Posted: 3:03 pm Friday, Sep. 12, 2008
Council race was also a vote on Wal-Mart
In light of alleged influence peddling by planning commissioner, councilman proposes regulating planners’ talks with city staff
Comments (0) | 
E-Mail
Print
tool name
close
Someone asked me several weeks ago who would win the three seats on the Atascadero City Council.
I replied that I thought Tom O’Malley was a sure thing and the other two depended on how voters felt about getting a mega Wal-Mart in their city.
If you opposed it, you’d vote for Ellen Beraud and Mike Brennler. If you wanted it, you’d cast your votes for Bob Kelley and "Grigger" Jones. O’Malley was my constant.
My gut feeling is that there is a lot more unhappiness over the potential for a huge Wal-Mart in Atascadero than civic leaders believe there to be. Based on what I was hearing at club meetings and social events, I felt there would be a major change in the complexion of the City Council.
I said repeatedly that the municipal election for 2006 would be a referendum on Wal-Mart.
And so it was.
Last April, when word surfaced there was the possibility of a Wal-Mart Supercenter coming to Atascadero, the council asked residents to let them know how they felt about a major retail center at El Camino Real and Del Rio Road.
We were assured that Wal-Mart hadn’t been locked in to that potential commercial development. But that seemed to become the force around which everyone focused. Such fears were justified when, by July, front-page headlines announced that Wal-Mart had indeed purchased 26 acres at the much-talked-about corner.
So now city leaders have their answer.
A slow-growth council under soon-to-be-mayor George Luna and with support from Beraud and Brennler will indeed present a much different face to any future retail and residential development in the city.
It isn’t good or bad, only different from what we’ve had for the past dozen years.
George, Ellen and Mike will have to deal with what to do about lagging retail sales and mounting needs for additional revenue. But I’m still not convinced we’re in the dire financial straits that we were presented with last spring.
What I have observed, as I said last April, is that local residents appear to be satisfied with what Atascadero has become, except for a desire to clean it up, enforce its ordinances and preserve its oaks and hillsides.
It seems there has been a general satisfaction since the 1920s with us being a bedroom community. If not, there wouldn’t be the instant contentiousness every time plans have been put forward to enhance our industrial and/or commercial makeup.
There is the argument that only a little more than half of those registered to vote had a say in changing the makeup of the Atascadero City Council.
But that’s the best yardstick we have. Besides, I generally believe that those who fail to vote don’t deserve a say in things anyway.
And I predict that down the line, a Wal-Mart for Atascadero will be a ballot issue.
Lon Allan has lived in Atascadero for nearly four decades. He can be reached at leallan@tcsn.net.
Go to sanluisobispo.com to post a comment on this column.
What you should know about comments on SanLuisObispo.com
SanLuisObispo.com is happy to provide a forum for reader interaction, discussion, feedback and reaction to our stories. However, we reserve the right to delete inappropriate comments or ban users who can't play nice. See our full terms of service here.
Here are some rules of the road:
- Keep your comments civil. Don't insult one another or the subjects of our articles. If you think a comment violates our guidelines click the "report abuse" button. Responding to the comment will only encourage bad behavior.
- Don't use profanities, vulgarities or hate speech. This is a general interest news site. Sometimes, there are children present. Don't say anything in a way you wouldn't want your own child to hear.
- Do not attack other users; focus your comments on issues, not individuals.
- Stay on topic. Only post comments relevant to the article at hand. If you want to discuss an issue with a specific user, click on his profile name and leave him a public message.
- Do not copy and paste outside material into the comment box.
- Don't repeat the same comment over and over. We heard you the first time.
- Do not use the commenting system for advertising. That's spam and it isn't allowed.
- Don't use all capital letters. That's akin to yelling and not appreciated by the audience.
You should also know that The Tribune does not screen comments before they are posted. You are more likely to see inappropriate comments before our staff does, so we ask that you click the "report abuse" button to submit those comments for moderator review. You also may notify us via email at webmaster@sanluisobispo.com. Note the headline on which the comment is made and tell us the profile name of the user who made the comment. Remember, comment moderation is subjective. You may find some material objectionable that we won't and vice versa.
If you submit a comment, the username of your account will appear along with it. Users cannot remove their own comments once they have submitted them, but you may ask our staff to retract one of your comments by sending an email to webmaster@sanluisobispo.com. Again, make sure you note the headline on which the comment is made and tell us your profile name.
About comments
Reader comments on SanLuisObispo.com are the opinions of the writer, not The Tribune. If you see an objectionable comment, click the "report abuse" button below it. We will delete comments containing inappropriate links, obscenities, hate speech, and personal attacks. Flagrant or repeat violators will be banned. See more about comments here.