July 21, 2006
HANC Hampers Whole on Haight
You know that juicy rumor that in place of the late, not-so-lamented Cala Foods, Whole Foods would open up there until a new store with condos on top could be built? And you know how people were going "yay!" as among other things, it would mean having something at the end of Haight besides what is now pretty much an empty lot? Well, ain't happening.
At a meeting last Wednesday of the Haight Ashbury Improvement Association (the People's Front of Haight Ashbury), the owner of the property, Mark Brennan, announced that Whole Foods wasn't going to move into the spot as the Haight Ashbury Neighborhood Council (the Haight Ashburian People's Front) said no to the whole thing. Rumor has it they put the squeeze on an unknown political type who put the stop to it all. How? Whole Foods could have moved in if Cala left in all the shopping market fixtures there. Because of pressure from HANC, Cala sold all the fixtures so instead of there being an abandoned shopping market, now apparently it's just an abandoned building.
Now, you might be wondering why as apparently most people were kind of psyched on the idea. Whole Foods is, after all, a bit more upscale than the notoriously downscale Cala, it sells organic food which fits into the whole Haight vibe, and it will put something in a spot that in it's current guise fits a little too much in with the whole run-down drugged out mise en scene that is the end of Haight. Also of note is that Whole Foods somehow magically increases property values and increased property values means property owners get rich(er). It is the hope of some people in the hood to actually get a bit more gentrified as for whatever reason, having to constantly walk around and sometimes over 17 year old gutter punks selling buds and doses and endlessly singing "All Along the Watchtower" is not appealing to them.
So then, as the French announcers of the World Cup would say, "pourquoi, quoi?" Well, Whole Foods is anathema to sum because it's non-union. And a chain, albeit a warm fuzzy kind of chain. There are already a few health/organic stores on the Haight and the opening of a Whole Foods would probably be bad for them. The new condos? Despite the fact they're planning on having some of them available to rent, people want "affordable housing" instead. Plus, condos will mean a parking garage (which would be built underground) and parking garages mean cars and cars means more traffic and so on and so forth.
And then there's this: the fact that Whole Foods is kind of upscale apparently chafes some. In fact, the whole complaint against Whole Foods can be summed up by the claim that it is, in fact, "too bourgeoisie." And that's the last thing you'd want on the Haight, something too bourgie. That would be awful.
Well, then, where does that leave us? We guess looking for some sort of other shopping market to be built there, but one that's unionized, cheap, and doesn't specialize in organic okra. Which describes, well, Cala Foods. So then what we need to do is to talk Cala Foods into going back and then building affordable housing right on top of that, housing that won't feature any parking.
Our prediction? One very empty lot will be there for years.
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First of all, guter punks don't sing "All Along the Watchtower"...hippies do (which is worse!). But what would be even worse is having to maneuver around all of the foully-perfumed yuppies in Whole Paycheck. I say bring back The Diggers and let them serve stone soup and give away old boots and ropes in the CALA building. Besides Whole Turds will put all of the cooler little Haight food stores out of business which would mean more shoe stores or Jerry knicknack shops taking their places.
Ohmygod, heaven forbid those little overpriced organic markets should have to face some...competition. We can't have that, now, can we?
Once again, the People's United Front for NIMBYism gets to decide what's best for you!
Dave,
I'd be against a Whole Foods development ANYWHERE. NIMBYs are by definition, people who oppose something they consider unwanted in THEIR BACKYARDS (hence the acronym N.I.M.B.Y....not in my backyard) but wouldn't object, on principle, to seeing somewhere else. For example, a group of people organizing to keep a nuclear powerplant out of their neighborhood but happy to see it erected near other peoples' houses. NIMBYism doesn't allow for a pricipled, political stand. It is reactionary selfishness. Nice try though. Anyway, who do you think SHOULD decide what the Haight is like? Its residents or some shitty anti-worker, out-of-town chain store?
Chris, wouldn't it be fair to let Whole Foods open and if the neighborhood truly doesn't like the "shitty anti-worker, out-of-town chain store" they could not shop there? That way WF could waste a bunch of money on a failed store opening.
Or are you angry because you have a personal axe to grind with WF and are concerned enough Haight Ashburians actually would shop there and the store would be successful?
I live just up the street from that lot, and I would've liked a Whole Foods (though I'd prefer a Trader Joe's). Yay for an alternative to those dirty, coughed-on, overpriced indie food stores on Haight -- absolutely, a chain store would positively serve the community.
Whole Foods is decidedly pro-worker, moreso than just about any other supermarket or other retail chain in America. Enjoy your empty lot, Haighters. Hope you like needles.
Not "empty lot" - - try PARKING LOT.. I have heard that the owner of the property has spoken to a couple parking companies about operating the old free Cala lot as a paid, attended parking lot in the "interim" until the property is developed - which means basically for years. This, despite the fact that there is a city owned parking lot that is never full just a half block away on Stanyan..
This property being empty for years to come is a big blow for upper Haight. If it wasnt for good 'ole Amoeba, this entire block of Haight would be in dire straights. Oh, and by the way, dont think the fact that every San Franciscan now buys their music on iTunes hasnt hurt Amoeba - it has & Amoeba is hurting too...
Could Mirkarimi possibly be a neighborhood HERO and somehow get Rainbow Grocery to open a location here?? I think everyone would be agreable to them!
How about a shoe store? Just kidding.
Rainbow would do it for me. WF is like Rainbow for people who don't cook.
