By now, most or all of you know that Roundy's bought all but one (East
Washington) of the former Dane County Kohl's Supermarkets from A&P earlier
this year and reopened all but one of those (Sherman Plaza) as Copps
stores. Roundy's publicly asserted that a store in Sherman Plaza was
unnecessary because they would "consolidate operations" with their existing
Copps East store that was too close to Sherman Plaza to justify keeping
both of them open. The problem with the veracity of that statement is that
it is almost the same distance between those two stores as it is between
their pre-existing Whitney Way store and the University Avenue store but
they did not close that one. Both the Sherman Plaza and University Avenue
Kohl's stores were both almost brand new modern stores. The Copps-East
store is in a desolate, largely car-accessible only location next to Shopko
off of Aberg/Highway 30 (There is an east-side neighbourhood across the
highway connected by a path, so you can't completely say that no one can
walk there, but that's it. And the only way you can get there by bus is on
Route 20, which requires a wait at the NTP if you're trying to go there
from the Northside.) Roundy's now controls the remaining 17 years of the
lease at the Sherman Plaza store and can keep the store vacant or sublease
it to a non-grocer. They have already said that they will not open a Copps
store there, and although they have smiled and lied that they'd help us
find another store, they have also admitted that they have never subleased
any property they controlled to a competing grocer.
Roundy's act of corporate irresponsibility in closing that store was an
attack on the livability of the Northside, an area that is home to about
30,000 people and now has a total of ZERO full-service supermarkets within
its boundaries. Their action is an attack on the low-income people in the
nearby apartment complexes and seniors in the surrounding areas who used to
walk to the store. It is at the very least an inconvenience _even_ to
those Northsiders who use motor vehicles as a significant means of
transportation who no longer have a store where they can stop on the way
home from work or other activities. That Roundy's-imposed vacancy of a
48,000 ft^2 anchor store harms the viability of a neighbourhood shopping
centre that houses a decent hardware store, a bank branch, a public library
branch (currently closed for expansion), a discount book store, a new
Italian restaurant, and other businesses. Accessible, walkable,
cycle-able, and convenient shopping is absolutely essential for good
livable neighbourhoods.
You know where I'm going with this.... Whether you live on the Northside or
elsewhere in the city, good neighbourhoods with accessible shopping matter
to bicycle transportation advocates. It has happened elsewhere in the city
and is likely to strike again. A Copps store may have opened in the former
Kohl's location on Park Street (the redlining probably would have been too
obvious that even Roundy's wouldn't have successfully managed the PR
disaster), but word has it that they're already looking for another south
location to build a bigger store to replace it. If that's true, you can
probably bet that any new location will be less accessible to the
neighbourhoods.
You have a couple of opportunities to help out.
First, I PERSONALLY ask you to refrain from shopping at any Copps
supermarket as long as there continues to be no supermarket in Sherman
Plaza. This isn't just a Northside issue, or even a City of Madison issue,
it is a county-wide issue; Copps has stores both in Madison and in the
suburbs. If you shop at any of their stores, your dollars are supporting a
chain that is undermining the quality of life on the Northside and may
attack again elsewhere.
Second, I ask you to attend the Northside Planning Council's press
conference on the steps of the City-County Building on Tuesday, 29-July,
15:45-16:30. Mayor Cieslewicz will be meeting with the CEO of Roundy's
earlier that afternoon and will join us at 4pm after his meeting with Mr.
Mariano. NPC's message is that the Northside needs to have at least one
good full-service supermarket and that Roundy's should either open one
itself, perhaps one of Roundy's Pick 'n Save Marketplace stores, or
negotiate a buy-out of its lease and get out of the way so Sherman Plaza
and the community can attract another supermarket into that almost brand
new space (rebuilt from the ground up three years ago). I'm not asking
anyone to speak at the press conference (although we can certainly talk
about you doing that if you would like to add something), I am simply
asking for your presence at the event to show your support for our
Northside neighbourhoods. Besides, having lots of people there looks good
for the TV cameras ;-), reinforces for the Mayor and other local officials
that we have broad support in the community for our efforts to bring a
grocery to the Northside, and just generally keeps the issue in the public
eye to aid in our continuing efforts. If you can get away from work for
30-45 minutes on Tuesday afternoon and already are or can reasonably get
downtown, please join us to support decent walklable and bike-able
neighbourhoods.
Please reply to let me know if we can count on you being there on Tuesday,
and please spread the word to your friends.
Thanks!
Now go have a beer,
Bob Paolino
>From the Department of Military Intelligence and Jumbo Shrimp:
Sign seen on a recently poisoned lawn on Johnson:
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