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More underhanded tactics?

January 29, 2008

By KAREN VELIE

It could get ugly. Wal-Mart opponents will try tonight to derail Atascadero City Manager Wade McKinney’s plan to retain an “unbiased” consultant with unmistakable ties to the retail giant.

“I have no comment. You will have to talk to the city,” said Doug Svensson of Applied Development Economics when asked about his company’s alleged connections to Wal-Mart.

McKinney did not respond to UncoveredSLO.com’s requests for comment.

From Redding to Lodi, Red Bluff, Suisun, and Galt, the Walnut Creek-based consulting firm has given pro Wal-Mart testimony, provided pro-Wal-Mart economic and fiscal analysis, and generated numerous reports for Wal-Mart developers.


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By: Anonymous on 1/26/08

The Wal-Mart project in Atascadero won’t go to a county-wide vote because the land is within the city. The Dalidio land isn’t within the City of San Luis Obispo; it’s county land. The Dalidio project originally involved annexation into the city, but that was one of the parts that broke down.


As for Albertson’s and Vons… not the same comapny. Safeway does’t own Albertson’s, but does own Vons.

By: Anonymous on 1/25/08

I love the NIMBY attitude. Will Wal-Mart get to the point like SLO/Diadlio and go to a county vote? Who cares about that side of the “city” anyway? It isn’t the “fabulous’ West Side. Super center = competition… Lest we forget Vons and Albertsons are owned by the same company? Oh no, my meat won’t be from a 4-H project! Here’s an idea, let the free market decide. If Wal-mart TRULY isn’t welcome here, they will fail to make a profit. I still wonder who will STAFF a supercenter, How will they PAY? Will the pay justify living, gas and daycare for whomever is going to work there? ~Don’t like Wal-Mart, Don’t go, but don’t hold me back, I’m the guy already struggling to get by and keep my kids looking clean, I’d be glad to have the competition, hell, farmers markets arn’t any cheaper than Spencer’s, so I stopped going. I can’t get toilet paper at the farmers market. I can get kettle corn (??corn farmer??) but no “pads”. This whole county, not just SLO has a case of cranial-rectal inversion and it’s not funny anymore.

By: Anonymous on 1/25/08

It would be interesting to see UncoveredSLO apply some of its “truthful, bold, vital, cutting-edge reporting” to the water situation in Pismo Beach. But it will never happen; the staff here has some sort of Atascadero fetish. If “Atascadero News” wasn’t already taken, it would have been a more accurate name for this blog. There have been 11 entries posted, eight of which are about Atascadero. One is a Paso Robles story, one is recruiting sponsors and one, count it, one post concerns a story south of the grade, and even then it’s San Luis Obispo. I’d be surprised to see Blackburn or Velie venture south of See Canyon.

By: Anonymous on 1/24/08

Sounds like Atascadero City & Council subscribes to the same newspaper that the Pismo Beach City & Council do. When it comes to headlines “Water worries spur Pismo annexation denial” write the facts. Giving Pismo unlimited water supply to their water district and not really talking about how they turned down buying water from Oceano. Writing about the 60 senior homes which are mandated by Pismo general plan and never really talking about the 700 parcel that rely on that water supply show us as a community we need to have uncoveredSLO.com to help help protect our rights. Anybody can quoted what people say, but a real person gets the facts and tells the story. Guess it was cheaper to publish in the newspaper that they were switching to using the wells for their primary water source. The newspaper article also notes Arroyo Grande already is taking water from the aquifer. Can you guess why? The developers in Pismo are the same one’s that have their straw in Arroyo Grande from a development. Someone is making lots of money and staying in office because of these people and one day it will end…


By: Anonymous on 1/23/08

Well the TRUTH hurts and well we all must know it is only fair!!!!


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By: Anonymous on 1/23/08

Another $100,000 economic study for Atascadero. How many do they need? Just drive thru town and look at all of the empty buildings and then go to any other town and see how they flourish. What is wrong with staff that we pay $100’s of thousand dollars to? They certainly can recommend how to spend it. Why can’t they figure out how to earn it and advise the Council of same. What a waste. What will this current majority council say and or do if the consultant advises them that a big box store is right for Atascadero? That’s an easy one-$100,000 down the tubes.

Just anither Tuesday evening in Atascadero.

By: Anonymous on 1/23/08

I don’t work for the T-T. But is this site going to become another Democratic Underground, where any dissenting post is immediately deleted and the poster banned, per the rules at that site?

By: Anonymous on 1/22/08

It sounds to me likke Anon E. Muss is probably a Fibune reporter. He is dropping negative comments on all the articles he can find on this site. Hey, pal, take a hike and go read that crappy fishwrap. This web site is for people who want to know what’s really happening on the Central Coast.

By: Anonymous on 1/22/08

I’m posting this here because the story this is in regards to has nowhere to post a comment.


As for your accident story with Luna involved… how do you know? No one is cited in the article. Even if it does turn out to be true, that’s horrible journalism. Furthermore, how does it further complicate the Atascadero political landscape if he wasn’t hurt enough to need to go to the hospital? that would mean he’s still capable of doing his job.

By: Anonymous on 1/22/08

Everybody at City Hall lied about Wal Mart. Their excuse is that they never mentioned the name Wal Mart only that a large store was talking to the City. They were talking alright, all the way down from Mayor Luna thru the City Manager and the Planning Director and his assistant. No womder no business’s want to deal with this pack of coyotes and liars.

By: Anonymous on 1/22/08

Just another corrupt move on the part of McKinney. He also hired the consultant who recommended to the City Council that he should get a pay raise, which they gave him. The citizens of Atascadero are providing the City Council with a FREE study and/or survery-FIRE THE GUY he obviously no good for either side.

By: Anonymous on 1/22/08

Thanks for exposing a potential disaster for the current Visioning process the city and community are engaged in currently. Any economic development modeling should NOT be done by a firm that has been hired by a big box chain to do impact reports. For a fair and democratic process to work, the City Council and the Citizens must have a say which Consulting firm would represent the best interests of Atascadero.

By: Anonymous on 1/22/08

Thanks for the info. As usual the Tribune is in Wal-Marts corner and WM continues to hand over advertising $$. I think it’s time that the people organize a boycott and demonstration in front of the Tribune hdqr down in SLO. They are the most bias News paper in the county. As for Wade, I hope they fry him tonight.he just never learns.


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