The Fresh n Easy Neighborhood Market is a market without a neighborhood while the neighborhood is left without a market.

I mean, everybody lies ONCE in a while, don't they?

Yuk, obviously the .org group is the usual pure in-the-gutter public union activists who fill this PW site. Aside from the logical need to replace Nob Hill grocery with a neighborhood grocery, on principle, every freedom loving resident should be piling on each and every council member to not create phony sanctions intended to uniquely single out the WalMart grocery with politically motivated crap. How unethical, (as if that matters to this group). They better think very carefully before unfairly targeting to satisfy political activists, ignoring their duty to the needs of Pleasanton residents.

Yuk, indeed. Walmart is a person too. And we're seeing full-fledged persecution of this person as victim. Typical union bullying tactics. Freedom is being a corporation that can act with impunity without fear of persecution from unionized shelf stockers. Gawd, what is this country coming to? Didn't our founding fathers fight for the little guy like Wally from Wallyworld? P-towners, unite as individuals, save Wally from the envious union tyrants.

Sad how slime keeps oozing in on the pages of PW

I mean golly gee whiz, the only thing we can do is make the corrupt politicians in this town think very carefully about acquiescing to the activist union slime tyrants who want nothing more than to persecute little guys like Wally. Walmart made this country great. P-town residents have a right to buy from Walmart if they want to. Any attempts to unduly restrict that right as found in the US Constitution will be called what it is: yukky-yukky sad slime. BTW, I'm against unions. They're unpatriotic and a violation of the Declaration of Independence's doctrine against individuals being able to organize for purposes of collective bargaining. That's collectivist communism. This is what happens when we have a socialist president.

Mittens, this is paraphrased from another exchange I participated in:

"The professor of constitutional law at Harvard points out that part of free speech is knowing who is doing the speaking, effectively stating that there is a complete lack of transparency as a result of Citizens United and similar rulings. By the way, to be clear, Citizens United allows that corporations can shift money to dummy corps, and make them the donors, concealing the true speaker on purpose. This is your government at work. I would caution against protecting the rights of 'people' deliberately hiding their activities from you."

Agree or disagree, but, see, this is what a reasoned discussion looks like. Try it, maybe someone will actually be interested in what you have to say, or heaven forbid, even agree.

I totally agree with Lance M. The "organization," who is unnamed, is grossly distorting the facts. The Wal-Mart neighborhood grocery stores are very nice, well-maintained and would be a welcome addition over the empty spot that exists now. How nice for the surrounding neighborhood to have a walkable, nice grocery with reasonable prices. The hysteria over "another Wal-Mart" is blown way out of proportion. Makes you wonder what their real motivation is.

Lance/Thanks for pointing out what should be readily apparent to any rational thinking person. As a neighbor of the site in question I totally welcome the Wal-Mart Market and look forward to its opening!

Citizens united does not belong in a discussion of having a grocery store in an existing grocery store space. Citizens united simply allows corps to spend like unions spend. Currently UNIONS BUY every election from council, mayor, supervisor, legislator, congressman, governor, and president. NOW, back to this CURRENT topic being driven by the anti-American unions, who fight 24/7 against the FREE market. Unions want to run a rigged market-place, and whack-a-mole anything non-union. There is no reason for council to even blink or change city procedures to prevent WalMart from using the space the same as before, as is normally done. Such a tactic would be highly unethical, followed by costly legal steps,further depriving the neighborhood from having their grocery again,same as before.

Anti, It was a response to Mittens and the notion of corporations being people. I'm not against the Wal-Mart grocery store, and would have been happy to have them in the Vintage Hills shopping center that has been empty for years.

Wasn't Jennifer Hosterman the one behind making sure everything gets approved automatically? At least, that is what is on her website:

• We streamlined permitting and improved communication by reorganizing the Public Works, Planning and Building departments into a single department

So now there are mailers from some union organization and Democratic buddies that previously endorsed Jennifer Hosterman (Miss Approve Everything, Don't Ask Any Questions, and By The Way, Can't Wait for That Big Check in the Mail for Jennifer Hosterman for Assembly/Senate/Congress/fill in blank) and now they want there to actually be a public process?

Hey even if there WAS a public process, don't the plng commission unanimously approve everything and the city council vote yes on anything on everything (usually a 3-2 vote) ANYWAY?

That's because of Jennifer Hosterman, the person you unions endorsed.

Well, goodness sakes, if the Supreme Court rules in favor of Citizens United, then Walmart can act just like any other person. It is hideously perverse to pick on them. Wally should be able to contribute as much as he wants to without other "union-endorsed" citizens bullying on him. If Wally wants to buy an election, that's his prerogative by golly. If he wants to hide behind a Superpac's lies, well, heck, everybody lies a LITTLE bit. Now with these unethical unions and their bought off socialist Democrats, that's another issue. They're not persons, they're sleezeball thugs who want to take down our great nation. Can't you just feel the ooze? Ugh! I hope P-towners, plutonians and plutocrats one and all, will stand shoulder to shoulder with all my fellow American rational contributors to this site. Liberate Wally!

