of issues?
Twenty-five years ago when I was growing up, my family drove across the country first one way and then the other. Each city had its own little stores and flavor. Eight years ago as an adult I drove across the country with a friend and all of that had changed. You see the same stores in the "same" towns all across the country. Only the names of the towns change. The stores remain the same. And that's sad. Little mom and pop stores used to be the backbone of America, and now they are fighting for their lives against the big bad wolves in the form of Big Box Retail, Chain Restaurants, and other national chains that have sprung up everywhere. Davis is an Oasis from the monotony of chain stores. In ten years, we'll hardly recognize it at this rate. Bigger, better, faster, cheaper.
Hey, there was a good letter to the editor last night in the Davis Enterprise responding to Mr. Rifkin's column from last week.
Snap up some deodorant at LongsI guess we have to add deodorant to the socks and underwear list.
Regarding "Sweet-smelling reasons to vote yes," no wonder Rich Rifkin wants a Target in Davis. He doesn't know where he can buy deodorant. Please let him know they sell it at Longs Drugs, and it is pretty cheap!
Kelly Safford
Signed sockless in Davis...
---Doug Paul Davis reporting
