By Dave Mazza

Local opposition to the world’s largest retailer continues to grow as Wal-Mart tries to move beyond its suburban base and into urban areas. Community groups organizing against the retail giant report no shortage of volunteers. Meanwhile, Portland’s outbreak of proposed Wal-Marts has attracted the attention of organized labor and national public interest groups like Wal-Mart Watch. What happens in Oregon, particularly within the Portland metropolitan area, could determine whether Wal-Mart’s new move will become its national strategy or a humiliating symbol of its hubris.

August brought good news for Wal-Mart opponents with the rejection of a Wal-Mart permit for Gresham. On Aug. 16, the city rejected the proposal for a supercenter at SE 182nd Ave. and Powell Blvd. One of busiest — and dangerous — intersections in the metropolitan area, the new store would have generated 1105 car trips per hour during peak shopping hours. That was too much for the Gresham City Council which determined the store would bring gridlock and increased accidents. Wal-Mart has the right to appeal the decision but gave no indication of its intent at the time of the council ruling.

The Sellwood-Ardenwald site drew more fire, too. Milwaukie Mayor Jim Bernard told Portland Mayor Tom Potter in a July 5 open letter that a Wal-Mart store at the proposed location “would drain the life out of our downtown core, just as Wal-Mart stores have done all across the country. Potter will not take a position on Wal-Mart until after the permitting process begins. He and other council members do not wish to disqualify themselves from the deliberative process as occurred with Commissioner Sam Adams. In accordance with the city charter, Adams’ open opposition to Wal-Mart means he will be barred from casting a vote should the matter come before the city council.

Milwaukie has been designated a “town center” by the Metropolitan Service District, the regional government responsible for among other things, urban planning. Town centers become the focus of industrial, commercial and residential development as a way to deter more sprawling development patterns in the metro area. The city has already filed a plan to that end. But as Mayor Bernard notes, building a Wal-Mart to the north of the town center will not just drain the life out of downtown Milwaukie, it will put pressure for more development in areas which the city and Metro wish to preserve for other uses.

Grassroots activists, meanwhile, find themselves being wooed by organized labor and public interest groups who wish to defeat Wal-Mart on a larger battlefield. The United Food and Commercial Workers have been lending support —from t-shirts to a reserved spot at the Oregon AFL-CIO Labor Day picnic — to Neighbors Against the Sellwood-Ardenwald Wal-Mart and the other local groups fighting Wal-Mart. Wal-Mart Watch, a project of the Center for Community and Corporate Ethics, is also meeting with local activists to encourage participation in a “week of action” sometime in the fall.

For residents of those neighborhoods falling under the Wal-Mart shadow, this attention can be disconcerting. While many residents may agree with the broader goals of these regional and national groups, some worry that the big picture may distract from the very localized work that needs to be done to defeat a specific permit proposal that will affect their homes.

But there is a growing understanding that Wal-Mart is a company that works on very long timelines and is willing to wait out the opposition if need be. For those residents, the need to fight this not just on a local level but on a regional and national level as well is becoming apparent. If a confluence of local, regional and national forces should occur, Wal-Mart could find its remarkable run of success coming to an end.

Dave Mazza is the editor of The Portland Alliance.