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At-large candidates don't have much to say about Whole Foods issue in JP
By adamg on Fri, 11/04/2011 - 7:26am
The Jamaica Plain Gazette quizzed the seven candidates on some JP-specific issues. Only JP resident Sean Ryan had any criticisms of the way the Jamaica Plain Neighborhood Council handled the matter.
Speaking of the neighborhood council, the Gazette also reports that among the Whose Foods protesters outside the new store on its opening day earlier this week was Ben Day, the council's new chairman.
Day said that he was there to support locally owned businesses, affordable housing and culturally appropriate food in Hyde Square.
The Gazette did not say when Day is planning protests outside the Rent-a-Center or CVS or whether he considers Scottish food culturally appropriate for Hyde Square.
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Comments
Nice one, Adam
Zing!
Just one opinion from South Street, where we take any businesses we can get: Ben Day is a wank.
Caledonia!
I love the bit about Scottish food. Am imagining protests against haggis, neeps & Scotch Eggs. Take that King Edward!
JPNC is even more of a joke now....
so, cans of chemical infused msg junk is culturally appropriate? or the package of 'ground family' my buddy took a picture of at Hi Lo, family of what squirrels?
hey look
Hey look at the other protester's clever Halloween costumes. They're dressed like cute little hipsters.
I hate the young as much as anybody
I'm starting to see their point on this one though. I don't know how they are surviving in this job market with how much it costs to live in Boston, and on top of that the older people with cushy jobs are making snarky comments.
It's really fun to be a good person and wave your Whole Foods re-bag in everybody's face when your "partner" is working for the city and you get full health insurance. To everybody else it's nauseating.
Just because one would like
Just because one would like to live in Boston, doesn't mean one can afford to live in Boston. So, maybe it's time for those in this situation to accept that they can't live in Boston at this moment. Some people busted their ass for many years to earn these jobs that pay well that afford them to be able to live in Boston, shop at Whole Foods to buy organic bananas, etc.
Zing!
Not to mention 7-Eleven, which has been peddling questionably edible stuff that probably shouldn't qualify as food at high prices to the people in that area for years.
7-11
I challenge you to find anywhere else that sells a gallon of milk for $2.99. They've got my business.
Every other package store in the city?
And just the 1% (which yes, is what we get anyway in this health-concious household).
Fwiw, as tony a food monger as Roche Brothers usually has milk on sale two weeks out of four for about $3/gallon. Like this week - and you can even get 2% and whole!
I love it!
"included things like a request for a dedicated, community-run fund to support JP non-profits and a commitment by Whole Foods about what percentage of its hires would be local."
1.Yes, because all supermarket chains give up a portion of it's profits to the first group of holdovers with a Sharpie and a perceived cause.
2. Well, then I'm glad we have someone who is going to finally stop Whole Foods from hiring all those migrant workers. You know, the ones from Allston or Roxbury. "Sorry, unemployed for 18 months person, even thought you're qualified, if you're not from JP, you can go fuck yourself, because the Neighborhood Council says so"
Give it up, assholes.If you really want to work on a cause that matters to us all, go volunteer for Elizabeth Warren. She needs the help!
Right?
And I thought Cambridge had some wackadoo's. These people are the cartoon carbon copy version of what conservatives see libruls as.
Good thing were berate them. The smart people in the GOP should take note.
No Arroyo!
I will vote on Tuesday for anyone who isn't Arroyo. The Gazette articles were helpful--they reminded me how angry I was about this Whole Foods nonsense a few weeks ago.
It goes from bad
to worse. Another newly-elected member of the JPNC is Martha Rodriguez, the woman in this video with the pink hair:
http://jamaicaplain.patch.com/articles/video-whole...
I don't agree with Martha's opinions on this issue...
But do note--it was a Halloween costume.
control freak
...'culturally appropriate food'? Day is clearly a self-righteous schmuck if he thinks he is in charge of determining what is appropriate for a diverse community to be able to sell / purchase in their own neighborhood. Am I not allowed to purchase a bagel because I'm not Jewish? Nor am I of Mexican descent, so therefore I shouldn't be making tacos at home? Polish sausages shall be BANNED for sale in JP since the Polish community does not constitute a sufficient percentage of JP?