Kathleen, your statement about being happy to have a Wal-Mart store in the Vintage Hills shopping center... does that mean, without a public review process? Just trying to understand the context of your statement. Example: there are what? maybe 6-? businesses within Vintage Hills and 26 or more businesses at Meadow Plaza. At least 3 primary ways into and leaving Vintage Hills shopping center... Meadow Plaza has 2 primary ways in...one way out, in relationship to many of those current businesses, at the former Nob Hill. Just for the sake of argument, no agenda on my part, I figure it was meant to mean, what was convienant for you living in Vintage Hills, if the numbers worked out, with a public review.

Hmmmm. I just looked at the "ourpleasanton.org" site. I find it very interesting that although there is absolutely no information on who actually claims this site, if you look at the "Four Easy ways to Get Involved" page you'll notice that the "Around Dublin Blog", posted by John Zukoski, is listed as a point of contact for letters against the Walmart grocery store.

In 2008 Mr. Zukowski ran for the Dublin City Council, which means he was a resident of Dublin. Web Link

From all the hits I received when I “googled” him, it looks like he still lives in Dublin. I wondered why someone living in Dublin has taken such an interest in a Pleasanton neighborhood market, so I searched a little deeper.

In his 2008 voter profile information Mr. Zukowski noted that one of his priorities, if elected, was to “Implement local business growth strategy plan”. That would, of course, be for Dublin. Safeway has that big store just across the I580 that I’m sure many Pleasantonians shop at. I know I have.

Gee, do you think Mr. Zukowski could possibly be tanking competition for a store that he thinks could impact the Dublin Safeway’s profits?? I wonder if Mr. Zukowski is running for office again this year??

I live in the impacted neighborhood, and, as a retiree on a fixed income, I welcome having a Walmart Grocery Store close by in the old Nob Hill space.

I agree with “Missing the Store” above: “The hysteria over "another Wal-Mart" is [absolutely!] blown way out of proportion.” I will certainly be contacting the Pleasanton City Council (not Dublin, and certainly not Mr. Zukowski!) to give my support to a planning process that will allow the new Walmart Grocery Store to be built in *my* neighborhood.

Land o goshen, progress is progress. If local businesses in the area get outclassed by Walmart, they can do something else. It's what America and Switzerland and the Caymans are all about! Freedom of choice.

Billie, I think ourpleasanton.org that they are just posting excerpts from the AroundDublinBlog which has news stories about lots of issues.

I can't tell who ourpleasanton.org is registered to. In our neighborhood, though it is rumored that ourpleasanton.org is run by the people who were behind the "Do NOT Sign Petition" group trying to stop signature gathering efforts and the people who were pushing Stoneridge Drive to be extended and Oak Grove to be approved.

I'll bet you that the tyranical Safeway unionized shelf-stockers and check-out girls are behind this. Anybody want to bet $10,000.00? They've been persecuting this community for years. We need to start at the top and work down. First we need to remove this socialist president. Then we go after the city council.

The people that are rumored to be behind the Stopping Walmart mailers are pictured here: Web Link

You'll see that Shawn Wilson is from San Leandro which might explain the latest mailer referencing San Leandro. The mailing address for this place is San Leandro but the PO address is in Pleasanton, which would make sense.

444 Estudillo Avenue
Suite E
San Leandro, CA 94577

P.O. Box 442
Pleasanton, CA 94566

Angela Ramirez Holmes is listed as being part of the PTA and PPIE (the people currently doing fund raising for the school district). She is a representative for PPIE.

Royce Kelley is from the Democratic Party.

The Pleasanton Weekly should contact these people on this website at info@alliancecampaigns.com or (925) 264-8164 and ask if they are the people doing all of these mailers.

So Glenn, Jeb, and Gina, why not do an actual story about who exactly is behind these Anti-Walmart mailers? I can't wait to read it!

Parent,
Thanks for the info! I strongly second your request that the PW investigate and report out on this anonymous group.

Oh, and BTW, Mr. Zukowski is one of the co-founders of the "Around Dublin Blog" and is currently listed as the publisher. Web Link

From his bio: "John M. Zukoski is the publisher of the Around Dublin Blog. He works at Robert Half International and lives in Dublin. As an active member of the Dublin Rotary Club, John dedicates his free time to community service and helping others help themselves. John is also one of the founders of Tassajara Prep and a board member of Shakespeare’s Associates."

Billie, yes you are correct. There is some relation, but not exactly through the Dublin Blog authors.

