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We live just up the street from Haight and Stanyan, and the other day someone dropped off a flyer about how Whole Foods is eager to transform the former Cala Foods (now a vacant lot and boarded-up deathtrap) into a pleasant, overpriced gourmet food store with apartments on top. The design of the flyer reminded us of some incomprehensible posters that appeared briefly in the neighborhood two years ago -- could D.B.H. be back? (Hint: Probably not.)
The flyer promotes 690stanyan.com, a slick-looking website that WF created to make a reasonable case for the project. We'd rather see a Trader Joe's, which has good food and good prices; but lots of folks like WF, and the food is pretty good, and it'll serve thousands more people than what's there now. So if WF wants to fight this fight, good for them. We've lived here six years, and the neighborhood would be improved by their presence.
Interestingly, the flyer (which appears not to be the work of WF) blames wealthy property-owner Calvin Welch for holding up the project. Whoever wrote it makes him sound like quite a jerk -- what's up with that? Somebody ought to investigate or whatever.
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From the 690stanyan website, the development would include:
62 residential units in 81,000 sq.ft., and an additional three-level, 176-space subterranean garage (90,000 sq.ft.) with 114 grocery store parking spaces and 62 residential parking spaces.
Come ON. I moved to the haight to avoid three-level subterranean parking garages and pre-fab residences. I like my funky 100-year-old building and the rabid street dogs that piss on my sidewalk. I wasn't opposed to this project when I thought it would be the same size as Cala, but we don't need another Lucky "Fulton Market". Have a little reserve, Whole Foods.
It is going to be difficult for WF to build a brand new 100-year-old building.
The project sounds big; but cities need density, so I don't think that's a bad thing. Small buildings are for suburbs...which the Haight is definitely not.
actually, if you have been to the suburbs lately you may notice that they are full of giant sprawling big box stores, which scale down when they come into already dense neighborhoods. i was hoping for a little more scaling.
Big-boxes sprawl horizontally, while this project sprawls upward. (It's four stories tall, with no external parking lot.) That's a big difference, and I think it's what makes this project appropriate for a dense city.
Of course it's bigger than anything there currently, and it'll change the neighborhood's character. I'll miss the smallness that the Haight will lose, too. But getting a good supermarket seems like a fair tradeoff.
176 new cars in the neighborhood? That should make them a lot of friends around there.
I got that mailer, too, and I thought it was misleading. They make it sound like only one crazy person would oppose WF getting to do whatever they want with that space. Ultimately, I think a mixed use residential/grocery building would be a nice addition to the neighborhood, but starting a fight with some locals before you get there doesn't make a really great impression. Wow us with your progressive building plans and commitment to the neighborhood, not your ability to discredit those with concerns.
Wow, as if driving in that area (or riding a bus) wasn't a hassle before...
Yes, they need to do something with that lot.
No Trader Joes, please - the traffic would be horrendous 'cos people will drive from all over to save 5 cents on a pack of pasta (come on people, it's not that great). Cala stank. Lucky/Albertsons on Fulton stinks. WF might be ok.
What would be best is something like the Falletti/Delissio store on Broderick. That place is good, provides things not otherwise available everywhere else (Butcher counter), is an appropriate size and hey, even has apartments on top.
The problem with underground parking is that the cars inevitably come back to the surface.
A mixed-use development would be better than just a whole foods store, but what would be even better than that is to break up that giant commercial space into seperate spaces; the kind of storefronts that the people who live on the upper levels might actually operate; also the kind of stores that aren't going to drive a bunch of car traffic to the site and surrounding streets.
Supermarkets are tough to do in an urban way; they're primarily a creature of the suburbs, so if you're not very, very careful about what you put in you're going to get a suburban type of development (something that eats up a bunch of space, suffers from serving only one purpose, makes no public amenity, and is fucking ugly).
Who wants to bet that in 2 years, there'll still be a vacant lot surrounded by a chain-link fence there?
I used to live a couple of blocks away, and I understand the complaints about the scale of the project, but there's got to be some way to compromise so that abandoned grocery store isn't just sitting there.
I agree with Ciaran. That Falletti on Oak is a perfect model for what should go into the old Cala site. TJ's would be a nightmare.
Please, I've lived in this neighborhood for 15 years. The Cala was nasty, and I'd pay a little more for the cute but tiny Mount Sutro Grocery and the corner butcher shop at Stanyan and Parnassus-- but that's has long since been a Walgreen's.
We need a real grocery store in this area. I don't really care for Whole Foods but they are the only ones willing to deal with the drama that is "making something nice and new" in this neighborhood.
Anything will be better than the old Cala or the current lot.
And it look like Whole Foods is willing to provide for the neighborhood and put in the effort in exchange for putting some profitable housing above.
Just clean up the corner already. And I'd like to be able to run out for necessities at any hour without taking muni or getting in the car (late night food, ingredients, bags of ice, and reasonably-priced booze are considered necessities).
I do wonder how they intend to keep their store from becoming the grimy nastiness the Cala became for all of the Park homeless and unhygienic camped inside and out.
Willo, they could hire Blackwater.
Yay! More SF apartments I won't be able to afford!
Whole Foods seems like they have a reasonably interesting plan, but I'm still not a fan of them. Good prices are needed just as much. If Whole Foods comes in it'll just be yet another step in gentrifying the Haight even further by having a grocery store that's outside the price range of everyone but the yuppies.
The Haight is long since gentrified. A Whole Foods won't change a thing.
Hey, I'm a yuppie and I can't afford to shop at Whole Foods. Not with the mortgage on my Haight apartment,,,
Why do people bother owning a car in SF.. and why is Whole Foods considered the best possible Grocery Store option for the neighborhood? Why not something a little less expensive?
The best possible option is the one willing to build there, which is Whole Foods right now.
i wish they would put in public showers. the whole damn hood stinks of patchouli and entitlement.
The flyer was over-the-top and rude, but Whole Foods had NOTHING to do with the flyer. It was put out by the developer without the permission of Whole Foods and they issued an angry press release condemning the flyer when they found out about it. That being said, Calvin Welch is a pompous obstructionist, and unfortunately, San Francisco has too many such individuals.
As for the proposed development, I think it looks acceptable and it is certainly preferable to the existing empty building with its large, space-eating 1950's-style parking lot. The new development will be reasonably dense while still being scaled to the neighborhood. What would make it MORE suburban would be to scale it down. Putting up a four-story apartment building along a major commercial corridor which is well-served by transit and located in the second-densest city in the country is QUITE appropriate. If anything, the project might benefit by being made a bit bigger so more desperately needed housing could be built--just a half-block up Stanyan there is a 1920's era 7-story apartment building, and it fits in fine.
Will most of the new units be expensive? Yes, all new housing in SF is expensive. However, preventing the building of new housing, except for small developments, only exacerbates the housing shortage which increases prices and also makes owner move-in and Ellis Act evictions more attractive, which in turn reduce the availability of affordable rental housing. Also, the inclusionary housing law will ensure that the development generates much-needed affordable housing units. Moreover, the neighborhood desperately needs the new grocery store which the development would provide.
It is so absurd that it takes so long to get anything done in this city, and the process always involves so much hand-wringing and high drama. The damn building should just be built after a brief review and permitting process.