Trader Joe's Store Attract too Many Whites?!

Off Topic
41

[quote]gregron wrote:
This actually makes sense and isn’t as much of a race issue as people (racists) want to make it.

The community doesn’t want a store like trader joes coming in because it is the beginning of making the neighborhood nicer. First it’s a trader joes then it’s Starbucks and the next thing you know it’s a nice suburban neighborhood with increased property costs that the “locals” may not be able to afford.

The neighborhood, theoretically, would be newer, nicer and more desirable which potentially could drive out the lower income locals. It’s not a race thing as much as it is an economic one.

I get it.[/quote]

The article I read said that the majority of locals were in favor of the project and that the lobby group behind the protest was based outside of the community.

42

[quote]magick wrote:

[quote]LoRez wrote:
I’m actually interested in how this plays out… does a community have the right to dictate the businesses allowed to operate in it, presuming those businesses operate legally?
[/quote]

I believe so.

I know a number of high-income communities explicitly prevent stores that would draw lower-income people from setting up shop in their communities.

That’s basically the same thing that’s going on here.[/quote]

Here in DC, “high end” neighborhoods like Georgetown and Dupont put a moratorium on restaurant and liquor licenses 10-20 years ago in an attempt to keep out the unsavory nighttime crowd. Now DC is developing like crazy, and areas that previously tried to preserve their upper class status are losing out significantly due to stagnation.

There’s also the whole age old story of how Georgetown doesn’t have a Metro stop because they didn’t want metro access to infringe on their community. A similar story has been said about Baltimore and how its subway line only runs through the bad areas.

Anyway… Almond butter and organic, free-range, pasture fed chocolate covered cherries for everyone! I feel like 80% of what TJ’s sells is just organic/gluten free junk food.

43

[quote]Aggv wrote:

[quote]sufiandy wrote:

[quote]on edge wrote:
A TJ’s finally opened in my town about two years ago and you know what kind of people it seems to attract? Wrong.

It attracts good looking women. Love Trader Joe’s.[/quote]

The best I’ve seen was a whole foods in an upper class area on a weekday middle of the day, all the hot women who don’t have to work were shopping then.[/quote]

The whole foods in Irvine, Ca is also top notch, amazingly they have african american shoppers as well. [/quote]

The same is true in Studio City CA. And in Sherman Oaks. And in Woodland Hills. And Santa Monica. I have also seen all sorts of people at Food 4 Less too.

I have seen people from all walks of life who work and shop at stores like Trader Joes and Whole Foods.

I question this whole protest, it could have been bought and paid for for all we know. There is a company called Crowds on Demand, who will provide paid protesters to show up for any political reason you wish.

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Campaigns need manpower and they need it quickly. We can provide that manpower to give your candidate or cause the edge. We can send supporters to a rally, (respectfully) protest outside opposition events, and help with regular campaign tasks such as canvassing or phone-banking.

Our operations in the two largest metropolitan areas in California makes us a perfect choice for ballot measure campaigns. We are available to do elections at all levels from neighborhood politics to national elections.

I am wondering if this is more about stopping the positive gentrification of an area, keeping it “friendly” for low-income people.

44

[quote]gregron wrote:
This actually makes sense and isn’t as much of a race issue as people (racists) want to make it.

The community doesn’t want a store like trader joes coming in because it is the beginning of making the neighborhood nicer. First it’s a trader joes then it’s Starbucks and the next thing you know it’s a nice suburban neighborhood with increased property costs that the “locals” may not be able to afford.

The neighborhood, theoretically, would be newer, nicer and more desirable which potentially could drive out the lower income locals. It’s not a race thing as much as it is an economic one.

I get it.[/quote]

How do increased property values hurt the people in the community? I don’t get it.

45

[quote]Steel Nation wrote:

[quote]gregron wrote:
This actually makes sense and isn’t as much of a race issue as people (racists) want to make it.

