29th Street Ballroom
Against Wal-Mart
RECEIVED Mon., Jan. 8, 2007
Dear Editor,
As a nearby resident (of Northwest Hills) and a frequent user of Anderson Lane businesses (at least three times/week), I strongly oppose allowing any kind of oversized big-box development at Northcross Mall. A Wal-Mart in that location would be disastrous to the many established, unique, and needed small businesses in the surrounding area. A Wal-Mart in that location would massively snarl traffic on a road ill-equipped for such volumes, discouraging anyone who wished to patronize the other small (and large) businesses. A Wal-Mart in that location would defeat the intent of Austinites to control our changing urban landscape as the city planners and citizens have demanded, rather than enhancing an already vital business corridor and community with pedestrian-friendly, planned urban/residential mixed-use development. The area would face the 24-hour nightmare of massive traffic jams, the vacated spaces where successful small businesses once fared, the nearby neighborhoods decimated by the congestion, traffic, noise, lights and even potential crime that a big box like Wal-Mart brings.
The planned Wal-Mart at Northcross Mall must be stopped cold, for the good of the community and businesses already well-established there, and in order to stop a dangerous precedent from taking hold in Austin. We don't need another big-box store like Wal-Mart. We need to support the small businesses that keep Austin weird and the communities and citizens that make Austin the attractive and livable city it is.
As a nearby resident (of Northwest Hills) and a frequent user of Anderson Lane businesses (at least three times/week), I strongly oppose allowing any kind of oversized big-box development at Northcross Mall. A Wal-Mart in that location would be disastrous to the many established, unique, and needed small businesses in the surrounding area. A Wal-Mart in that location would massively snarl traffic on a road ill-equipped for such volumes, discouraging anyone who wished to patronize the other small (and large) businesses. A Wal-Mart in that location would defeat the intent of Austinites to control our changing urban landscape as the city planners and citizens have demanded, rather than enhancing an already vital business corridor and community with pedestrian-friendly, planned urban/residential mixed-use development. The area would face the 24-hour nightmare of massive traffic jams, the vacated spaces where successful small businesses once fared, the nearby neighborhoods decimated by the congestion, traffic, noise, lights and even potential crime that a big box like Wal-Mart brings.
The planned Wal-Mart at Northcross Mall must be stopped cold, for the good of the community and businesses already well-established there, and in order to stop a dangerous precedent from taking hold in Austin. We don't need another big-box store like Wal-Mart. We need to support the small businesses that keep Austin weird and the communities and citizens that make Austin the attractive and livable city it is.
Jann Alexander