City policy on stores makes little sense

E-Mail

Text Size:

tool goes here

Recently the Bellingham City Council allowed Costco and Wal-Mart to expand by 2,000 square feet each, while maintaining its ban on big box stores. Although I live within walking distance of these stores, I have never shopped at Costco and I can hardly be called a Wal-Mart regular. Nevertheless, I remain perplexed by the city’s stand.

How can our government pontificate on the sinfulness of Costco and Wal-Mart, while at the same time allowing rampant growth to continue unabated around those stores?

In what amounts to a horse laugh at all concerned, within days of the council’s decision, bulldozers obliterated acres of woodland directly across the street from Wal-Mart and just north of Costco.

In their high-minded moral stance against big box stores, our leaders seem unable to comprehend that pints and quarts equal gallons.

If our city is sincere about sustainable growth, shouldn’t our leaders cast a critical eye, not merely at the expansion of old stores, but at the creation of new ones? Their current policy leaves us only sustainable confusion.

Norbert Petsch Bellingham

Recent Stories