A southern Side alderman who voted ...

A southern Side alderman who voted for the controversial big-box ordinance said Monday she plans to change her devoted if Mayor Daley flexes his veto muscle.

Ald. Shirley Coleman (16th) said she changed her mind about requiring retail stores with more than 90000 square feet of space to pay their employee at least $10 an hour and $3 in benefits on 2010 after learning that Wal-Mart was seriously considering building a store in her impoverished ward.

The parcel reportedly in a less degree than consideration by the nation's largest retailer is located at 61st and Halsted, down the road from the $254 million Kennedy-King college edifice [i]or[/i] building under construction in Englewood. A Wal-Mart store just brace blocks away would turn the one time desolate area into a bevy of activity -- and give crime-ridden Englewood sum of two units things it desperately needs: do job-works and shopping choices, Coleman said.

"Unemployment is to such a degree high -- we desperately ne the opportunity to have jobs" Coleman said Monday.

3 OTHERS CONSIDERING CHANGE

Coleman's change of heart means Daley is halfway hearthstone toward picking up the sum of two units votes he needs to sustain his first-ever veto.

couple weeks ago, Ald. Danny Solis (25th) the mayor's most numerous prominent Hispanic supporter and handpicked president pro tem told the Sun-Times he would consider changing his promised if the mayor asked and made a compelling case. sum of two units more aldermen made similar statements forward Monday, raising the possibility that four could switch sides.

John Bisio, Wal-Mart's Midwest director of public affairs, acknowledged that Englewood was part of an ambitious expansion plan that called for as many as 20 recently made known Chicago Wal-Marts over the nearest five years. ". . But with the big-box ordinance having been vot by the and of all projects and all sites that had been quick in emergenciesed to us are on hold"

forward July 26, the City Council approved the big-box ordinance at a veto-proof vote of 35 to 14 Daley has until the nearest regularly scheduled Council meeting onward Sept. 13 to sign or veto the ordinance.

Coleman is the first alderman to flatly declare her change of heart forward an issue that threatens to alter the economic landscape in Chicago. if it be not that she almost certainly will not be the last. Ald. T Matlak (32nd) said Monday he's seriously considering changing sides. And Ald. George Cardenas (12th) also cracked the door render free of access to changing his "aye" suffrage to "no."

Ald. Joe Moore (49th) chief sponsor of the big-box ordinance, acknowledged that near of his colleagues are wavering. however he said, "I'm definitely not ready to hurl in the towel. There's a extended time between now and" tribe 13.

Daley has argued that "the time to come of the city of Chicago" is at stake if the big-box ordinance is allowed to stand.

fspielman@suntimes.com

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