Once in a great while Lake County comes to a turning point in its history, and with the decision whether or not to let the Lowe's project proceed without an environmental impact report before the Clearlake City Council we are at one of those junctures once again.

Supporters argue that the project will bring jobs, competition and sales tax revenue lost to other counties back to Lake County, and the city administrator claims it's the city's only hope to avoid bankruptcy.

These commonly held beliefs have a common thread, as when examined more closely they all fail to pass muster.

This debate isn't about simply whether or not a new hardware store will be good idea, as this project will mean several new businesses will be located at the Pearce Field site, which will likely be more national chain retail stores and fast food restaurants, meaning other local businesses besides lumber yards will get hammered too.

We need to decide if we want to follow the model of many areas across the country where they've replaced their local economy with a generic corporate American version, which leaves one town indistinguishable from another with their cookie-cutter like sameness.

It must also be considered if sending many more millions of dollars out of the county every year to giant corporations forever is better than investing it in our own communities where it gets recycled many times over, creating more jobs and growth.

Local hardware stores have stepped up and done a good job of keeping the losses to Mendocino stores down to a minimum by making big investments in their stores without enormous government handouts, so a new Lowe's store will do little to keep tax dollars here and will mostly just take them out of the county's coffers and cripple or kill off local competitors – meaning less variety and competition.

It seems likely that few if any jobs will actually be created by Lowe's since there will certainly be many jobs lost at their competitors, plus the best-paying management jobs tend to go to people who transfer here, not locals.

For the city of Clearlake there is also the question if they want to spend their last redevelopment dollars available to further relocate their center of commerce to the highway and ruin the chances of the merchants along Lakeshore Drive to survive by reducing travel down that street while completely ignoring the Vision Task Force's plea to make saving downtown a top priority.

It is almost beyond comprehension that spending millions of local tax dollars to help national chain stores bankrupt local businesses would even be seriously considered by anyone here, but sadly that is the case.

If the city was really serious about saving money they would cut the lush benefits for council members, lower the city administrator's pay and hire the sheriff's department to do policing.

It's time to decide, folks: Do we put our fate in the hands of our friends and neighbors on Main Street or do we entrust our future to the people sitting in corporate boardrooms in far-off places?

Philip Murphy lives in Lakeport.

Details

Written by: Philip Murphy

Published: 21 January 2010