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A formal ad-hoc committee on Whole Foods
By adamg on Mon, 03/21/2011 - 12:15pm
The Jamaica Plain Neighborhood Council's newly formed Whole Foods Ad Hoc Committee holds its first meeting on Tuesday, March 22, starting at 7 p.m. in the middle classroom of the First Baptist Church, 633 Centre St.reet.
At this first meeting, the committee will work to establish the goals of the ad hoc group, as well as determining the best way to include members of the community in the process. Like all of our meetings, this one is open to the public, but will be a meeting of the committee members only, not a public forum.
The council narrowly voted to seek an alternative to Whole Foods for the closed Hi-Lo market.
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Comments
Isn't this the committee
that should have been formed and the process that should have taken place BEFORE the JPNC voted that Whole Foods doesn't belong in JP?
JP priorities
I used to visit a friend in JP occasionally a couple years ago. On two different days, while walking to or from the Green St. T station, I heard what I was pretty sure were gunshots.
Before spending all their time kicking out grocery stores, JP should first kick out the criminals.
let me guess...
...you live in Cambridge?
Things are tough in the war zone.
I will never get tired of watching people who haven't been in a city in five years out themselves while thinking they are making a devastating point. I'm sure it was gunshots, anon--that's just Occam's Razor. We can't go a day here without someone unloading a clip into the front of the Harvest. If only that neighborhood coalition would get off their asses and start enforcing the laws in this miserable town! As is clearly their responsibility!
It's pure bedlam down in the '130, anon. Human sacrifice, dogs and cats living together... mass hysteria! You'd better keep yourself safe, and not set foot in this part of Boston again until things calm down. Don't worry about us natives... we've got food and water to last us a few weeks. We'll try to keep our heads above water, and let you know how things shake out.
I will never get tired of
I will never get tired of reading people defending JP and calling them out for trying to play it off like it's a perfectly safe little bohemian paradise & crime doesn't happen here....except for the annual long list of violent murders, assaults, illegal firearms arrests, drug dealing arrests, shootouts, muggings, breaking an enterings, thefts, smash n grabs, etc. Just because it hasn't happened to you doesn't mean it's not happening. I've lived near Stoneybrook for many years and have heard gunshots out my window more than once. Hell...my neighbor was robbed at gunpoint in front of my house @ 11:30 one night. Another occasion I was able to fend off/evade a mugging at knifepoint one night walking home from the T. Last year 5 different people were robbed @ gunpoint in 1 night on Boylston between City Feed and Centre St near my place. A girl in her mid-20's was thrown to the ground and beaten for her backpack on Paul Gore St by 2 thugs last summer. A kid was executed on a basketball court on a Monday afternoon a stones throw from my house a couple of years back. Upper Boylston area over to Engleson was like a shooting gallery last summer...8 people shot in 4 days. Murder on Boylston recently. How many bodies have turned up in JP over the last several years? They just found that lady shot dead last month...I remember a body found over near Mozart at 8:00am one morning. A guy stabbed to death on the J-Way near the pond. How about the guy shot to death running up Centre St. @ 1pm in the afternoon collapsing dead in the 99cent store..14 year old gunned down on a basketball court last year. I'll bet the lady out for a nice jog last fall who was accidentally shot in the leg during the Same Old Place pizza shop murders/shootout has a different view of the safety of JP. I could go on and on. I mean..JP has it's good points, but don't make it out to be hippie happy la-la land. Get real...it's still the inner city with daily incedents of crime.
Whoah now
First of all, you counted a few incidents twice. Secondly, Boston has a ridiculously low crime rate and JP specifically isn't the worst area here. There are issues in all parts of Boston.
What incedents were mentioned
What incedents were mentioned twice? The 2 murders I mentioned on basketball courts were 2 years apart, one was a 20 yr old...one was a 14 yr old..not the person.
I wasn't saying it was the worst area...just tired of hearing people spout off about how safe it is when in reality JP has plenty of incedents as crime. I don't see how listing facts is fear-mongering.
Enjoy your property values
MA has a lot of generous programs for the poor, and there's still rampant crime. What do you think will happen if the failing economy means MA's programs become less generous.
"Rampant" crime?
Crime rates in the US in general, and Boston in particular, have been decreasing for the last third of a century - as has been cited many times by contributors to this site (myself included).
Please go peddle your uninformed fear-mongering elsewhere, anonymous coward.
Those were just organic,
Those were just organic, free-range bullets.
Is this news?
Sorry to shoot the messenger, but does this qualify as news? A neighborhood association opposes a private transaction and decides to meet to do what, exactly? Besides providing another forum for the anti-WF set to air their "grievances," I fail to see what this meeting has the potential to accomplish.
suggested agenda
1)Review COMPLETED lease agreement between Hi-Lo owner and Whole Foods.
2)Consult with a legal reference (someone's iPhone 4) on whether a non-governmental organization can nullify, or in fact, have any effect on, said lease.
3)Report from the bulldozer-monitoring sub-sub-committee. Are they parked on Centre Street yet?
