The predatory strategy of Walmart is underway in Arvada and Wheat Ridge. The Walmart SuperCenter in Wheat Ridge at Youngfield and I-70 is closing July 7, 2017 -- permanently. Word has it that the Arvada Walmart Neighborhood Market at 64th Avenue and Indiana Street is also closing on July 7, 2017 -- permanently.
The Arvada city-government-subsidized Walmart being constructed at Ralston Road and Independence is supposed to open sometime in late summer 2017.
Arvada for All the People - Public Meeting
Saturday, March 18, 2017
12:30 PM
Arvada City Hall - Anne Campbell Room
(By Police Department entrance)
8101 Ralston Road
Guest Speaker: Brad Evans of Denver Fugly on the current state of architecture
and development in the Denver metro region.
Those considering running for city council in 2017 are especially encouraged to attend.
* * *
The Panama Papers scandal highlights how corporate welfare cheats working American taxpayers.
And ... the Arvada city council through Arvada urban renewal gave-up $6 million tax dollars so Walmart could build here.
Meanwhile ... our streets?
Walmart hid $76bn of assets in foreign tax havens, new study claims | The Guardian - June 17, 2015
Walmart hid $76bn of assets in tax havens across the world, including $64.2bn managed by 22 different subsidiaries in Luxembourg, where Walmart has no stores, according to a study published on Wednesday. ...
According to the report, since 2011 Walmart has transferred ownership of its stores in Brazil, Japan, Puerto Rico and South Africa to Luxembourg. It claims that Walmart’s Luxembourg operations paid less than 1% in tax on profits of more than $1.3bn between 2010 and 2013. ...
In Arvada the Urban Renewal Authority (AURA) is not about 'renewing' genuinely blighted and unmarketable sites ... it is about using the power of government and the dollars of taxpayers to make development deals. In Arvada, AURA is all about manipulation of the free market by government for the private profit of special developers; it is crony capitalism plain and simple.
And it is unaccountable government -- you have no voice in these deals -- all of the arrangements are made in secret Urban Renewal Authority meetings. By the time these deals get to the city council for final approval, the deal is done.
Arvada Urban Renewal has ceded $6 million in sales tax revenue for the Walmart Supercenter at Ralston and Independence; it made a sweetheart land deal with Hilton; it gave-up millions of dollars for the traffic-congesting-inducing Solana apartment complex at 57th Avenue and Wadsworth Bypass; it subsidized the ugly apartment building at Ralston and Wadsworth; it is planning to displace and/or drive out thriving small businesses in the Arvada Square; etc. etc. etc.
Littleton is moving in the direction of more free enterprise and more accountability for the citizens and residents. They've got the right idea.
Littleton to consider abolishing its urban renewal authority | Denver Post- April 4, 2016
The Littleton City Council will consider Tuesday whether to dismantle its beleaguered urban renewal authority after 36 years.
The authority, which saw its power severely restricted last year after residents passed a ballot measure requiring any urban renewal activity to first get approval of voters, oversees four areas that the city is trying to redevelop.
Those four plans would be abolished if the measure is passed.
It is up to $6,000,000 in Arvada government tax subsidies to put Walmart into the Arvada Plaza.
Of course, this comes as no surprise, Walmart is notorious for being a king of corporate welfare. Sadly, the Arvada city council and the Arvada Urban Renewal Authority have been only too happy to abet Walmart's sponging off the taxpayer.
Sadly, in Arvada, for the past several years the city government never required the owner of the Arvada Square property, IRG and Stuart Lichter, to maintain, repair, meet code, etc. on the property. The fix was in to insure that so-called "blight" stayed "blighted". The many locally-owned, taxpaying business in Arvada Square were contributors to the economy here. Now they are gone ... and unceremoniously brushed-off (you can still visit Mama Sannino's in Wheat Ridge).
We are about to see the city government and Arvada Urban Renewal try and to the same thing across the street in the Arvada Square: shove out productive, long-time businesses in favor of high density housing and urbanized retail.
And we are not going to be fooled by Urban Renewal and government propaganda -- Walmart still pays low wages. The Lakeside Walmart, for instance, is advertising hiring starting at $10.50 an hour; pay like that isn't going to come close to making the rent at PPOT (Park Place Olde Town -- the urban renewal project at Wadsworth and Ralston).
Walmart and Arvada Urban Renewal are not reflective of the genuine values and character of Arvada: we believe in free enterprise and competition and the entrepreneurial spirit; we believe in respecting local history and tradition; we believe in what is best about our city and uplifting it -- not trying to turn it into a clone of every other suburb that surrounds every other city in the country.
But Walmart and Arvada Urban Renewal beware -- the Supercenter will sink here in Arvada -- because We Won't Shop Arvada Walmart!
Wal-Mart Stores Inc. owns more than $76 billion of assets through a web of units in offshore tax havens around the world, though you wouldn’t know it from reading the giant retailer’s annual report.
A new study has found Wal-Mart has at least 78 offshore subsidiaries and branches, more than 30 created since 2009 and none mentioned in U.S. securities filings. Overseas operations have helped the company cut more than $3.5 billion off its income tax bills in the past six years, its annual reports show. ...
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