Anti-Whole Foods Activists Raise Banner at Street Light

Activists hoisted a banner decrying Whole Foods' plans to come to Hyde Square at a stop light near the site where the corporation has leased property for a grocery store.

The banner read, in Spanish and English, "Whole Foods = Higher Rent."

According to Boston IndyMedia, where the report was posted, the banner "was meant to call attention to Whole Foods' practice of gentrifying working class neighborhoods, driving out long-time residents and attracting other upscale chain stores that push real estate prices even higher."

According to the IndyMedia report, the sign stayed up for three hours before a city crew removed it.

Jamaica Plain residents have been divided about the arrival of the organic foods chain, with some calling it a fierce accelerant to gentrification and others welcoming the chain and the 70 full-time jobs it says it will bring to the neighborhood.

The property Whole Foods has leased was for 47 years home to Hi-Lo Foods, which in the last several decades catered to lower-income and Latino customers. The property owners closed Hi-Lo, though the store's manager said the business was successful and busy.

[Editor's note: JP Patch thanks Universal Hub for pointing out the IndyMedia post.]