ETHER or LOL?: Black residents reject Trader Joe’s because it would attract too many white people
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Darth Sidious wrote: »As ShiveDreadz said, the underlying and unsaid issue is fear. Some fear change and others embrace it. The presence of grocery store isn't going to stop whatever change the neighborhood fears so figure out how to get on board or get left behind.
@ the bolded....maybe but whose to say
and sure people fear change, but they also fear being priced out of their homes
naturally they want to see improvements made to their neighborhoods, however they also want to be able to stick around to enjoy these amenities
don't get what's so hard to understand about that
yall act like building a trader joes in that particular neighborhood or any poor neighborhood is the be all and end all... lol
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i love trader joes. and what is wrong with having healthier grocery alternatives? so only white people should get good grocery stores?
aint no trader joes in detroit. perpin ?
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Trader joes must be white because i never heard of it until this thread. Sounds like a home depot type of place. As far as black people rejecting it, i feel like its a lose lose situation. They reject it and they prevent their neighborhood from being taken over and them being pushed out over time, but they lose out in affordable healthy alternative and jobs (im assuming about affordable healthy part, never been there). What blacks meed to do is invest in real estate themselves. Around my way Koreans take over entire shopping centers, same with mexicans and they always look out for they own. Then of course the black people open up a barbershop or men suit store, just one though, not an entire plaza full of black owned businesses. I know there's a rich black lawyer or doctor around here somewhere that could start doing like the Asians and Hispanics.
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Because crackers dont systematically keep black families and black businesses out of their ? .
Keesha's Hair Salon aint in ? neighborhoods is it. Cuz black women arent in white neighborhoods? But ? that breh...these devils...
I dont know where im going with this... -
Personally, I - ... You know what, nevermind.
I always come in at the tail end of these good discussions. -_- -
So u ? just arguing just to argue? Ok.
I'll read the rest of this ? later -
How about turning some of that land into a community garden.
I know it's a small step but it will provide healthier options for the people in the community. -
I'm still trying to see how the people who support this decision can justify it without opposing anything that is good for the community.
Any relatively safe urban area, especially one with nearby stores and services, or which seems poised to attract such, will attract single young professionals and students. So if a black community located in the right area, I don't see how you can improve it without attracting these kinds of people.
The only thing I could see someone saying is that we should attract young single black professionals and students, instead of non-blacks. Nobody is saying this though.
In any case, if that was the solution, you'd still have gentrification; it will just be in black rather than white or some other non-black. Poor black people would still be eventually forced out.
It seems to me that the best thing would be to allow projects like this provided that they are coupled with some commitment by local government to provide some kind of affordable housing.
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they're not really missing much to begin with.
Portland has New Season's which is a super healthy grocery food store anyway.
Its a few of them in all different areas in the city.
I don't think its as expensive as whole foods or as cheap as Trader Joe's -
No matter how much evidence is provided some blacks will welcome this type of ? with hope in their eyes...
This type of ? ain't ever help blacks...
Same with police... Blacks beg for police, beg for arrests... It tears up the community and they still beg for it.
All that glitters ain't gold... -
desertrain10 wrote: »@kai
after reading the article and doing more research myself tens of thousands of minorities and lower income people who lived in portland, in surrounding neighborhoods have already been displaced....its one of the most rapidly gentrifying ZIP codes in the country
with that said it just seems like community leaders are trying to stop the hemorrhaging the best they can
and let's not kid ourselves once trader joes moves into the area than there will be a starbucks, than a jimmy johns, than here comes the whites who commute to work from the suburbs looking to move closer to their jobs and want affordable housing at least compared to what they were used to paying in the suburbs....which ultimately spells disaster for the elderly couple who lived in the neighborhood for over 40 years
so i's not about the retailer but the events it sets into motion
if improvements can be done without raising the cost of living to the point that it pushes the current residents out, wouldn't that be the ideal situation, instead of either extreme?
ideally
but in reality the city of portland and thousands of other cities across the country are obviously not taking the necessary precautions to make sure that people aren't priced out their homes if property taxes, rent increases, etc.....that's the problem
maybe this incident will help keep their neighborhood intact/ people in their homes and get the attention of their city officials
building a specialty store is not necessarily an improvement either ...like others have said they don't exactly cater to the general pop. for instance the retailer in question trader joes don't have meat counters at their smaller locations, they don't carry popular brand names that people have grown to love and trust like kraft, and they don't carry popular household cleaners/toiletries which could turn off a lot of people considering traveling store to store can not only be time consuming but difficult if you are without transportation/ if you are elderly/ if you have kids
yes many low income places are food deserts but building a trader joes in the middle of one of these neighborhoods is like feeding a starving child crumbs
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ThirdEyeFive wrote: »No matter how much evidence is provided some blacks will welcome this type of ? with hope in their eyes...