[Also it seems as if "Mittens" has been silenced for a while]

OurPleasanton is very similar to the original "Pleasanton First" (wanted to put Stoneridge through, develop Staples ranch, and violate the dead end Stoneridge MOU signed by the city of Dublin and Alameda County to extend it right away)

Why do that? So that then all the open space land in Doolan Canyon btwn Livermore and Dublin could be developed, violating the MOU btwn Dublin and Livermore to keep Doolan Canyon open space. You might have read about that in the papers.

The people in the weblink above are also the people behind the fake Measure QQ Yes on QQ campaign (what the Contra Costa times called the "sleazy city council attempt to confuse the voters") so that the people would vote for initiative instead of the real citizen's initiative Measure PP that provided ridgeline preservation.

They also were behind Jennifer Hosterman's 2008 re-election campaign, and an earlier Cheryl Cook-Kallio campaign. Here is who they work for Web Link

They usually work for people like Charter Properties and Greenbriar developers.

If you saw pictures or video of the May Day parade in Los Angeles you saw that the Democratic Party, the labor unions, the Communist Party, and illegal aliens are linked at the hip. All four entities want to end capitalism and replace it with an autocratic society in which a small group of elites rule the masses of peons. Why? Power (Democrat Party, Communist Parties, union bosses) and ignorance (leftist union members and illegals). Think about that before you vote for Democrats in the 2012 election.

Show up and raise holy h*ll at City Council meetings when the Three Stooges and Matt Campbell (all left wing loons bankrolled by unions) try to come up with an (unlawful) reason to stop the Wal-Mart store.

Couldn't have said it better myself! You rock Robbie! Heavens to Betsy, I moved here from Mississippi because I wanted to live in a free and segregated community and Pleasanton is the closest thing there is to Mississippi. In ol' Mississipp, we've pretty much cleaned out the Democrats and the Communists. This still needs to be done in Pleasanton.

BTW, kudos to Rockin' Robbie for being able to tell from photographs whether people are illegal or not, unionized or not. I guess if its black or brown its illegal or union! Hey, sakes alive, how about that as a motto for P-Town?

Now that I read Rockin Robbie's post, I will sleep beter tonight.

LOL!

Back to the topic of these mailers distorting facts (aka telling lies).

Here is what the mailer says ("The city of Brentwood recently passed a CUP...")

The fact is that this has nothing to do with Walmart grocery stores, but they did pass something that said that ALL retailers, regardless of who it is, of than 75,000 square feet get a public review.

The Nob Hill is a lot smaller than 75,000 sq ft.

mittens/jane/slippers---what clued Robbie into the fact that the dirtbags in the photos were illegal was the Mexican flags they were carrying and the banners for La Raza, which advocates turning our state into mexifornia. Of course, you knew all this, but couldn't help making insinuations and race baiting.
Don't bother replying, I'm going back to work.....I wish you luck in finding a job. It'll give everyone on the PW a break from your nonsense.

No public review is required for a similar businesses occupying a space that is not being significantly altered. This false opposition is trying to get the coucil to cave into the demands of their union pimps.

Parent,
It will sure be interesting if/when all is revealed and we can see how, and to whom, it all breaks down!

PW,
Has Parent provided enough info to begin your investigation? I hope so!!

Pete, Just would be nice to have a grocery of some kind, whatever the process.

I read the ourpleasanton.org web page and one of the first claims was that "Traffic on Santa Rita Road is already very busy and it will get worse with a new Wal-Mart." Considering that the site was previously a supermarket (Nob Hill) with the same square footage and parking lot, that tripped by built-in BS detector. I think it's pretty clear that someone has an axe to grind here, and the issue is *not* traffic.

Even though I live near Downtown, I used to shop at Nob Hill in the 1980s and '90s and would look forward to a new supermarket there. Trader Joe's is excellent, but does not carry a full line of products. Fresh & Easy is good for what it has, but more choice and selection would be welcome.

Goodness sakes, I wouldn't dream of calling anyone dirtbags. But I've already given kudos to Rockin' Robbie. And of course if someone is waving a Mexican flag at a rally that obviously makes them and everyone around them, as my good brother Steve so trenchantly points out, illegal and unionized. Black or brown makes you union or illegal, and so I say: Get outta my town! Socialists one and all!

As a partner in Alliance Campaign Strategies, I can state unequivocally that our firm is not involved in this issue. Not sure how our firm's name or mine got dragged into this discussion, but the claim is purely fiction.

What I've heard is that the conspiratorial cabal that is waging a crusade against Walmart and, by implication, our good community, is composed of union financed activists that have been secretly trained in Moscow. Given Obama's defeatism as a conscious strategy to weaken America, it wouldn't surprise me if this cabal of communist spies and infiltrators was being secretly financed by the DNC. Do the math. It all adds up.

