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In Brooklyn, an Echo of the Jamaica Plain Whole Foods Debate
There are differences — In Brooklyn, Whole Foods' plans for a store have dragged out for eight years.
An artist's rendering of the proposed Whole Foods store in Gowanus.
Whole Foods
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For a vision of how the JP Whole Foods debate might have gone differently, look to Brooklyn.
On Tuesday, a city panel was to have decided whether to give a special permit for the organic grocer to build a two-story store in what the NY Times calls an "undeveloped area" of Brooklyn.
The JP Patch sister site, Bedford-Stuyvesant Patch, has also been following the controversy.
The debate in Brooklyn echoes the one we had here in JP after the grocer announced it would open a store in the space formerly occupied by Hi-Lo Foods. Take this paragraph, for instance, from Bed-Stuy Patch.
At a hearing in January, local manufacturers and artists voiced their opposition to the 52,000-square-foot supermarket, saying that Brooklyn’s industrial and creative industries should be preserved and that a big-box retailer would hurt local small businesses.
The NY Times reports that "a small but vocal opposition group says the project will hasten the end of affordability and enterprise in the industrial neighborhood."
There are key differences, however. The process in Brooklyn has dragged on for eight years, while in JP the store opened 10 months after the Gazette broke the story that they aimed to come. That may be partly because in JP, the company did not have to get any special permits. Groups like the JP Neighborhood Council, an elected, volunteer advisory board, had no real leverage, despite attempts to get the company to enter a Community Benefits Agreement.
Another difference is of scale. The JP store is on the small side at only 13,700 square feet. By contrast, the Brooklyn store would be gigantic — two stories and 52,000 square feet.
[Editor's note: A tip of the hat to JP resident Dax Bayard-Murray, who pointed out the Brooklyn story in a Facebook post to "We Are All Whole Foods."]
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Jamaica Plain Neighborhood Council
633 Centre St, Jamaica Plain, MA (Please note the JPNC meets at a variety of places) -
Rich P
11:22 am on Wednesday, February 29, 2012
While similar in the obvious aspect, the HUGE difference, is that here it was simply one business replacing a business of 'like kind.' Aside from what the loonies had to say, the only actual effect on the neighborhood that is different here was a slight increase in traffic (although I am not even sure that has happened). Going from grocer A to Grocer B with no change in the physical structure is a whole planet of difference compared to any empty lot that has no activity to an improved property that would generate activity. THAT said, there is all the same nuttiness in New York as we had here- and I would support Whole Foods in Brooklyn for the same reasons I support it here. To be fair, I feel an valid traffic study is a reasonable thing to consider, that is if it truly is used for it's face meaning, not an excuse by the loonies to block a community asset favored by I would guess 98.25% of the community as it was/IS here in JP.