More like condescending and paternalistic
If this is what he really believes, then he might as well go door to door distributing a list of all of the foods that poor, poor ethnic people in the community are permitted to eat without shame. Because they might be straying from the cultural norms we've assigned to them! Madness!
Seriously, JP has descended into self parody.
ITA
This whole thing becomes more embarrassing and cringe-worthy with each passing day. I mean--hey! There's a new Ethiopian restaurant that opened nearby--INAPPROPRIATE! Unless you're Ethiopian of course. As a card-carrying bleeding heart liberal, I find the whole thing appalling--it's as if they've made our neighborhood some absurd caricature of goofy, misguided leftitude.
Still, what exactly constitutes "culturally appropriate" foods?
Did they ever specify?
Black beans & 30-lb. sacks of white rice?
Fried chicken & watermelon?
Spaghetti & marinara sauce?
Sushi & edamame?
Crab Rangoons & Pork Fried Rice?
Canadian bacon?
Cuban sandwiches?
Borscht & vodka?
I think the Haggis is a nice start, though. Let's keep it coming!
Is pizza culturally appropriate?
I didn't know we had such a large Italian community in Hyde Square since there are about 5 or 6 pizza shops within a 5 minute walk.
These people would be dangerous if they weren't such buffoons. My favorite was the whose foods guy (Brian Squadrille) that was elected to a seat on the JPNC and immediately resigned because he didn't have time for it due to working two jobs, one of which was at Trader Joe's.
You can't make this stuff up.
The more I think about this...
The angrier I get. Yes, I know this is a functionally powerless and pointless council, but the thought that they even THINK that they are responsibly representing JP ticks me off. This is the LEADER of the JPNC and the best way he can think to "support locally owned businesses, affordable housing and culturally appropriate food (whatever the heck that means--moldy cilantro and malodorous meat from the belated Hi-Lo?) is to protest a supermarket that has already donated over $40k to local organizations? Has he talked to any locally owned businesses, because last I heard, the bodega owners and other Hyde Square business owners were thrilled about the arrival of WF? Has he made any plausible connection between WF and rising neighborhood rents, because as far as I know, home prices in JP have been skyrocketing for years, maybe peaking in 2007 or so? And please yes--let's let this daft council decide what any of us may or may not eat for dinner, based on their notions of cultural appropriateness. God forbid a Dominican-born Spanish-speaker want to buy some fresh vegetables or some naturally-raised meat--don't those folks just live on rice and plantains and blue juice? Sheesh.
None of the evidence
backs up the claims made by the JPNC Whole Foods Ad Hoc Committee. When the laundromat across from the new Whole Foods closed this summer, Whose Foods clamored about the coming gentrification. A new business indeed took over: another laundromat! The JP Patch is today reporting that a house for sale on Forbes Street (a few blocks away from the new Whole Foods) is being listed for $50,000 LESS than it was originally listed at this summer. Rumor has it that yet another pizza place is about to open in the old June Bug space. The old Fat Ram's is supposed to be getting a standard Hyde Square convenience store, not a Starbucks. And so far, traffic hasn't been bad at all because people are walking and taking the bus to the store. Most importantly, Whole Foods hired EVERY ex-Hi Lo employee who interviwed with the company. Many of them are working at the JP store. How exactly is that hurting working people in the neighborhood?
There is overwhelming support in JP for disbanding the JPNC. If the new council persists in their current course of action, I predict that will happen sooner rather than later.
Make It Work
As posted on JP Patch:
Get that disdained JPNC cooking again with a broader base of issues. It is what you make it. But it needs to be fostered as the designated public forum for processing JP issues by DIVERSE people with DIVERSE opinions. It's strength/power lies in the people who make it the "voice" by mutual agreement. All need to uphold the covenant and sublimate a little ego for the greater good.
Don't kid yourselves; without a viable JPNC, JP is a sitting duck to lose a great deal of self determination. ....Or go it alone, and watch how it gets divided and conquered.
So how can we get rid of the Neighborhood Council?
Sally, I agree that they are ridiculous. But still, there they are. They've descended even lower into absurdity than they had been before the recent "election". Can we ask the mayor to disband them? Can we talk to our other elected representatives? I wonder if there is a process that one can follow to eliminate this silly pretense.