4)Take many pictures (using digital SLRs and iPhones) to post to blogs and twitter the next day whilst eating a artisanal sandwich from City Feed, from "the office" (table at JP Licks. CF does not have free wifi.) Note: allow sufficient time for everyone to write down names (clarify spelling of hyphenated names) so that google searches will show how they're representing the community's interests, should they decide to run for government office.
3)Move to adjourn, dissolve the committee, and head to Ten Tables to discuss the terrible cost of rent inflation on Those People. End the night with a tab that surpasses the rent paid on a room by most young, unmarried, professional JP residents.
4)Spend the rest of the evening at a committee member's private home, discussing Larsson and Murakami. Directions to home on Burroughs Street to be provided; feel free to park your hybrid Highlander or Prius in any space saved with an Terje chair if the driveway is full.
I had the beginnings of three snarky replies
But I will abandon any plans to pursue them, and bow in the presence of one of the best replies in Internet history. Well played, Brett.
god damn it
I forgot to work in a Twitter circle-follow!
that woulda been too easy!
Great post.
this is pretty good, even if
this is pretty good, even if I don't get all the JP references. Is the hipster/trust fund crowd really driving the anti-WF agenda? I thought it was the latino faction that is legimitately bummed out that they won't have anywhere to shop for groceries.
It's a combo
Lots of hipsters, lots of Pondside meddlers, and the Latin community.
Although I've seen members of the three groups also support the WF.
Does anyone know what you
Does anyone know what you could get at Hi-Lo that WF will not sell? Just curious...
If you're talking specific products and brands....
You're probably looking at a 5% overlap. At most.
Cheap limes and cheap
Cheap limes and cheap cilantro. If you cook certain types of food as your staple those things can really add up. I will miss HiLo for that. JPNC and JPNDC (the landlords for vast amounts of empty commercial space in the Hyde Sq. area) should be attempting to give some enterprising person the opportunity to open a new and improved market that will sell the things HiLo sold. It could be a win for everyone. That is not something I have heard much about. Instead, they are going to form an "ad hoc" committee. Barf. Let's form an ad hoc committee to disband the JPNC.
Whit
Easy niche to fill
If the cheap limes and cilantro demand is actually high enough, that'd be an easy niche for a local bodega to fill. In Roslindale, that niche is filled by Bob's Pita Bakery.
Cheap limes and cilantro
Sounds like you guys could use a Market Basket.
Whole Foods
What Hyde Square could really use is a food co-op. That is what community activists could do a world of good in creating.
Look, WF is the product of the gentrification spawned by a decrease in crime. Hi-Lo is a private firm that is closing as is the perogative of a private business. As far as I know they are not a subsidized company.
However the needs of the community are real and a co-op could provide the affordabilty that is an economic practicality.
Another alternative would be a publicly owned for profit grocery closely held by Hyde Square residents.
JP already has a food co-op, though
That's what Harvest is, a little further south on Centre Street.
Lots of folks in JP are talking about alternatives
and are trying to move beyond this dead end, divisive debate. Check out the petition at
www.JPforALL.org
The arrival of Whole Foods will be a good thing for JP generally and Hyde Square specifically, especially if we can work together now. Sign the petition, friend the facebook page, and forward the links to all your JP friends and neighbors who want a JP for all!
I would say...
...I ❤ Brett, but that just dredges up Bret Hart memories...brrrrrr.
Duh...
WINNING!
That
That. Was. Awesome.
Yay, Brett.
I think we have an episode of South Park all set to go.
LuLz
It's funny because it's true.
There are many things I love about living in JP. This "community activism" bullshit is not one of them. It's one giant, never ending, increasingly hostile discussion- and if you don't happen to fall in line with whatever agenda the "community" is advocating then you will be faced with some serious nastiness.
Spot on
My wife and I love living in JP--save the BS "look at me" "community activism" that sadly tends to get more attention than it truly merits. Ironically, these "activists" really never target substantive issues like the increased gun violence in certain areas, closing of local schools, or failed development projects. Why? Because it's a hell of a lot easier to rail against a corporate ogre like Whole Foods than work towards real, lasting social change.
And, I'll add that I'm looking forward to buying some overpriced olives and artisan breads at Whole Foods (but, I bet they'll still be cheaper than comparable items find at City Bleed).
Thanks Brett
You just captured the essence of "community activism" in the Boston/Cambridge area.
You could also add something about demanding concessions and mitigations despite the utter lack of legal standing or even "injury".
Now I need to go slake my "Holiday In Cambodia" earworm ...
a formal ad hoc committee on whole foods
Brett, lovely. But actually, if the lease agreement is between two private parties, then no one would be permitted to review it, yes?
How about a moratorium on
How about a moratorium on committees in Jamaica Plain for five years? Maybe something would get done for a change. If those parcels in Forest Hills don't get developed soon, they should be left as is permanently, as a memorial to busybody clusterf*ck community committees.
Perhaps JPNC should have purchased Hi-Lo
but since they did not- sorry, you're SOL. Now get out of the way.
Welcome, Whole Foods!