The Elk Grove Citizen

My wife recently subscribed to the Elk Grove Citizen, the local newspaper. And I like it a lot. Considering my contempt for the layout of this city and most of its citizens, it's nice to get another perspective on things around me. Now, I largely do not participate in our community. My son isn't into sports, I work outside the city (along with 90% of us), I'm not into quilting, I'm not a horseman, and I'm not terribly interested in Civil War Round Tables. For those who are, great. These are the sorts of things that bind people together, and create meaning in our relationships with others. For the moment, I don't participate, even while I blog about how little sense of community Elk Grove has.

What I like about the paper are the letters to the editor, which this week are all against the new WalMart coming to our burg at Bruceville and Whitelock. Hmmmm....I wonder why.

All the letters suggest, some overtly and others quite subtly, that property values around the store will drop. Of course, all the letter writers are from property owners near the store. Here's my letter I'll submit for next week's edition:

I am a Laguna Vista community resident, and am overjoyed that a new WalMart is coming to Elk Grove. I am, however, at a loss for words to describe my anger towards our city planning department. If I had known a WalMart was coming instead of the Target that was originally proposed, I would have bought closer. Property values in Laguna Vista will plummet because it's not near the only store turning a profit in our tough economy.

Even more disturbing is that this store is no longer considered for 24-hour operations. How will our busy service-sector residents find the time to shop at this outlet if they can't patronize the store at odd hours of the day? Doesn't the city realize that all our community jobs are in retail sales, and that people won't have time off to patronize the WalMart? Considering that all those delivery trucks will now have fewer hours to deliver the essential goods we need, Elk Grove residents may be forced into shopping alongside these trucks, creating unnecessary air pollution and congestion. Spreading out operations over 24 hours would also decrease crime as employees would be better able to monitor the goings-on in their parking lot.

But the proposed parking lot is undersized! I'm concerned for the safety of my twelve year old son around all that consumer vehicular traffic squeezed into just two and a half acres (105,000 sq ft). How will our residents navigate their Tahoes through that?

Fortunately our planners didn't have the audacity to place this store on the outskirts of the city; I'm thankful they put in on the inskirts so we don't have to drive too far for our weekly purchases. I just hope that someday our community could be better informed by our city planners of such important retail considerations before we decide where to live.

Sincerely,

Insania