The community doesn’t want a store like trader joes coming in because it is the beginning of making the neighborhood nicer. First it’s a trader joes then it’s Starbucks and the next thing you know it’s a nice suburban neighborhood with increased property costs that the “locals” may not be able to afford.

The neighborhood, theoretically, would be newer, nicer and more desirable which potentially could drive out the lower income locals. It’s not a race thing as much as it is an economic one.

I get it.[/quote]

How do increased property values hurt the people in the community? I don’t get it.[/quote]

Increased property values means higher rents, higher property taxes, etc.

The increased costs may be a burden to those who may not be able to afford them.

46

Real sorry for the derail but I need this question answered,
@Steel Nation do you remember a thread you posted in that you went into great detail on your progressions on your lifts? I need that for my bookmarks lol thanks

47

[quote]MaximusB wrote:

[quote]Steel Nation wrote:

[quote]gregron wrote:
This actually makes sense and isn’t as much of a race issue as people (racists) want to make it.

The community doesn’t want a store like trader joes coming in because it is the beginning of making the neighborhood nicer. First it’s a trader joes then it’s Starbucks and the next thing you know it’s a nice suburban neighborhood with increased property costs that the “locals” may not be able to afford.

The neighborhood, theoretically, would be newer, nicer and more desirable which potentially could drive out the lower income locals. It’s not a race thing as much as it is an economic one.

I get it.[/quote]

How do increased property values hurt the people in the community? I don’t get it.[/quote]

Increased property values means higher rents, higher property taxes, etc.

The increased costs may be a burden to those who may not be able to afford them.
[/quote]
^^this.

Property value goes up, taxes go up for owners and rent goes up for renters.

If this is a very low income area, and I’m assuming that it is based on the article, then I don’t see the current residents having the extra income to afford such rising costs.

Again, not that I think this is a great idea but if can see where the opposition is coming from. It isn’t about race as much as it is about economics.

48

I have no doubt the “community organizers” will recant and welcome TJ’s with open arms…as soon as they get theirs.

This is textbook stuff, as taught by Rev. JJ: http://www.solargeneral.com/jeffs-archive/black-civil-wrongs/jesse-shakedown-jackson-gets-beer-distributorship-for-son/

49

[quote]WhiteFlash wrote:
It’s Portland, the most backward ass place on the planet. It’s hard to describe how fucking weird that place is unless you’ve lived there. As fucking racist as this whole thing is, I’d bet dollars to donuts that there are WHITE picketers along for the ride. Fuckin’ Portland. [/quote]

Doesn’t the pacific northwest have an incredibly high white population? I think in even most major cities, Whites make up 80-90%.

50

Trader Joes pays employees $13 an hour on average with benefits. Probably more than most people in that community make and can be an improvement in the quality of life of anyone that is employed. Plus the food is cheaper and better than probably any other grocery store in the area.

51

I think maybe they just don’ want the kind of white people that go to Trader Joe’s. You know the kind and I don’t like them either.

52

[quote]Nards wrote:
I think maybe they just don’ want the kind of white people that go to Trader Joe’s. You know the kind and I don’t like them either.[/quote]

I go to Trader Joe’s, Nards.

53

[quote]Totenkopf wrote:

[quote]WhiteFlash wrote:
It’s Portland, the most backward ass place on the planet. It’s hard to describe how fucking weird that place is unless you’ve lived there. As fucking racist as this whole thing is, I’d bet dollars to donuts that there are WHITE picketers along for the ride. Fuckin’ Portland. [/quote]

Doesn’t the pacific northwest have an incredibly high white population? I think in even most major cities, Whites make up 80-90%.[/quote]

There were way more blacks up there than I expected. I lived right outside the St. John’s district, and my neighborhood was pretty damn diverse. My neighbors on either side of me were a black couple and an interracial couple. Also, of the two gyms I frequented, one was in the Pearl district where the crowd was more white, but still fairly mixed, and the other was in mall 205, where the crowd was mostly brothers. I’m from Houston, the most diverse city in the country, so it was “whiter” than I’m used to, but it’s not like walking through a Rockwell painting. Tacoma (about halfway from Portland to Seattle) had quite a few blacks, and the Asian community is pretty dense throughout the entire Pac Northwest.

