Black neighborhood rejects Trader Joe's

airedweezy said:
“There are no winners today,” Adam Milne, owner of Old Town Brewing Co., told The Oregonian. “Only missed tax revenue, lost jobs, less foot traffic, an empty lot and a boulevard still struggling to support its local small businesses.”


This part got me thinking, that tj actually is what this neighborhood needed.

I don't get how some communities fight tooth in nail to not receive nice things like this. It's like they feel threatened by change but when a small business opens up that won't benefit in the long wrong it gets shot down smh.
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THIS.


smh.......:smh:
 
SneakerHeathen said:
JPEG said:
So then, what kind of development primarily benefits only the black community?
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that's where perception comes into play.


Like eracism said, TJ's is a no go but a Wal-Mart? Oh yeah.......People would be FINE AND DANDY with that ********.
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same people against TJ are the same people who will state their neighborhood has no healthy alternatives for food.
 
zapatohead408 said:
same people against TJ are the same people who will state their neighborhood has no healthy alternatives for food.
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yep and I guarantee a McDonalds can open up shop no qualms tho.


Dudes don't want to use their EBT on pricier organic options. Nah they want to waste their money on nonsense buying junk food from wal-mart.


reason why there is a lot of overweight kids coming from lower-income neighborhoods. it's not like people on EBT use it responsibly anyways.
 
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It's not even like Traders Joes would be the ONLY spot to grocery shop in town..

You don't like, you don't buy :rolleyes
 
SneakerHeathen said:
Master Zik said:
The threat of gentrification and actual gentrification are two different things though. Ignoring that a Trader Joe's in that community would not be the first step in the process of gentrifying a community I can understand why they banded together to reject if they felt there were already other signs of it possibly happening.
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exactly my point....dude.

that's why it's like splitting hairs.


EVERY TIME there is a perceived threat of gentrification we're going to stop a project dead in its tracks whether or not there is an imminent threat?


it's a process, but for fear of it actually happening let's prevent something that hey, could actually be a boon to the community.....


Again if it was knocking down public housing for a minor league stadium or some other nonsense I'd be shouting gentrification. But not everything has to be threatened gentrification.



It's an empty ******* lot b. An EMPTY LOT.
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They can turn the empty lot in to something else. It's not even about if the threat is imminent that's not how you stop credible threats (again putting aside if this is a credible threat).

My point was simply that's how real the threat of it is. It's their community so it's up to them what new things set up shop there.

I'd wait a while before you say they're rejecting anything new or anything they perceive as a threat and not then filling the void with something beneficial for the community.

I aint about to go the conspiracy route on this.
 
mholmes87 said:
It's not even like Traders Joes would be the ONLY spot to grocery shop in town..

You don't like, you don't buy :rolleyes
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that's not why people are up in arms.

they're afraid of being priced out of the area in time.

in other words they're afraid that the arrival of corporate retailers will eventually increase property values and taxes to the point where they can no longer afford to live in their area.

they feel like they're not going to be the one's benefitting and the people who are actually benefitting are wealthy and upper-middle class individuals.


but the arrival of TJ's and other retailers to ONE STRIP MALL being built on an EMPTY LOT is not going to gentrify the area.


It JUST DOESN'T WORK THAT WAY.
 
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Property was appraised at $2.9M, and TJ's was offered it for $0.15 on the dollar? No wonder they wanted to put a store there...

Hell, who wants to go in on an independent specialty grocery store with me and move to the Pac NW?
 
My city 
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North and Northeast (esp NE) are already gentrified to the MAX (no public transport pun intended)

Don't get me wrong, there are still some rough areas in N and NE, but Portland has BEEN gentrified for some years now. All the black people moved to Gresham or Vancouver for the most part, so this really shouldn't even be an issue. One could even say New Seasons or Whole Foods (Natures, Wild Oats) gentrified N and NE Portland

The Trader Joes by the Panera Cares used to be the spot for the tamales, suprisingly. Cheap, healthy, good food, don't see what the problem is

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SneakerHeathen said:
but it's not gentrification unless the process has already begun.

i.e. an influx of wealthier individuals than pre-existing residents have already started residing in the area.


a company like trader joes brings more money/jobs/opportunities for that community.


