Chicago Still Fighting Wal-Mart

How stupid is this?

Big news in bad times: A major retailer wants to bring thousands of jobs to Chicago. But Wal-Mart's offer is running into the same roadblocks it hit several years ago. CBS 2 Chief Correspondent Jay Levine is asking whether it's a gift from heaven or a deal with the devil.

You'd think the city would be begging people like Wal-Mart to bring jobs to Chicago. Not putting up barriers. Well, think again.

There's quite a crowd on a rainy night at Chicago's only Wal-Mart; it's on the west side, built in one of the areas known as food deserts, where there are few other options for people.

"Now that it's here in our own community, we're hoping to keep the money inside the community," said Kendall Joseph.

More than 400 people work at Chicago's Wal-Mart, and are paid an average of $11.25 an hour. Success on the west side prompted Wal-Mart to propose another store, on the south side, in Alderman Howard Brookins' ward.

"The attorneys wrote the letter saying we would like to go to 83rd and Stewart last year in 2008," Ald. Brookins said.

The city said no.

The city's former Planning commissioner says Wal-Mart wasn't exactly turned down, just told to go back to City Council, where it lost a bruising battle years before. Wal-Mart went elsewhere. Now, it has sent feelers to the city about five new stores, which will cost $120 million to build, with union labor, and eventually creating 2,500 new retail jobs.

City labor leaders still say, "No, thanks."

You know why Chicago doesn't want a new Wal-Mart? Because they're not government jobs. In the world of Obama non-government jobs are not desirable.