Overall, it was more diverse than I anticipated, and people seemed to generally get along with one another. Almost everyone up there is so afraid of being “un-pc” that I could see how some racist shisters would pull something like this and no white person saying anything for fear of being “that guy”. Watch Portlandia, that’s not satire. That’ll give y’all a pretty good glimpse into life in Portland.

54

“Gentrification” is such a bullshit term. I mean, if a neighborhood (or a ghetto) with high crime, high substance abuse, etc… IMPROVES, “what’s the problem”, you say? It’s not reactionary, class warfare, “reverse” racist, entitlement bullshit. It’s a talking point of a SYMPTOM, not a PROBLEM. The problem is that there are millions of minorities in shitty neighborhoods with shitty schools and shitty teachers and shitty police that perpetuate a shitty situation (I do realize that the legacy of slavery and segregation is far more complex than just labeling it as a “shitty situation”). Instead of “healing” the issue at a fundamental level, it’s been a cascade of band aid superficial “fixes” over the years that have proven to be ineffective. That’s what this is about. It’s not that “black people don’t want good jobs or good food”. They want the American Dream.

As I’ve mentioned before, I’ve been pretty lucky with real estate. I bought a condo back in '04 just south of Logan Circle in DC. Back then, it was on the “wrong side” of 16th street. But it was walking distance to the U st corridor, Adams Morgan, K st and Dupont - all my favorite night spots back in the day. So I bought this shitty little 700 sqft condo for 125K - it was more of a “smash pad” than anything, the mortgage was cheaper than all the cab fare I would spend a month cabbing it to DC / getting a hotel room.

Then they built a Whole Foods two blocks away. Then came the Yoga studios, the salons, the music stores, the trendy bars, THREE coffee shops (not Starbucks - that was so last decade! lol), the bars and restaurants with bloody mary menus for Sunday brunches and a felafel shop. Don’t forget the yogurt shop! So it “gentrified” and completely transformed the neighborhood in just a couple of years. I sold that condo for 350K cuz it was now on the “right side” of 12th street.

I did not see a lot of locals benefiting from the “affluence”. There were not many “lower class” minorities working the registers at the Whole Foods. Certainly not teaching in the Yoga studios. Pretty much didn’t see a whole lot of that “benefit” going to those who were there in the neighborhood before it was “cool”. You can call that racism. You can call it class warfare. But you can’t call it FAIR to those who lived there “before the white man came and took their land”…

55

[quote]angry chicken wrote:
“Gentrification” is such a bullshit term. I mean, if a neighborhood (or a ghetto) with high crime, high substance abuse, etc… IMPROVES, “what’s the problem”, you say? It’s not reactionary, class warfare, “reverse” racist, entitlement bullshit. It’s a talking point of a SYMPTOM, not a PROBLEM. The problem is that there are millions of minorities in shitty neighborhoods with shitty schools and shitty teachers and shitty police that perpetuate a shitty situation (I do realize that the legacy of slavery and segregation is far more complex than just labeling it as a “shitty situation”). Instead of “healing” the issue at a fundamental level, it’s been a cascade of band aid superficial “fixes” over the years that have proven to be ineffective. That’s what this is about. It’s not that “black people don’t want good jobs or good food”. They want the American Dream.

As I’ve mentioned before, I’ve been pretty lucky with real estate. I bought a condo back in '04 just south of Logan Circle in DC. Back then, it was on the “wrong side” of 16th street. But it was walking distance to the U st corridor, Adams Morgan, K st and Dupont - all my favorite night spots back in the day. So I bought this shitty little 700 sqft condo for 125K - it was more of a “smash pad” than anything, the mortgage was cheaper than all the cab fare I would spend a month cabbing it to DC / getting a hotel room.

