Bomb squad getting suited up at Whole Foods. Photo by Brian.
UPDATE, 12:55 p.m. Whatever was in the suitcase determined to not be a threat.
Managers evacuated the Whole Foods at 15 Westland Ave. around noon when they discovered an unattended stainless-steel briefcase just sitting there, inside the entrance.
The BPD bomb squad is on scene; firefighters are staging down the street, just in case they're needed.
Patty Neal reports:
Whole Foods is totally out of organic bagged carrots!
The Herald reports on the confluence of townies and toonies - or as one townie called them, "yuppadoos" - at the opening of Charlestown's new Whole Foods.
Including the ones in Charlestown, Brookline and Somerville and Arlington, the Globe reports.
The Boston Business Journal reports the chain has signed a lease for the development going in where the Herald used to be.
Jason Schwartz says:
The South End getting a Whole Foods is sort of like its own version of achieving manifest destiny.
The grocery store goes before the Boston Licensing Board next Wednesday for permission to sell prepared food for consumption on the premises - including on a 16-seat outdoor patio it wants to operate in nice weather between 8 a.m. and 10 p.m.
Licensing board hearings start at 10 a.m. in the board's 8th floor hearing room at City Hall.
JP Patch reports the Whole Foods in Jamaica Plain will be seeking a license to let people eat its food on the premises, both inside and outside.
Zipping along the aisles.
Patty Neal reports spotting somebody shopping on a Segway in the Jamaica Plain Whole Foods today:
The gentrification is now complete.
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.
Neither community opponents nor union picketers could stop it, the Jamaica Plain Gazette reports.
Roving UHub photographer Gretchen snapped the new Whole Foods sign in Hyde Square this morning, adds:
I chatted with the workmen this morning and discovered I wasn't the only person who had stopped to take pictures.
The Jamaica Plain Gazette reports at least three anti-Whole Foods candidates won seats in the Saturday election for the advisory council, which saw turnout of twice as much as the 2009 elections.
Today's Election Day in Jamaica Plain, for seats on the Jamaica Plain Neighborhood Council (one of the polling places is at JP Licks - vote, buy some ice cream, it's a wonderful thing). Steve Garfield, who lives in Jamaica Plain, posted a copy of a flier distributed around the neighborhood urging votes for non-anti-Whole-Foods candidates (this is JP after all), and wonders who's behind it (since it has no identification on it):
Till 7:00 PM, vote at Forest Hills T stop, JP Licks, Stop and Shop.
More info:http://www.jpnc.org/
Julio Varela posts a statement by Whole Foods in response to Whose Foods' demand it fork over 1% of its annual revenues to stop gentrification in the neighborhood, and the Jamaica Plan Neighborhood Council's sorta demand it create a fund specifically for use by JP community groups:
The Jamaica Plain Gazette keeps us up to date on the JP Neighborhood Council, which is now busy "redesigning" the agreement it may or may not want Whole Foods to sign and which it may or may not have discussed with the company at a meeting that may or may not have left the door open to further negotiations earlier this month.
Exactly what, however, is a secret, the Jamaica Plain Gazette reports:
“We'll certainly share info when we can, but we're concerned that sharing with the public what we’re asking before we ask it could compromise the effort and be perceived as acting in bad faith," said a statement from the JPNC's "Negotiating Team" sent to the Gazette by member and council chair Andrea Howley.
The Globe reports on a meeting between Whole Foods and select members of the Jamaica Plain Neighborhood Council:
After the meeting, representatives from the supermarket chain said the neighborhood council did not ask officials from Whole Foods Market to sign a deal, but simply discussed a list of requests and topics.
The Jamaica Plain Gazette reports on the upcoming election for seats on the advisory Jamaica Plain Neighborhood Council. It turns out only one publicly pro-Whole Foods candidate is running: A guy who, in an interview with the Gazette, kept complaining about the "far, bizarre left" politics of current council members.
Help keep Universal Hub going. If you like what we're up to and want to help out, please consider a (completely non-deductible) contribution.
