Editorial

Home Depot can’t help it if it’s popular.

It can’t help it if its vast inventory of hammers, lumber, nuts and bolts

has become a haven for homeowners, amateur and professional builders and

do-it-your-selfers.

So you would think the mega home-supply merchant would be welcomed into

Costa Mesa with open arms, especially since city officials estimate they

will gain a nice $400,000 sales tax windfall from Home Depot’s day-to-day

operations alone.

That doesn’t include the major attraction it will be for the newly

refurbished Harbor Center, of which it is the top anchor store.

Somehow, those facts seem to have been whacked away by the two-by-four

that was cut last week for the store’s grand opening.

Costa Mesa officials worry the store’s popularity will keep the city’s

Job Center filled up seven days a week with day laborers looking for

work, something Home Depot officials acknowledge as a real possibility.

With that admission in hand, those same city officials are now demanding

that Home Depot shell out $32,000 more to help pay for running the Job

Center.

It’s a case of city government going too far.

Do we believe big business should be a good neighbor and pay for any

problems they create? Of course we do. But Home Depot has the right to

choose its path, it doesn’t need a gun put to its head.

Besides, the paint has barely dried on the new store and Home Depot has

proven it is a good neighbor.

Store officials have hired people to help avoid the situation at their

Santa Ana store and keep the day laborers from congregating; they have

distributed fliers to community members regarding the local ordinances;

and they have notified Home Depot customers, many of whom are contractors

who would use day labor, about the city-run Job Center and its

operations.

That’s a pretty good start.

Still, city officials publicly groan that Home Depot needs to do more, in

particular spend more. But why is Home Depot being targeted? Aren’t there

other businesses in town that contribute to the population of the Job

Center?

How about all the restaurants, grocery stores or fast-food eateries?

Shouldn’t they pay if Home Depot has to?

None of them should have to.

Government needs to learn how to solve its problems without coercion.

Costa Mesa officials ought to spend less time telling Home Depot how to

be a good neighbor and more time learning how to be a good host and let

the home-supply store do what it does best -- run a successful business.