August 15, 2006

BY FRAN SPIELMAN City Hall Reporter

A South Side alderman who voted for the controversial big-box ordinance said Monday she plans to change her vote if Mayor Daley flexes his veto muscle.

Ald. Shirley Coleman (16th) said she changed her mind about requiring retail stores with more than 90,000 square feet of space to pay their employees at least $10 an hour and $3 in benefits by 2010 after learning that Wal-Mart was seriously considering building a store in her impoverished ward.

The parcel reportedly under consideration by the nation's largest retailer is located at 61st and Halsted, down the street from the $254 million Kennedy-King College under construction in Englewood. A Wal-Mart store just two blocks away would turn the once desolate area into a bevy of activity -- and give crime-ridden Englewood two things it desperately needs: jobs and shopping choices, Coleman said.

"Unemployment is so high -- we desperately need the opportunity to have jobs," Coleman said Monday.

3 others considering change

Coleman's change of heart means Daley is halfway home toward picking up the two votes he needs to sustain his first-ever veto.

Two weeks ago, Ald. Danny Solis (25th), the mayor's most prominent Hispanic supporter and handpicked president pro tem, told the Sun-Times he would consider changing his vote if the mayor asked and made a compelling case. Two more aldermen made similar statements on Monday, raising the possibility that four could switch sides.

John Bisio, Wal-Mart's Midwest director of public affairs, acknowledged that Englewood was part of an ambitious expansion plan that called for as many as 20 new Chicago Wal-Marts over the next five years. ". . . But with the big-box ordinance having been voted through, all projects and all sites that had been presented to us are on hold."

On July 26, the City Council approved the big-box ordinance by a veto-proof vote of 35 to 14. Daley has until the next regularly scheduled Council meeting on Sept. 13 to sign or veto the ordinance.

Coleman is the first alderman to flatly declare her change of heart on an issue that threatens to alter the economic landscape in Chicago. But she almost certainly will not be the last. Ald. Ted Matlak (32nd) said Monday he's seriously considering changing sides. And Ald. George Cardenas (12th) also cracked the door open to changing his "aye" vote to "no."

Ald. Joe Moore (49th), chief sponsor of the big-box ordinance, acknowledged that some of his colleagues are wavering. But he said, "I'm definitely not ready to throw in the towel. There's a long time between now and" Sept. 13.

Daley has argued that "the future of the city of Chicago" is at stake if the big-box ordinance is allowed to stand.