Well, the good news is that Staten Island is no longer faced with the possibility of Wal-Mart coming in and driving out local small businesses. The bad news is why Wal-Mart gave up and also that Wal-Mart is once again looking to Brooklyn.

In the past I wrote about strong, bipartisan opposition to Wal-Mart in Staten Island. Both Republican and Democratic politicians object to Wal-Mart's breaking laws, driving out small businesses, and general business practices that are anti-consumer, anti-community and anti-labor. But this rare bipartisan opposition may not have been the deciding factor.

According to the Sept. 6th Brooklyn Papers, Wal-Mart abandoned Staten Island because of the high cost of cleaning up toxic chemicals on the site it had been considering. Apparantly, Staten Island is just too polluted for Wal-Mart.

Staten Island's loss could be Brooklyn's gain...unfortunately. Strong opposition in both Queens and Brooklyn has so far prevented Wal-Mart from getting approval for opening in either of these boroughs. But now Wal-Mart is again courting Brooklyn, joining the Brooklyn Chamber of Commerce with a $1000 check. One hopes that Brooklyn's price is more than $1000! But the Chamber of Commerce does seem open to the idea, saying more "big-box retailers" should open up in Brooklyn. This is a bad sign for Brooklyn's small businesses and labor unions since many of these big-box stores (with the exception of Costco, which already has a store in Brooklyn) are anti-union and drive out small businesses.

Let's hope that their differences over Atlantic Yards won't drive a wedge between community and labor groups, the coalition that stopped Wal-Mart before. Sadly, Ratner has been doing a good job of turning unions against community groups and progressives, possibly endangering the anti-Wal-Mart coalition.