they're shooting themselves in the foot. crabs in a barrel.

worried about being "priced" out of the area, as if people are going to come a runnin' to a low-income neighborhood because there's a trader joe's there.

gentrification is a process, and a trader joe's can be a boon to the area.


you know who it is going to price out? people who can't pay their own way. too bad. stop living off dat government cheese. I'm sure there's residents of the neighborhood who'd like for the area to become upwardly mobile.


who are these "local community leaders" I'd like to hear from them. seems like they have s skewed idea of what gentrification is.

if they were knocking down a project building for luxury condos, that'd be the start of the gentrification process. a new business like trader joe's alone is not the start of the process.

when leadership goes wrong.
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You ever been to Portland fam, and not in the last 5 years?

You know how many houses that have been there since I was a kid are getting torn down to make way for luxury town homes?

A lot

For anyone who has never been, let me tell you: the gentrification is REAL. There used to be basically no white people in the sabin neighborhood 25 years ago, now that's all there is with the exception of a few old back families that can still pay the skyrocketing mortgage 
 
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SneakerHeathen said:
but it's not gentrification unless the process has already begun.

i.e. an influx of wealthier individuals than pre-existing residents have already started residing in the area.


a company like trader joes brings more money/jobs/opportunities for that community.


they're shooting themselves in the foot. crabs in a barrel.

worried about being "priced" out of the area, as if people are going to come a runnin' to a low-income neighborhood because there's a trader joe's there.

gentrification is a process, and a trader joe's can be a boon to the area.


you know who it is going to price out? people who can't pay their own way. too bad. stop living off dat government cheese. I'm sure there's residents of the neighborhood who'd like for the area to become upwardly mobile.


who are these "local community leaders" I'd like to hear from them. seems like they have s skewed idea of what gentrification is.

if they were knocking down a project building for luxury condos, that'd be the start of the gentrification process. a new business like trader joe's alone is not the start of the process.

when leadership goes wrong.
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yet have no issues with tons of churches,dollar stores, shoe stores, liquor stores, check cashing, weave/beauty supply stores and walmarts etc,,,,,build like wildflowers and actually do take and provide nothing for the community but dropping down property values/
 
ObeahMyal7 said:
Of course you don't know of anyone because you have a distorted understanding about how the process works. Its not about moving in to shop at Tj's or starbucks. Its about other retailers who rely on a corporate pioneer to set up shop, test the waters, and then follow suit. 
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Yup. Pretty much. It's just the start and then the changes come after. SF is a little different as it's always been going through a process but man, boy are they in a hurry. The area known as Dog Patch was just a max off land with industrial buildings and what not. Nothing was going on there. However many years later, SF does the boldest thing and moves the Giants right smack dab in the heart of SF and it's done wonders for that whole area. Bring in tech business like Twitter, Drop Box, etc and here comes the bulldozers and what not making tons of condos around there. Just wait till the new Warriors coliseum goes up. My friend bought this insanely expensive 1 bedroom condo for $800k and by the end of it, it will be well worth a million dollars.
 
Yeah, Fog. I live in SF and the pace of displacement is astonishing. To ride through the TL and notice the beefed up police presence engaged in the criminalization of the poor is hard to ignore. The innumerable for sale signs on both commercial and residential property creates the impression of an orchestrated force at work. 

Htown: thank's for the insight. You provide some useful historic background on race, space, and displacement that was severely missing from both the article and this discussion.

As for Sneakerheathen...you don't get it. But there's actually something far worse than your misunderstanding of gentrification. All of this "EBT," Mcdonalds, obesity talk betray your own ideological disdain for the working poor. Laden with racialized stereotypes, your arguments draw nothing from the actual material conditions of the folks who live there. In all your ideological laziness you allow slogans to stand in for conducting a modicum of research on the demographics and community organizations who protested TJ's. 
 
So is trader joes racist or something I didn't read anything in this thread but op post
 
Haha kinda there too. Is trader joes a poverty market or is it too expensive? I don't get it. I've never heard of the store and I'm not reading these essays these guys are typing out
 
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ObeahMyal7 said:
As for Sneakerheathen...you don't get it. But there's actually something far worse than your misunderstanding of gentrification. All of this "EBT," Mcdonalds, obesity talk betray your own ideological disdain for the working poor. Laden with racialized stereotypes, your arguments draw nothing from the actual material conditions of the folks who live there. In all your ideological laziness you allow slogans to stand in for conducting a modicum of research on the demographics and community organizations who protested TJ's. 
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right, so instead of addressing my argument call me a racist.


that works.


bolding your ******** doesn't make it any more valid. good job ducking the premise of my argument.
 
