Scorching heat did not stop them. Dwindling afternoon attendance did
not discourage them. And the corporate stronghold that is Home Depot
did not scare them.
Members of the No Home Depot Campaign protested all day Wednesday
on Foothill Boulevard, at the site of a vacant, old Kmart building,
which could become the site of a new Home Depot store. They cited
increased traffic and the potential for a Home Depot's harmful
effects on the Crescenta Valley's hardware stores as some of their
main concerns.
The proposed development has the attention of neighboring La
Crescenta, where business leaders are concerned.
"We're mostly concerned with our local businesses and the effects
it would have on a lot of our chamber members," Crescenta Valley
Chamber of Commerce President Rick Dinger said.
He was not at the protest Wednesday but understood the picketers'
concerns.
"A Home Depot coming into our neighborhood would definitely harm a
lot of our small businesses," Dinger said.
With the backing of the Crescenta Valley Chamber of Commerce,
Dinger wrote a letter in June to Los Angeles City Councilwoman Wendy
Gruel, who represents Sunland and Tujunga, voicing the chamber's
opposition to a Home Depot at the Kmart location.
"Our worst nightmare scenario is at 7 to 9 in the morning, when
our kids are going to school, we've got 300 contractors coming into
the area to pick up their supplies for the day," said Joe Barrett, a
resident of Sunland and founder of the No Home Depot Campaign for the
Sunland-Tujunga area. "I have nothing personally with Home Depot, but
I just know it's the wrong business particularly for that location."
Attempts to reach Home Depot representatives were unsuccessful.
About 30 picketers lined the sidewalk in front of the old Kmart
building at 7 a.m. Wednesday, at the 8000 block of Foothill
Boulevard, event organizers said, but that number had dwindled to
about six by the early afternoon.
The dwindling numbers did not sway the picketers, however, who
elicited honks from passersby every few minutes with their anti-Home
Depot signs and chants.
"We're sympathetic to the cause," said Elliott Keegan.
Keegan was driving with his father Martin, a Tujunga resident, on
Foothill Boulevard Wednesday afternoon when he saw the picketers and
decided to stop.
"We just wanted to see what the campaign is all about," he said.
The two were soon holding up signs themselves, joining the cause
against what picketers feel is a wrong retailer for the area.