Walmart's grocery being located at the site of what was once a grocery store should not be a matter of controversy. Actually as grocery stores go, the old Nob Hill is a moderately small facility. The previous Nob Hill did not impact negatively on the community, and I dare say, Walmart filling the same roll will have a similar effect on the traffic, and a positive effect on the shops adjacent to the now vacant facility. Methinks the concern is centered around the union oppostion to ALL Walmart facilities. Oh, and the element within our little town that prefers to not shop anywhere that does not rise to the exhaulted level of Andronicos, or Gene's Fine etc.
Good Lord, let them open and succeed or fail based upon products and services offered.

As usual you start with a grocery store discussion and digress to "illegals" and "socialist president". You people are a one hit wonder. I think the discussion was about WalMart.

Since from my understanding this discussion is not about WalMart but about www.ourpleasanton.org, than we are taking about a website which is purely propaganda and nothing but propaganda. Unbiased propaganda is an oxymoron and expecting non-disturbing facts from such a site would be unwise.
Also, since a huge amount of local taxes came from Safeway and Walmart is a one a few stores which can really hurt Safeway, it would be unwise to expect Safeway management to quietly wait to such a competitor to come in.
But, if anti-Walmart community can build their website to propagate their agenda, why
pro-Walmart community cannot do the same and propagate their views. Building website like this is very easy and it can be published for free; domain name registration is less than $10; and almost everything you need to do is to compare prices of similar products at Walmart vs Safeway.
I don't shop at Safeway and most likely will not regularly shop at Walmart, but I can build this website if enough people would be interested in it.

AnnaS, I copied this message from another discussion board because I think it might want to be the very first thing you put up on the pro-Wally homepage. By my extensive calculations a union conspiracy has been launched against Walmart and one of its major food suppliers. Eric Holder and the Moscow-educated political activists in Livermore are probably behind this, and they've been getting money from the union thug check-out girls, carryout boys, and shelf stockers at the tyranically corrupt Safeway. These and others sorts of communist propaganda lies need to be posted if we are to spare Wally from undue persecution from the Marxist-union terrorists who are stuffing our mailboxs with their oozing slime.

"On January 31, HSUS filed complaints with the Securities and Exchange Commission and Federal Trade Commission against Seaboard Foods' parent company, Seaboard Corporation. The action stemmed from a 2011 HSUS probe conducted at two pig breeding facilities in Goodwell, Okla.: Prestage Farms and Seaboard Foods, a Walmart pork supplier."

"A HSUS video shows pigs in cramped gestation crates with torn ears and noses, and other wounds and abscesses."

"Seaboard Foods produces an estimated 4 million hogs each year, making them one of the largest U.S. producers. The Oklahoma facility operates at double-shift capacity, processing about 18,500 hogs per day."

"The HSUS complaint against Seaboard alleges that an estimated 2,700 sows had their movement severely restricted; dead pigs and piglets were found in pens around the facility; and sows with large sores, torn vulvas and ripped skin were left untreated."

Dear Winston Smith,
To be equally fair and unbiased toward both Walmart and Safeway, I would suggest you to add another link to your post:
Web Link

Here's the quote I like, AnnaS:

"Officials at Safeway's Pleasanton headquarters refused to be interviewed on camera, but sent an email saying they have "Halted purchases ... while a thorough investigation is conducted" into Iowa Select Farms and that "Safeway does not tolerate animal abuse" and will continue to increase the amount of pork they buy from suppliers that are phasing out gestation crates."

Can you believe how unethical those Safeway union goons are? "Halted purchases." Indeed! They're obviously lying. Now, Wally didn't do anything about Seaboard, but that's because obviously the investigation and findings were staged my Moscow-educated union thugs. Besides, why would Wally want to be caught up in a lie. But the Safeway union commie bike-riding Spandex wearing Marxist terrorist thugs? Liars, one and all. You know it, I know it, because we just know that's all, don't we? All unionists are liars who seek to bring the country down working for union wages instead of minimum wages like Wally's patriotic workers.

So, you've got quite a bit already to put on your homepage for Wally, AnnaS. Safeway union terrorists plant phoney evidence in Wally's Seaboard supplier. Wally takes the ethical route and doesn't respond. Then we find the real culprits treat pigs even worse than Wally's Seaboard, and when that's pointed out to them they lie about discontinuation of any purchase from them. Obviously the Safeway tyrant checkout girls have been schooled by the conspiratorial Livermore Three --- spies each and every one of them for the Russian infiltrated Occupy protesters.

Keep up the great work, AnnaS. You go girl!

The ourpleasanton.org is definitely pure union as is half of the manufactured bullxxxx on this thread. There are no lengths too great for these indoctrinated union-programed robots. Search-out anything sounding like WalMart, and destroy. Pure union.
Everything else is irrelevant and/or lies.
Simple, same square footage, same front doors, same paint, same business/service, etc. etc. anything outside of that is purely politics, and an easy victory in court.