This type of ? ain't ever help blacks...
Same with police... Blacks beg for police, beg for arrests... It tears up the community and they still beg for it.
All that glitters ain't gold...
But these whites come with health food -
You guys haven't been to Portland.. I can tell
but theres a ton of construction going on in all parts of the city...
A lot of new condominium units and apartment complexes ... Its kind of ridiculous ..
Eventually their will be a bust.. as far as prices go because theres to much inventory.. but thats for
another thread...
Anyways, they might be able to stop a trader Joes (who just Bowed out gracefully) but they probably won't be able to stop
the next Healthy food chain. Its an up hill battle. -
Regarding my last post, here is a story about black gentrifiers in Harlem: http://thegrio.com/2013/12/16/harlem-race-and-gentrification-black-gentrifiers-reflect-on-their-role-in-the-changing-harlem-landscape/
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I don't blame them at all for not trusting Trader Joes move into the area. All they needed was assurance their community would remain intact. The company didn't even try to politic with the people to put they minds at ease.
I applaud them for taking a stand. Trader Joes ain't got a monopoly on nature, they can get their food in other ways. They might even have their own stores already and the corporate giant would be a threat to their local businesses. And while the AA construction company lost a profit, the cookie crumbles like that sometimes.
I do hope that those community leaders do have some kind of plan in place in the mean time however.
This is not a significant or unreasonable loss. They just wanted to protect their land. -
basically from what I'm understanding is not to have a business that attract too many white people. because it will raise prices am i correct?
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chicken shacks on all 4 corners>
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Shuma-Gorath305 wrote: »basically from what I'm understanding is not to have a business that attract too many white people. because it will raise prices am i correct?
Yes.....mainly in terms of rent and property taxes.
Eventually, residents who can't afford the increases have to move out.....the hipster/yuppie types come in.....and the neighborhood is "improved" by getting rid of the people who originally made up the neighborhood.
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Idk, after having given it some thought, I kinda feel some type of way about all this...
While I do agree with Black Communities, such as this one in Portland, being against gentrification, I think that there's another issue that we're not addressing directly ~ The fact that our communities can be gentrified in the first place.
I've lived in Suburbia for at least half of my life, and tbh, I've never looked around and been like, "You know what, this is bullshyt; Like, fundamentally this is just wrong." But I have thought to myself, "Damn, I really wish I had more of my own next door, down the street, at the grocer, etc. Hell, even better would be for US to be the ones running all of this."
The root of this issue isn't Black or White, it's Green.
To be brutally honest, our people need to do better. We need to be able to Own thriving plazas, towns, and cities of our own, so that an attempt at gentrification would be rendered moot, because there isn't anything we can't afford.
Avoiding gentrification is one thing, but not subsequently striving tirelessly to make our own communities affluent, vibrant, communal, family-oriented meccas is almost just as dangerous, imo. -
Idk, after having given it some thought, I kinda feel some type of way about all this...
While I do agree with Black Communities, such as this one in Portland, being against gentrification, I think that there's another issue that we're not addressing directly ~ The fact that our communities can be gentrified in the first place.
I've lived in Suburbia for at least half of my life, and tbh, I've never looked around and been like, "You know what, this is bullshyt; Like, fundamentally this is just wrong." But I have thought to myself, "Damn, I really wish I had more of my own next door, down the street, at the grocer, etc. Hell, even better would be for US to be the ones running all of this."
The root of this issue isn't Black or White, it's Green.
To be brutally honest, our people need to do better. We need to be able to Own thriving plazas, towns, and cities of our own, so that an attempt at gentrification would be rendered moot, because there isn't anything we can't afford.
Avoiding gentrification is one thing, but not subsequently striving tirelessly to make our own communities affluent, vibrant, communal, family-oriented meccas is almost just as dangerous, imo.