Then they built a Whole Foods two blocks away. Then came the Yoga studios, the salons, the music stores, the trendy bars, THREE coffee shops (not Starbucks - that was so last decade! lol), the bars and restaurants with bloody mary menus for Sunday brunches and a felafel shop. Don’t forget the yogurt shop! So it “gentrified” and completely transformed the neighborhood in just a couple of years. I sold that condo for 350K cuz it was now on the “right side” of 12th street.

I did not see a lot of locals benefiting from the “affluence”. There were not many “lower class” minorities working the registers at the Whole Foods. Certainly not teaching in the Yoga studios. Pretty much didn’t see a whole lot of that “benefit” going to those who were there in the neighborhood before it was “cool”. You can call that racism. You can call it class warfare. But you can’t call it FAIR to those who lived there “before the white man came and took their land”…[/quote]

Interesting story, and yes, I see your point. Still, if creating better opportunities and more businesses in a ‘bad’ or, let’s say “less than great” neighborhood isn’t the way to improve things for those who live there, then what’s the alternative? Is there a way to improve conditions, or do the great locales only exist because we maintain the crummier ones to balance things out?

S

56

[quote]DBCooper wrote:

[quote]Nards wrote:
I think maybe they just don’ want the kind of white people that go to Trader Joe’s. You know the kind and I don’t like them either.[/quote]

I go to Trader Joe’s, Nards.[/quote]

I think that was his point.

57

Something to consider is that when more affluent people move in the quality of the public schools will go up. Trust me. If black or Hispanic parents want their kid to have a chance of making something of his life, send him to school with “white” kids. I have seen it go both ways and black kid from “white” school going to a school that is black and Hispanic is a very sad thing to witness.

I had an elderly black neighbor, in Newark, who said the worst thing to happen was the Jews moving out.

58

The pendlum never sits in the middle, all the way one way, or the all the way the other way. This seems to be the way it is with all issue’s lately. It seems to me that now that these groups ( actvists ) or whatever you want to call them, they’ve acomplished what they set out to acomplish, and now in order to justify they’re existance they need to find issue’s where there are none.

Here in Canada, I see this all the time, with Humman rights commision, Labor Unions, Gay rights activists, as well as Black activists. We’ve come to a place and time where these groups have acomplished what they set out to acomplish, so what do they do, dispand, not likely, so they find fights, and issue’s where there are none, and it just becomes stupid, stupid fights, and stupid issue’s. It’s a fucking store !

59

[quote]Testy1 wrote:

[quote]DBCooper wrote:

[quote]Nards wrote:
I think maybe they just don’ want the kind of white people that go to Trader Joe’s. You know the kind and I don’t like them either.[/quote]

I go to Trader Joe’s, Nards.[/quote]

I think that was his point.
[/quote]

Oh. Okay, just confirming.

60

[quote]angry chicken wrote:
As I’ve mentioned before, I’ve been pretty lucky with real estate. I bought a condo back in '04 just south of Logan Circle in DC. Back then, it was on the “wrong side” of 16th street. But it was walking distance to the U st corridor, Adams Morgan, K st and Dupont - all my favorite night spots back in the day. So I bought this shitty little 700 sqft condo for 125K - it was more of a “smash pad” than anything, the mortgage was cheaper than all the cab fare I would spend a month cabbing it to DC / getting a hotel room.
[/quote]

You can see the same thing at the areas around U street. My old Capoeira school was built into the back of liquor store on U St. It was up and coming 10 years ago but still really different from what it is now. I think because it’s traditionally been a more “ethnic” area, it’s maintained its “culture” better than the 14th street corridor/Logan Circle. It may even be pretty good example of how an area can improve and still not just be white yuppies.

But agreed. I love a lot of the places on 14th street. The development of DC has been great for young professionals seeking $15 cocktails, but it’s definitely pushed out a lot of the previous residents. Wherever they are, they’re not staff at the new upscale bars and restaurants, hanging with the hipsters or taking yoga classes. There’s no obvious answer, but we can’t just keep on pushing DC into PG county.