The New York City Council postponed today’s scheduled hearing on a proposal by Walmart to open a store somewhere in the five boroughs — apparently to allow opponents more time to marshal opposition to the long-overdue undertaking.
Council Speaker Christine Quinn said, “We needed a bigger room. We heard from unions all across the city, small-business leaders from across the city. It’s a growing list of people.”
Public Advocate Bill de Blasio claimed, “[Walmart is] not going to find it easy to get serious public support.”
Well, actually, the only serious opposition to a Walmart in New York City proceeds from labor lobbyists and their lackeys on the City Council — which would be pretty much the entirety of the body’s membership.
Plus folks like de Blasio, who would rather stuff their pockets with labor dollars come election time than allow their constituents to enjoy the benefits of modern retailing that suburbanites have had for years.
Certainly ordinary New Yorkers understand what’s going on.
As The Post reported yesterday, in a survey conducted by respected pollster Doug Schoen, city residents overwhelm ingly approve of the idea of the big-box store coming to New York — bringing jobs and low-cost goods — by 71 percent to 24 percent.
Even small-business owners support the idea by a 62-27 margin.
The opponents? Almost exactly a year ago, the labor-politico alliance — which has twice previously kept Walmart out of the city — killed a great plan to redevelop The Bronx’s Kingsbridge Armory into a shopping mall.
The project, developed by Related Companies, would have created more than 2,200 jobs.
The unions, however, said no deal — whereupon Bronx Borough President Ruben Diaz Jr., famously declared, “The notion that any job is better than no job no longer applies.”
In The Bronx, sadly, the concept of any job all too often doesn’t apply. The borough has the city’s highest unemployment rate — and it ranks among the nation’s poorest communities.
But Quinn’s council killed the Kingsbridge project anyway — and guess what happened next.
Nothing.
The Kingsbridge community is out at least 2,200 jobs, and there hasn’t been even a faint hint of economic growth there since.
Presumably, Diaz is pleased as punch; ditto his union masters.
Not so Bronx residents — who now support the idea of a Walmart by a whopping 80-18 percent margin.
And Brooklyn — home to East New York, where Walmart is especially interested — favors it 76-20.
No “serious public support?”
Better make that a really big room, Ms. Quinn.