Help neighborhoods

I live in the Southgate neighborhood, where for years we have fought Wal-Mart and big-box stores from coming in.

The reasons for not wanting Wal-Mart included the impact on local business. Study after study shows that when Wal-Mart comes to town, hardware stores, clothing stores, grocery stores and other businesses fold. And we had concerns about their treatment of workers and the environment, on which they have a very poor record.

We were also worried about how such large developments would impact our property values and especially our traffic and stormwater drainage issues.

So we got involved to protect our neighborhood – testifying at hearings, going to meetings, signing petitions and so forth.

But what we learned was that our neighborhood did not possess the decision-making authority to stop a development like Wal-Mart from coming in. We could testify all we wanted and send as many letters as we could write, but it didn’t change the fact that we simply didn’t have the power to say “no.”

Proposition 1 would change that. It would give neighborhood residents the ability to decide which major developments would be right for their neighborhood.

When your ballot arrives, vote yes on Prop 1.

Ginger Patano

Spokane