Dope post. That's why it flew over some people head that i said black people should welcome business and run it. WE can't just say no to everything and offer nothing. We should have negotiated terms or bought in something similar because it's not like we own the grocers that's in the hood currently. People want to fight for the poor and keep crime ridden neighborhoods with abandoned lots around for decades to give people the ability to gentrify. We should have cleaned up our own hoods when we had the chance by pooling our resources but we want to focus all of our efforts of keeping ? the same and only fight when we see smoke not knowing the fire been lit. I stand corrected with this story because as i said earlier, no store will take the chance to move in a hood that hasn't been gentrified already. Trader Joes respected them, but unfortunately, they wanted to move in because it's already changing and people only just began to fight. I was hopping that they were offering opportunity to different demographics, but we should have given ourselves that opportunity in the first place. Btw, laughing at people accepting healthy food is a ? value to have. -
Let's fall back on the victim blaming a bit.
Blacks compete in this economy with handicaps that have been in place for generations...
Leaders need to demand jobs from city officials and the school systems need to b geared towards some type of industry.
My old neighborhood got gentrified, but many blacks still live there... The schools now teach robotics... Robotics!
When I went there, there were ? vials everywhere... -
Idk, after having given it some thought, I kinda feel some type of way about all this...
While I do bassagree with Black Communities, such as this one in Portland, being against gentrification, I think that there's another issue that we're not addressing directly ~ The fact that our communities can be gentrified in the first place.
I've lived in Suburbia for at least half of my life, and tbh, I've never looked around and been like, "You know what, this is bullshyt; Like, fundamentally this is just wrong." But I have thought to myself, "Damn, I really wish I had more of my own next door, down the street, at the grocer, etc. Hell, even better would be for US to be the ones running all of this."
The root of this issue isn't Black or White, it's Green.
To be brutally honest, our people need to do better. We need to be able to Own thriving plazas, towns, and cities of our own, so that an attempt at gentrification would be rendered moot, because there isn't anything we can't afford.
Avoiding gentrification is one thing, but not subsequently striving tirelessly to make our own communities affluent, vibrant, communal, family-oriented meccas is almost just as dangerous, imo.
No the root of the issue is race..
We dont address it and unit in the face of our shared struggle things won't change
Blacks have been economically oppressed since we were freed from our shackles and practicely quarantined via racist bank and realtor pratices ... while on the other hand after the world wars the government helped to keep, propel whites into the middle, upper class with the GI Bill and helping to spur suburban development...both instances have tremdously helped whites acquire the status they still enjoy today
And most these quarantines for blks or what they like to now refer to as ghettos werent always havens for crime and violence....Not to long ago these "ghettos" for instance areas of portland, new york, detroit, the places experiencing gentrification were thriving sanctuaries for blks of every class who again werent welcomed into white neighborhoods...that is all the way up until the drug trade, which was left at their doorstep, and the winds of free trade devasted their communties leaving them literally barren
And its isnt for a lack of effort from the
residents of these places and the remaining predominantly blk neighborhoods today who are fearful of being one day priced out their homes. They are trying to improve things in their own way...its just going to take time to recover from these ailments
Obviously gentrification artificially speeds up the process to a speed not many can match, especially the elderly and people with children...and thats the problem.... Well that and the flight of the blk middle, upper class the last 40, 50 years to white areas instead of sticking around or reaching back to invest in the place they once called home
That brings brings we back to my point of the lack of unity. Its too many don lemons. And too many blk americans for whatever reason have adopted this european concept of individualism at the expense of the collective.
Now its hard to see where we would get the resources and manpower to turn around our situation quick enough to regain our footing...With so much of our wealth tied into home ownership the housing crash has crippled much of the blk middle class today. Not to mention the hurdles many blk face getting a job, procuring a business loan...
While ur not totally wrong, improving our situation is easier said than done
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wendell price AKA BUNK from the wire just started his own grocery chain they need to give his ass a call.
http://dailynightly.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/04/02/17571711-food-for-thought-an-actors-new-role-in-the-grocery-store?lite -
desertrain10 wrote: »That brings brings we back to my point of the lack of unity. Its too many don lemons. And too many blk americans for whatever reason have adopted this european concept of individualism at the expense of the collective.
That's more of an American trait because Europeans stick with their own countrymen. Italians support Italians and Irish support Irish. They are very nationalistic over there. The individualism came from the wild west. -
Yea there is one of those like 15 mins from where i live , in marrero.
Took over a vacant winn dixie.
