The megastore issue the city council is revisiting valorizes an old saw politicians have bandied about in the press for years, namely, money pumped into the political process doesn't corrupt, it merely buys access and good will. Despite millions flowing into campaign 97, can the council heed their own rhetoric, and brimming with good will, tell their generous benefactors, No Sale?

Mayor Giuliani would allow megastores to build on land previously set aside as industrial space, known as M1 zones. The amount of acreage involved is a big secret. This much is known, if the mayor's plan passes, 54 new megastores would be built immediately: 48 in Queens, and 6 more in the other boroughs.

By using paradigms - Tops megastore on Northern Boulevard, and the Rego Park megamall on Queens Boulevard - then extrapolating the result, the impact of 48 megastores can be roughly estimated. The mayor's plan also increases the size of new megastores making them much larger then any we now have. On the average, a new megastore would occupy one city block for retail space and two more for parking, or three city blocks per store, making the total area covered by 48 megastores about 144 city blocks. With so vast an investiture of the borough's real estate, the megastore industry would dominate the Queens economy.

Queens is a residential borough containing some 300,000 one and two family homes. Megastore employees, earning subsistence wages with no medical insurance or pension benefits, will inhabit the low end of the socioeconomic spectrum, with very little disposable income, small savings, and few investment plans. How hard are politicians working if this is the best they can do? How many small business owners will sacrifice their homes and livelihoods for these dead end jobs? What does it cost to snuff out the entrepreneurial spirit? When does good will become a bribe?

While land use is the visible issue, acidulating just beneath the surface is the deterioration of Queens society , like a subterranean wash seeping through a concrete foundation. The influx of megastores is a Queens problem. The other boroughs are hardly touched. This debate is not about widening the scope of fair competition, but of legislating an uneven playing field where the ball always rolls to one side of the court. In order to deliver bargains, the megastore industry bleeds society for an edge to undercut competitors. They need cheap property; laws must be passed to create new retail zones so megastores don't have to compete for commercial property in existing zones which is more expensive (but society has confined their competitors by law to commercial zones.) They demand tax advantages not available to small business. They require cheap labor, pay no benefits like medical insurance and retirement plans, so the taxpayer is eventually summoned to care for their worn out workers. Hence, today's 15% cheaper price is tomorrow's 15% tax hike. Society is asked to exterminate small business by favoring big business in return for sinking lifestyles. Some lawmakers see collapsing prices as justification for the pain, since workers wont need to earn as much money to live. This policy, if carried to its logical end, would have Queens county competing with the third world to see whose workers could survive on less.

Enacting a blanket plan for M1 zones is risky. Policies formulated for empty M1 zones have an equal effect on thriving M1 zones. Inflating the price of empty manufacturing properties causes corresponding increases for occupied properties; industrial rents escalate, and the remainder of the city's manufacturing base is squeezed out. Thus, union work is driven out by minimum wage jobs. If the megastore industry overestimates retail demand, overbuilds, then abandons the property, our manufacturing base was effaced for naught. Like a junkie administering a fix, the megastore plan brings a quick rush - a brief building boom, though box stores are more like crates then buildings - queasiness in the bowels, and a slow decent into depression. Prudent policies would maintain sober, orderly markets by selectively rezoning only certain sites, each in turn over an extended period.

Since the megastore industry has money to burn, tossing huge amounts into the political arena which, theoretically, they got nothing for in return, drag them, kicking and screaming, to out of the way sites requiring intense redevelopment. Obviously, they can afford capital expenditures for improvements. Let the mega-builders band together into mega-syndicates to develop mega-shopping centers reached by mega-infrastructures they pay for with mega-bucks from their own mega-treasuries; also, a mega-fund should be established by law to reimburse New York taxpayers for the mega-hospital bills accrued by megastore employees who have no insurance. The prime sites should be reserved for industries that employ skilled union labor, or for urban redevelopment programs that could defuse prosperity throughout a community.

M1 zones, like most assets, should return their full potential, substandard performance reflects on management, which, in this case, stems from a democratic process, and as such, we all share a responsibility to intrude into the discussion.

An alternate plan to reclaim some M1 zones would reopen the Rockaway Beach railroad as the Kennedy access line, and carry tourists through the heart of Queens. Tourism has become the city's largest industry. No one comes here to shop at chain stores. Tourists enjoy quaint areas and visit unique small shops, seek out gourmet restauranteurs, buy from artists and artisans and favor excellence over price. Not only New York, but governments worldwide vie for this valuable trade. Tourists - both national and international - must pass through Queens, since the airports are located here. The mayor (and Manhattan merchant associations) would like to whisk these people as quickly as humanly possible through our borough, and into Manhattan. Actually, a law exists that would prevent the new Kennedy Airport access train from stopping in Queens. This train will carry the richest cargo in the Western World, billions in tourist trade. The mayor's zeal for free enterprise is refreshing. Boroughs can compete too; give us stations along the way and share the wealth. By encouraging tourist related cultural activities on M1 zones situated on dormant railroad spurs that can be reactivated for passenger service, we can give rise to a billion dollar industry for our borough, and as a bonus, inherit the finest mass transit system in America. The crème de la crème of M1 zones abuts north Forest Park, and is bisected by the Rockaway Beach Line, which runs from Kennedy Airport to Pen Station. This site harbingers the backbone of mass transit in a portion of the borough poorly serviced by rail, and could anchor a Metropolitan Avenue renaissance project as well as serve as a model for M1 zone reclamation. Of course, the megastore developers expect us to yield up this site like a trophy - the Oscar for "Best Lobbying" - and with it the future of Western Queens.

Been in a Home Depot lately? Then you probably meet the local hardware merchant that used to own the store down the block. Been to Rite Aide where the neighborhood druggist is now employed? How about K-Mart, where a slew of once independent small business people are now working? Aside from the tragedy of small business failures - of which a gaggle of megastores equals a myriad of new tragedies - the megastore industry guts their small business competition. Knock a lumberman out of business who took twenty years to master the trade, and the technology to open a small lumberyard is also destroyed. Eradicate a generation of lumbermen and gain decades without rivals. While the megastore industry siphons off small business profits and yields lower lifestyles, we seriously debate turning our population into a generation of tenement dwellers. Queens is first and foremost our home, the citizens prosperous and progressive. This land is not an "as of right" preserve for predatory retailers, but a green and placid place, with the largest area of park and playground space in the city. Elected officials must now confront a dilemma of their own making, at what point does a preponderance of good will equal a sea of indebtedness? Is our borough for sale? At what price?