Here is a rough draft of the resolution I plan to bring to the General Meeting. On July 28th, 2005, the City Planning Commission approved the Environmental Impact Review submitted by Home Depot for a big box store (150,000 sq.ft.) at the corner of Bayshore and Cortland. This means that construction can begin on the store unless the Board of Supervisors upholds an appeal by the area small businesses as soon as Sept. 13th. Local activists believe that the store with its 3 story 100,000 sq. ft. parking garage would add 800 -1200 more cars per hour to local streets at peak times. Of course this would result in severe congestion, air pollution with its attendant health problems (already highest rates of asthma in the city in the Bay view) safety and access problems for pedestrians etc. Public Transit would also be effected as the 24 Divisadero uses Cortland ave. While Home Depot promises new jobs, it will also put existing (often locally owned) small firms out of business eliminating jobs. Home Depot also boasts of its "union free" philosophy. There are no unions in its 805 U.S. stores. This means that although Home Depot claims it will provide 100 jobs for local residents (40 full time) these jobs will be at will meaning employees can be fired at any time. There is also no guarantee of 100 jobs for residents - only a "good faith" agreement without any teeth. In presenting its case - Home Depot admitted there would be severe environmental problems which could not be mitigated. However they claimed these problems would be more than balanced by the jobs it would bring to the community - especially the Bayview which is in dire need of jobs and by bringing increased revenue to the city in the form of additional sales tax. Of course Home Depot likes to present the situation in this way - Bernal Heights with its environmental concerns vs the Bayview with its needs for jobs. From this point of view it looks like concerns for the environment are in opposition to the need for jobs. However if we truly had the will to do something about our ecological problems this would mean millions of jobs - but the problem is this addresses the needs of people, not of giant corporations. So this is another way of looking at the problem - Home Depot holding its economic hammer over the city and the needs of its residents. We need to stand up to Home Depot and fight for the rights and needs of all the people of S.F. Tell the Board of Supervisors to reject the Planning commission's approval of Home Depot's EIR - and demand a better deal for the citizens of S.F. Jerry Path pjrry@igc.org Why Wait? Move to EarthLink.