The drumbeat of “news” around Wal-Mart’s entry into Chicago’s retail market continued yesterday, as the local media continued to print Wal-Mart’s press release promising jobs city-wide and wages that start at 50 cents above the minimum wage. And Mayor Daley demanded answers from labor leaders in Chicago for their opposition to the mega-retailer’s urban expansion. “They’re up to the highest point that no other retailer pays at the beginning salary. And they don’t pay that in the suburban area. No other retailer has gone that far,” Daley said, before launching into a tirade that Fran Spielman noted hinted at playing the race card, as the mayor did four years ago when he vetoed the so-called big-box ordinance.

“Why is it only in the African-American and Hispanic [neighborhoods of Chicago] that you cannot build a Wal-Mart? We built one on the West Side and no one complains about it. Those people who work there don’t complain. Those ex-offenders don’t complain. … That’s sales tax for us [for] public transportation, schools and parks,” he said. “If it’s built in a suburb, there’s not one controversy. Not one controversy dealing with the development. And why is it now there’s a controversy? It’s in the African-American community. You ask me.”

via Daley’s Wal-Mart Drama Continues – Chicagoist.

Wal-Mart like most chain stores when they come into a neighborhood do more harm than good. Greg LeRoy has written all about this. Also, there is controversy when a Wal-Mart is built in suburbs all over America. People have stood up and fought back. There are people in Manhattan still fighting the entry of Wal-Mart into that borough. Lastly fifty cents above the minimum wage is not a living wage. Besides the sales tax revenue is Wal-Mart going to pay any other type of corporate taxes or is the city of Chicago giving them a break on those?