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After years of false starts and dead ends, a path to a second Wal-Mart in Chicago has emerged.
Now it's now up to the City Council to make it happen.
For far too long, aldermen backed by organized labor have thumbed their noses at Wal-Mart, rejecting decent paying jobs, new tax revenue and goods and groceries for South Side neighborhoods that desperately need and want them.
The first hurdle comes Thursday when the Chicago Plan Commission will consider a massive, mixed-use development on the Far South Side that is counting on a Wal-Mart Supercenter as its retail anchor.
If the commission says yes to this development -- which will transform the barren Ryerson steel site by adding retail, 800 homes, a hotel and a new recreation center -- the City Council Zoning Committee and the full council will weigh in over the next month.
Without Wal-Mart, this project, known as Pullman Park, can't get off the ground. No other large retailer has stepped forward.
But Wal-Mart's presence also may be what holds it up -- punishing would-be workers and residents hungry for goods and groceries.
That's what happened at 83rd and Stewart, where a large retail project is stalled because the council refuses to accept a Wal-Mart.
The council now has a chance to get it right.
With unemployment stubbornly high and development stalled across the city, Chicago cannot afford to say no to jobs that average $11.77 an hour, plus benefits.
It's time to say yes to Wal-Mart.