Seamus, WF's CEO said: "Unions are not a good thing...we think unions would be very harmful to our business." Unionized chains like Safeway and Vons pay far higher wages and have better benefit packages. And, more importantly, this is becasue of worker unions deciding what workers want. Very different from the patronizing, company-run bullshit that WF uses to keep its employees from organizing.
Dave, If WF replaces CALA, people will shop there. Even I will because there will be no other one-stop grocery in the area. That's why its important for the community to get involved in the discussion and planning so that we can make sure whatever we get is in our best interest. What you call NIMBYism, I call community participationa or democracy. We should decide for ourselves what replaces CALA. Rainbow(for example), being worker-owned, would create not just some crappy jobs, but business ownership opportunities and give workers a vested interest in the long-term health of the community. WF would bring in a bunch of short-term, indifferent 22 year olds with no interest in the area. I think one of the chief reasons that SF is such a livable city is that small, native-owned businesses are such a huge part of the culture here. The more big businesses that come into SF, the more apathetic worker-drones we will breed.
Hey Jon,
Did you bother to talk to anyone form HANC before writing this? Or did you just take Arthur Evans'
account as gospel?
HANC had no influence on CALA's removal of the fixtures. The Brennans themselves staed in public that CALA's price for the fixtures was too high.
The rest of your article is inaccurate and slanted for thr most part.
The permitting process will take 5 years because of the nature of the project regardless of any opposition. The Brennans themselves said that.
HANC hosted a public meeting the week before on interim uses for the site and it was attended by Mark Brennan.
Please contact a member of the HANC board before you engage in neo-libel. Or have Rita or Eve do it. My estimation of SFist, a news source I read nearly every day, has gone done down a tremendous amount.
Meanwhile, Rainbow is Whole Foods for people who like attitude and self-righteousness with their groceries. (Remember the ridiculous Israeli products scandal?) I'll take the chains, thanks.
As for whether Whole Foods is anti-worker, ask anyone who works there. Everyone I know who works at Whole Foods likes it - and you DEFINITELY get better service there than at the unionized chains.
it is important to note that at the 7/19 meeting, the above debate focused solely on the roughly 2-year INTERIM use of that site before the development of the Whole Foods/condo complex. While Whole Foods doesn't appear to be a done deal, plans are still going forward and it is quite incorrect to have written that "the owner of the property, Mark Brennan, announced that Whole Foods wasn't going to move into the spot."
Doesn't the City (and the Haight specifically) pride itself of open-mindedness and diversity? God forbid if something enters this sacred realm that doesn't fit into what some people deem as "appropriate" for the Haight (or SF). I have lived here for nearly 2 decades now, and just because I would like to have a WF in the hood, I'm now an anti-worker yuppy scumbag? Self-righteous blow-hard a-holes are really the ONLY problem we have in the Haight (yes that's you Chris).
Yuppiescum,
This City is far from open-minded. Two years and you haven't figured this out? There are some serious ideologues in SF. I would bet money this lot will be vacant for over 5 years An underutilized lot becomes even more underutilized. yeh!
But at least we won’t have a non-union shop in the neighborhood accept only 15% low “affordable” housing subsidy from the developer!
Anyway, walked by the lot this morning to get my newspaper and low and behold it is now a parking lot. 6$ until 6PM. Not a bad deal if you are hanging around all day. There were 3 cars parked
GO GIANTS!
I wonder how that Cala even got there in the first place with a neighborhood so opposed to chains? Maybe whatever tactic they used, back in the day, to appease peoples' concerns might be valuable for the current WF advocates to consider.
Now that that lot's making money, I wonder if there's less incentive to replace it with anything. Could turning it into a functioning lot cause the rebuilding process to take even longer?
Why can't San Francisco get anything done?
The neighborhood stores seem "overpriced" only because they don't have the buying power of major chain stores and granted some of them are dirtier than others, but I quite like the one btw Clayton and Ashbury.
That being said - I would like to see a more practically priced store go in on that corner. I personally can't afford to shop at Whole Foods for all my needs and Albertsons is kind of a trek for me.
God this story gets so tiring as it is played over ad nauseum all over tiny little SF. Why are our elected officials so accessible to influence?
District elections. Why do facist neighborhood "improvement" (blight preservation) groups get to decide unilaterally what works for an entire neighborhood?
San Francisco has got to be both the most provincial and conservative city in the US. Individual thought is not only NOT tolerated here, its actively discouraged - see "chris" for examples:
"WF would bring in a bunch of short-term, indifferent 22 year olds with no interest in the area"
"The more big businesses that come into SF, the more apathetic worker-drones we will breed."
God forbid people should be allowed to choose the stores they shop in. Free thought drives people like chris mad. Keep drinking that kool-aid...
Yeah Joe,
district elections are horrible for the political process. It would be so much better if the supes were NOT influenced by their constituents (neighborhood groups or, to put it another way, the people who live in the neighborhood and care enough about it to be politically active. What a bunch of "fascists" these people are. How dare they try to decide for themselves what their own block looks like!). It was so much better when the only "influence" came from downtown. Now people in SF actually have the nerve to think that they can band together and actually make their elected officials listen to them.
Wake up dude. These people are the Haight (at least the people who care enough to get involved with it politically). They ARE choosing "the stores they shop in".
Haight Street is basically a mall on the weekends (throngs of suburbanites throwing themselves if front of my car as I cross Ashbury on a green). Whole Foods at least will be useful to the community. What will go there without doubt will be a theme restaurant catering to people from Freemont, and more T-shirt shops. Pick your poison.