After dominating the retail landscape of a city or town, Wal-Mart often closes its stores when revenues dip. The abandoned mega-stores are known as ghost-boxes, and impose a scale of blight that takes years to address.

Communities pool their resources to express a united opposition to Wal-Mart.

Los Angeles, CA (BlackNews.com) - One week before the nation observes Martin Luther King Jr. Day, religious, political, civil rights and business leaders held a national telepress conference today in which they called on the world's largest retailer to create good jobs and become a responsible community partner.

In conjunction with the press conference, two statements from more than 100 urban leaders across the country were released--one demanding that Wal-Mart and its CEO Lee Scott change their approach to urban communities, the other calling on elected officials to enact policies that encourage the creation of good jobs in urban America.

A new report was also released today by the Los Angeles Alliance for a New Economy (LAANE) and the Partnership for Working Families. "Wal-Mart and Beyond: The Battle for Good Jobs and Strong Communities in Urban America" documents the extensive negative impacts of Wal-Mart and offers a series of strategies both to hold Wal-Mart and other companies accountable, and to create good jobs in urban neighborhoods.

"Wal-Mart has positioned itself squarely in the path of workers and communities seeking to realize Dr. King's dream of civil and economic equality," said Tracy Gray-Barkan, Director of Retail Policy at LAANE and author of the report. "But it's not enough to criticize Wal-Mart--urban communities must come together around a new vision for economic development and empowerment."

The leaders participating in today's press conference, citing Dr. King's emphatic commitment to economic justice, called upon Wal-Mart to abandon its public relations offensive and begin to address the real needs of urban communities, including living wage jobs, affordable health benefits, support for minority-owned businesses and a meaningful role in decisions over large-scale economic development projects. "It is time for Wal-Mart to stop paying lip service to King's legacy, and start to truly honor the vision of justice that he advanced," said Van Jones, Executive Director of the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights in Oakland.

Today's call to action comes as Wal-Mart continues its aggressive attempts to expand into urban markets around the country. The retail giant has met with stiff resistance in Chicago, Los Angeles, New York and many other cities, where communities have formed broad coalitions to fight for good jobs and a voice over the economic development decisions that affect them.