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bhergh said:
So is trader joes racist or something I didn't read anything in this thread but op post
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Wanting to build a grocery store is not racist. Neither is not wanting to build one because you don't want to cave into the ridiculous demands of the people who oppose it. If anything, the racists are the opponents, who assume there's some sort of ulterior motive on the part of the evil white grocery conglomerate. If that's how you're going to live your life, then you deserve everything that's coming (or, in this case, not coming...which includes much-needed jobs, and such).
 
SneakerHeathen said:
right, so instead of addressing my argument call me a racist.


that works.


bolding your ******** doesn't make it any more valid. good job ducking the premise of my argument.
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Cedric Ceballos said:
Truth.
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Ducking? Let's move point by point. The quotes are your words, by the way. 

1. You state that its "not gentrification unless the process has already begun."

     a. But who  determines when a process has begun? Is there some sort of billboard that gets posted? 

2. Opposition to TJ's an example of "crabs in a barrel."

     a. The metaphor is not apt. The metaphor assumes that everyone (existing residents, the wealthy, TJ's, etc) is confined to the same  barrel. But             this contradicts your earlier "premise" about gentrification: as a battle over space between "wealthier individuals" and "pre-existing residents."            A more precise encapsulation is more like crabs getting dumped out of the barrel into foreign sea's.

3. That Trader Joe's can be a "boon" to the area and be a facilitator of gentrification are not contradictions. In fact they are quite    

    complementary. 

4. You're not a racist. Your just an ideologue who relies on racialized stereotypes. You are an ideologue in that you assume that upward mobility is       hindered by reliance on the state and that 'pulling yourself up by your own bootstraps' the way to achieve a decent standard of    

    living. Your declarations (i.e. "stop living off dat government cheese") not in the least reflect the racialization of poverty.  

5. Kudos. Knocking down public housing projects in favor of luxury condo's is  a form  of gentrification. But its not the only means by which people are displaced, which is at the core of any understanding of gentrification.  

6. I don't know what you mean by "community leadership." I take that its yet another one of your convenient slogans that you use instead of clearly articulating just what you mean. 

7. I don't know where you've been and what you've seen. 

8. "If the area is in proximity to other more wealthier neighborhoods the process of gentrification was more than likely already underway." 

   a. Teleological statement that assumes the inevitability of the process. A statement that ignores the uneven pace with which gentrification

       operates. Unclear, contradictory sense of time: "more than likely" yet "already." 

9. Kudos. Yes there are more jobs. The question is who secures those jobs. Perhaps there are more "opportunities." But you didn't define what you

    meant by opportunities. Again, election season is over. 

10. I don't know why you brought up James Baldwin. Just in case here is the transcript from an conversation between James Baldwin and Kenneth

      Clark. You will find exactly what I said on page one: the historic memory of urban renewal as negro      

      removal. http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/mlk/sfeature/sf_video_pop_04b_tr_qt.html

11. Gentrification is a trickle. Urban Renewal is a bulldozer. If you don't fix your faulty pipes and that leak persists, the ceiling collapses. The pace

     of  destruction is undoubtedly different, yet the effect just the same. 

12. An empty lot right now. But as I mentioned in my first post: The redevelopment plan called for an additional 4-10 businesses. The question is, in total, how will these new businesses facilitate, if at all, gentrification?

14. "Truth." Bolded and quoted for emphasis. 
 
dudes in low-income areas are on EBT, deal with it.

Not true a lot of the new 6th street area austin on ebt and its middle to upper class. Me and the misses pull in 120 k combined and live in the low income area . Some folks in the thread are throwing a blanket statement on low income individual.
I see this as some older resident trying to preserve what the have in a community without hustle of a big box store. Yeah they need jobs possible but they can build a community center just as well to create jobs.

they think that the TJ's won't take their EBT.[/quote]
 
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