S.D. City Council Votes to Ban Giant Retail Stores

By Alison St John / Reporter, KPBS Public Broadcasting

Published November 29, 2006 at 6:22 AM PST

This story was published more than 18 years ago.

It doesn't look like San Diego will be getting a Wal-Mart Supercenter anytime soon. The city council voted last night to ban certain giant retail stores including Wal-Mart. The council was divided ove

It doesn't look like San Diego will be getting a Wal-Mart Supercenter anytime soon. The city council voted last night to ban certain giant retail stores including Wal-Mart. The council was divided over the issue with five members supporting the ban and three opposing it. KPBS reporter Alison St John has more.

The vote, which was divided into two parts, culminates more than two years of debate over the issue. The council unanimously agreed to regulate big box stores over 50,000 square feet. But they were divided over the ban of Supercenters, mega retail outlets that swallow up to 250,000 square feet.

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Diana Spiridonidas of the Business Improvement Council was one of dozens who testified

Spiridonidas: Imagine Peoples’ Market in Ocean Beach closing its doors or North Park leaving City Heights, Keils leaving Clairmont, or Traders Joes leaving Pacific Beach or La Jolla - we know that supercenters systematically and purposefully close down neighborhood grocery stores.

Wal-Mart employees that had packed city hall, left disappointed after the vote. Wal-Mart spokesman conferred with attorneys after the vote but declined to say whether the company will sue. Alison St John, KPBS News.

Alison St John

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Alison St John currently serves as a general assignment reporter and occasionally co-hosts KPBS Midday Edition. She fell in love with KPBS Radio when she arrived in San Diego in 1985 and first heard NPR. She has been a voice on KPBS Radio since 1989, and has served as a news reporter for radio, TV and the web, as well as anchoring, hosting, producing and editing. Alison has reported on stories about North County and was based in the KPBS' North County Bureau. Alison covered the metro beat during the critical period of the San Diego City pension crisis, and the education beat while Alan Bersin was the controversial Superintendent of San Diego City School District. She covered health when the industry was converting to managed care and told welfare reform stories in the late 1990s when Clinton was “ending welfare as we know it.” She has covered land use issues extensively, looking at the challenges of meeting a growing population while preserving community character, and developing a better transportation system to meet environmental concerns. She has done many stories on the military in San Diego, and the series she edited on the challenges veterans face returning from active duty to civilian life won “Best of Show” from the San Diego Society of Professional Journalists. She occasionally hosts the KPBS Roundtable and KPBS Midday Edition. Alison has won awards from the San Diego Press Club, the Society of Professional Journalists, the Associated Press TV and Radio Association, and the California Golden Mike Awards. Alison was born in Tanzania, brought up in Scotland, and earned her degree in psychology and sociology from Durham University in England. Her postgraduate diploma is in student counseling. She worked in England, Nigeria, Switzerland, Belgium, India, and Japan before moving to the United States in 1981. She now lives in Oceanside and enjoys how her community is growing and changing.