THE WEEDS GROW shoulder high in the vacant lot moldering on an entire city block at North Williams and Ivy, but change is coming: New Seasons is opening a 30,000-square-foot store on the site in 2013.
The store, announced by the green-friendly chain last week, is big news in a neighborhood that’s experienced rapid development over the past 20 years. While neighbors welcome the locally owned store—which is receiving no public money despite opening in a city-designated “food desert” and urban renewal area—some worry about its impact on traffic and the character of the neighborhood.
Last year, city plans to expand the bike lane on North Williams and install new crosswalks and signals spiraled into heated conversations over gentrification in what was once a predominantly African American neighborhood [“Concrete Change,” News, June 16, 2011].
Midge Purcell, advocacy director at the Urban League of Portland (based on North Russell just a few blocks from the New Seasons site), says she’s not worried about the grocery causing gentrification. It’s already there.
“That horse has left the barn,” she says. “New Seasons is indicative of the change that’s been taking place over the last 20 years because of gentrification. It’s a larger version of the kinds of businesses that have recently flourished on Williams.”
North Williams is lined with a contrasting patchwork of hip new businesses and long-empty vacant lots—some of them scars of urban renewal projects. The construction of the I-5 freeway, Memorial Coliseum, and the failed expansion of Legacy Emanuel hospital leveled 1,550 homes and businesses in the mostly African American neighborhood. The New Seasons site has been vacant since 2000, when a bread factory in operation since 1915 closed. A planned mixed-use development saw the factory torn down in 2008, but then never materialized. In 10 years, the value of the property has doubled.
New Seasons CEO Lisa Sedlar says her company has been eyeing the site since 2008, in part because its administrative office is nearby on North Vancouver.
“We love this neighborhood, and we know there’s not a grocery store in this neighborhood,” says Sedlar, noting that the 150-employee store will make a major effort to hire within the community.
While the city is still studying the store’s effect on traffic, Sedlar does not believe the branch will draw too many more cars to the corridor. A third of shoppers get to the comparable SE Hawthorne New Seasons without a car, she says. “The rooftop parking we opened there is mostly empty.”
The current North Williams plan calls for a one-story store with 60 parking spots. The city and New Seasons are still researching the store’s projected impact on traffic.
Paige Coleman, director of the Northeast Coalition of Neighborhoods, says New Seasons has so far been open minded, listening to concerns that the store will be too expensive for area residents. A few years ago, the neighborhood group pioneered a system to match money spent by food stamp users at farmers’ markets, and members are talking with New Seasons about a similar “food accessibility” program.
“One of the criticisms we’ve heard is if the full range of our community members can afford to shop at New Seasons,” says Coleman. “They’re really interested in being a good neighbor.”
It would be nice to see Donut Parking in residential areas near high-traffic attractions – Cascade PCC, Hollywood transit center – so that the residents are not negatively impacted. It would only be a small boost to the city’s revenue by those residents, but it would take the edge off some.
What is “Donut Parking”? Sounds yummy. But seriously, what is it?
“”One of the criticisms we’ve heard is if the full range of our community members can afford to shop at New Seasons,” says Coleman. “They’re really interested in being a good neighbor.”
Totally valid point. And the answer to whether or not the majority of the community can afford to shop there is a resounding No. My boyfriend lives in Sellwood & the only grocery store within walking distance is New Seasons. i refuse to shop there now on principle. i feel ripped off & angry everytime i leave there. Charging 2-3x as much for just basic food as a “normal” store? Why? Because they cater to a white, upper middle class clientele. Which may be fine in Sellwood, but not so much in N. Portland.
At the same time, it would be great to see conscious, food selling establishments make an appearance in some of the less economically advantaged parts of town. But New Seasons & its ilk need to understand the community that they are moving into & be willing to make some compromises that reflect the economic & cultural diversity of the neighborhoods that they are moving in to.
i appreciate much of what New Seasons offers & supports. i don’t appreciate that they are specifically priced & designed for rich, white, liberal yuppies. Poor people deserve the chance to support local, organic farming & eco-conscious products, as well. And until they recognize that & spread the love, i won’t be shopping there.
I don’t get it. This new store will be 3 miles away from another New Seasons, 1 mile from Whole Foods and 1.5 miles from Safeway. How does this neighborhood (and specifically the affluent and highly mobile residents who are the target market of this store) have a food access problem?
All this will do is squeeze the small corner markets that have been a fixture of the neighborhood, some of them supplying local food, for many years. How long will they survive? Why not build these business up and help them grow rather than bringing in something completely new?
I love the moniker “green-friendly chain”. Many are ignorant to the fact that the chain sells product s that are far from green and support the mega corporations looking to dominate what the world eats. Monsanto? They also could care less about selling products that contain preservatives and artificial flavors, dyes, etc. Why?