Talking to the Wall

Here is the story of two neighboring cities, one of which stands firm in its resolve to keep out the big box that is Wal-Mart, and the other, which joyously embraces the corporate behemoth. After Greenfield, Mass., blocked Wal-Mart from setting up shop, filmmaker Steve Alves documented the town's progress and ideological differences from the town of Orange, where Wal-Mart enjoys a comfy existence. Alves' comedy,  "Talking to the Wall: The Story of an American Bargain," which was ten years in the making, also has as its main character the famous Al Norman, a self-proclaimed "sprawl buster." Watch some movie clips here.
[above image via]

Comments

[Hamlet's Dreams]

Much thanks for pointing me in the direction of Alves work. As someone who's thought and written a lot about sprawl (I'm actually an urban ecologist by training), but new to Massachusetts, it's good to have blogs like yours to point me in the direction of these issues. I actually kinda work near both Orange and Greenfield, and hadn't been aware of the philosophical difference!

More random thoughts by me on this topic...
http://hamlets_dreams.blogs.com/hamlets_dreams/2005/05/urbanization_ch.html

[IseFire]

What an interesting blog! I saw it listed as a featured blog on TypePad's home page.

Good work.

[gaela]

Thank you for your kind words!

[Hippocrit]

I dont like Walmart. Its so big and ugly and corporate. Oh, whats that? Yes of course i love shopping there, everything is so cheap and you can find anything! Its so nice being down the road. But not in my neighborhood, nuh uh.

[jlt]

There are a lot of hypocrites who say one thing and let their wallet say something else. It's too bad. I'm not an outspoken critic of Walmart, as I have plenty of other things to be righteously indignant of, but I have never spent a penny at a Walmart store and I intend never to.

I don't care about size, looks or "corporateness," whatever that is. I do care that people in my community and many others are being forced to close businesses that have been in their families and their towns for many years and forced into near servitude to the Walton family. And I care that the only money staying in the community are the few pennies saved by local consumers and the vastly diminished earnings of Walmart's poorly-paid staff.