Walmart, Open Space, Budget Among Topics at Coffee with Redlands Council

Glenn Dunham joined about a dozen other Redlands residents Saturday morning for Coffee with the Council, the informal monthly q-and-a sessions that started about 18 months ago.

The informal gathering was held from 8 a.m. to just after 10 a.m. at Innabi Mediterranean Grill & New York Deli, at West Colton and Texas just north of the 10 Freeway.

Several local community activist and political groups were represented, including the Redlands Good Neighbor Coalition, Occupy Redlands and the Redlands Tea Party Patriots.

Dunham said he came on his own initiative, not as a dues-paying member of any group, to let Mayor Pete Aguilar and Councilman Bob Garner know his thinking about tentative plans for a large retail store in north Redlands.

"I'm getting fired up about this, because of Walmart," Dunham, 78, a resident of Redlands for 20 years, said outside Innabi's.

"If that's going to be the prime example of what Redlands should be, then it sure as hell shouldn't be. We are more than that. Redlands is more than a big box store out there," Dunham said.

"The nickname for this town is 'Jewel of the Inland Empire.' You think Walmart reflects that? My wife and I just came back from Fallon, Nevada. We were visiting our kids. That town has been decimated by Walmart. It had a downtown that was vibrant. Lots of nice shops. No more. It's all closed down now.

"If you want to buy Walmart that's fine," Dunham said. "If you don't, you have to drive 50 miles to Reno. The only thing that works in Fallon is the casino, the gambling casino. . . .

"Here in Redlands we already have one Walmart. I don't know how this new one is going to be a deal for us. . . . Walmart keeps saying 'We're low-priced.' Well no they're not, if you shop'em, their own customers are complaining about the pricing."

Keith Jackson of Occupy Redlands said there were five members of the group at Innabi's on Saturday, and as many as 30 members have attended previous Coffee with the Council events. Jackson did not speak much during the two-hour gathering but he praised the format afterwards.

"The members of Occupy Redlands really believe it's important to come to these kind of events where you can participate," Jackson said. "Where you have access to politicians, the people that you elect.

"It allows us to be informed about our community. It allows us to be informed about the actual people that sit on the council so that we can make choices when we go to the elections and vote. . . .

"Today there's groups like Redlands Good Neighbor Coalition, a lot of their members have concerns about the Super Walmart and the impact that'll have on our community," Jackson said. "Certainly that's on our minds with Occupy Redlands as well.

"So you know, talking about the role of government, and there's a lot of talk about the budget, and choices getting made, and how these dollars are allocated, and how they affect our lives as citizens. Certainly we want to have an impact with our council members where we say we thing those allocations should go, because we think that's important, as taxpayers.

"Council meetings you get three minutes to speak but council members don't respond back to you," Jackson said. "Here's a real opportunity not only to ask questions, but to have a dialogue and that's important. And I have to give credit to the all the council members for taking time out of their busy schedules. . . .

"It's good to see different groups with different opinions. The Good Neighbor Coalition, the Tea Party Patriots, Occupy Redlands. But you don't have to belong to a group to participate. It would be good to see more citizens come out, with affiliation to other activist groups. The more these guys, the elected officials, hear from citizens, the more it gives them perspective, and with a variety of opinions I think they can make better choices."

Aguilar said the informal meetings help the council meet its goal of being open and attentive to residents' concerns in a more relaxed atmosphere.

"For the past year and a half this council's been committed to transparency and open dialogue with the community and we really felt that offering a casual alternative for citizen input and dialogue was important," Aguilar said. "So the third Saturday of every month we have done this at locally owned coffee shops throughout the city. It really is a great forum for folks to ask casual questions and for the council to talk about priorities and current topics.

"I believe next month's is going to be over at the Greater Good at the Citibank building, the coffeeshop on the first floor there."

Gardner said the format is direct, and the focus is communicating and exchanging information.

"The range of topics that we heard this morning, the budget, Walmart, open space, rising costs in a lot of areas, I think it's an example of what's on everybody's mind and it's a great opportunity for everyone to have a voice, come out and hear from us on what we think," Gardner said. "It's a good exchange.

"We hear from the citizens directly. We're not having it from somebody else. This is direct. We have an exchange. It's hard to have a direct exchange at council meetings because of the formalities and business we have to get through. This is more one-on-one. They ask questions and we respond and there's time for followup questions."