We did it!
This morning over 2500 of my neighbors showed up to protest the bloated Walmart that Lincoln Properties wants to jam in place of the rotting corpse of Northcross Mall (eew!). We made a ring not just around the mall, but around the whole block. By my estimation (using Google maps) the line was about 6000 feet long.
I really didn’t think there would be enough people, but when we were about a block away, we started to see people in red walking and biking towards Northcross. There was an unusual Saturday morning traffic jam on Burnet. When we parked, I saw people walking along the sidewalk next to the mall. I thought, “Ok, not enough people to circle the building, but if we all walk and hold lengths of ribbon, we’ll get the effect.” Then I realized those people were just walking to the line that ringed the whole block. The portion of the line that we walked to was about 5 people deep. Suddenly it was clear, there were more than enough people to ring the block along the street.
An organizer asked us to stretch towards Northcross Drive. We moved a ways down, then the word spread, we did it. The line stretched all the way around.
A counter came by, I was #564. The boys were climbing a dumpster. They didn’t get numbers.
The protest was supposed to last 10 minutes, but everyone was having such a great time, we stayed about 30 minutes before the line started to break up. Most everyone wore red, but it was cold and the effect was muted by the coats.
Luckily, a lot of people have red coats. And the sun came out just in time for the rest of us to take our coats off.
Spirits were very high. I think it’s important that we had such a good time. This community came together, maybe in the biggest way ever. Excuse me if I get a little waxy here, but it was more than a protest, it was a ceremony. Like a wedding, where people are present to say this is a good thing and we are all here to prove it and hold it.
And that is a difficult thing to work against. There have got to be a few people over at Lincoln Properties wondering if they have the stomach to fight so many nice people. We’re going to be here long after Walmart is gone, and we throw better parties.
Congratulations! I hope it works!!!!!!
How wonderful! I’m glad that so many people took the time to do this. I live in a rural area and I cringe every time I have to go into WalMart, but like in most rural areas, their presence means that there are no longer any nearby competators for most things. But to have them come in and stomp their stinky giant foot in the middle of your community is just unthinkable. I hope your actions made folks stand up and take notice!!
Congrats! I’m so glad to see a community in action against the dreaded big box.
Congrats! I’ve been following this story on your blog with interest. Score one for the little guy.
I’m a big fan of Erwin House (the blog and the house itself) from across Burnet Rd. and just checked in after several weeks. I am delighted to see your position on the Northcross issue and to see you dedicate some space on this blog to covering it. We did it!!!
Found this while checking out how we did at the ‘open session’ at Norris Convention Center yesterday evening. I was the pissed off red head causing a scene in front of the Lincoln property mouth piece, haha. My entire family showed up and linked arms around Northcross that cold, blustery morning, and you know what? It felt great. I don’t even *live* in the neighborhood, but my kids go to Gullett and Lamar and you bet, I’ve got an interest in keeping Walmart out of that neighborhood. Thanks for posting this. There can’t be too much exposure.