It's been interesting to read the various posts about the Target on West Broadway closing and the possibility of a Cub Foods opening on Central Ave.
While I have become no great fan of big box retail in recent years, I do agree with those who see the Target closing as yet another kick in the teeth for our northside residents. I think Anne McCandless made the best point about how Target has tried to spin this closing as the store not being supported by the community when the real problem was the store did not serve the community well. Empty shelves and disrespectful employees are not a good way to maintain the loyalty of shoppers. And this certainly hasn't been a recent trend. I saw it years ago when I'd try shopping there rather then go way up Central to the store near I-694 before the Quarry Target opened. I especially found interesting Target's claim that the store was "too small" to be viable. If it was too small, how come they had so much trouble keeping shelves stocked? If it was too small, how come that hasn't kept the Target on Central near I-694 or the Target in the Quarry from thriving? Both are closer in size to the West Broadway store than the 120,000 square feet Target claims they need for a store to be successful. Anyone know how many square feet the downtown Target is? I've read suggestions on what should happen with that site and while I suppose the easiest solution would be to try and attract another big box store like Cub or Wal-Mart as has been suggested, I would discourage that kind of thinking. In the case of Cub, I think I would encourage residents in the area to wait and see what kind of changes come when the Supervalu across the street becomes Houston's Neighborhood Supermarket next month. From what I've read, the fellows leading that operation appear much more interested in becoming a part of the community than Supervalu has ever demonstrated with any of their Cub Foods stores. As for Wal-Mart, I truly think that if folks on the northside are trying to bring living wage jobs to their neighborhoods, Wal-Mart is the last place anyone should look for that. The "Beast of Bentonville", as one person put it, has done more to undermine living wage jobs in communities across the nation than any other. About the only anchoring Wal-Mart would do is to anchor the continuing need for folks to endure the hardships of working multiple jobs in order to get by. If you haven't yet read "Nickel and Dimed" by Barbara Ehrenreich, chapter three talks about her experiences as a Wal-Mart "associate" at one of the stores located in the Twin Cities. I forget who posted it, but I think the best idea I saw was to see whether the Target building could be turned into a small business/cooperative incubator like Mercado Central at Lake and Bloomington. There's so many vacant spaces along West Broadway that each local business and cooperative that catches on can literally reopen down the street from where they got their start. This concept would do far more to create local wealth and community development than begging some other big box to take over the site. And it would be a far better use of limited MCDA funds than yet another TIF handout to a massive corporation that should be able to open a new store with it's own funds. Going back to the proposed Cub Foods on Central Ave. One poster said that Northeasters should get over their NIMBY syndrome and embrace a store that provides many union jobs. While talking with a friend who's also had to deal with a Cub moving into his neighborhood, I learned that Cub Foods stores are franchises and not all owned by Supervalu. Some stores have union employees, but not all. So there's no guarantee that a Cub on Central would bring livable wage jobs - it could instead bring the kind of low-wage jobs that Wal-Mart is notorious for. A point was also made that the opposition to a Cub on Central comes only from those who support the Eastside Food Coop that opens this fall a block away from where the Cub has been proposed. While those of us who are coop members are certainly not happy about this idea, we're also not alone. Some folks oppose this idea because they don't want the high-speed traffic that accompanies big box retail, others don't want to lose the businesses that Bruce Shoemaker mentioned, several of which have been long-time fixtures on that block. I'm sure there are at least a few people who aren't exactly thrilled about potentially losing their homes if the whole block and part of another one are taken over. And then there are some, like me, who worry about the problem David Brauer mentioned with the Cub on 60th and Nicollet. We brought it up earlier this year when Sherman Associates proposed a Cub at 24th and Central because the area around there has also experienced flooding problems, like when the basement of Edison High School was flooded out several years ago. There's already been housing lost to build a storm water pond and when we asked how the development would impact storm water runoff, Sherman Associates couldn't tell us. It will be interesting to see if Oppidan will be able to answer that important question. I'd like to thank Steve Sumner for offering St. Paul's Grand Avenue as a model for Central to follow. Unfortunately for Steve's argument, anyone who has visited Grand Avenue and looked around will notice that there are no retailers in that area of the scale that a Cub Foods would require. There are a number of chain stores in the area, but somehow I don't think Caribou Coffee or Walgreens poses quite the threat to the vision of a Main Street that many northeast residents have for Central Ave. as a Cub would. Besides, we already have a Walgreens, so that's pretty moot. The closest thing that comes to a big box on Grand Avenue is the Kowalski's Market at Ayd Mill Road, which is both outside the main commercial strip of Grand Ave. and is also not of the scale that a Cub Foods demands. Other folks have described Central Ave. as northeast's version of Eat Street on Nicollet Ave. since they both share many ethnic and small-scale restaurants. Central also has a number of small ethnic grocery stores, including the recently expanded Holy Land and Patel groceries. And as has been mentioned, the already 600+ member strong (how's that for "support of the community?") Eastside Food Coop opens this fall at 26th and Central in the old Country Club Market building. So with all of these small, local grocery stores and there already being a Cub Foods a few miles away in St. Anthony and a Rainbow reopening under new management at the Quarry, just where is the crying need for a Cub Foods on Central Ave.? Mark Snyder Windom Park TEMPORARY REMINDER: 1. Don't feed the troll! Ignore obvious flame-bait. 2. If you don't like what's being discussed here, don't complain - change the subject (Mpls-specific, of course.) ________________________________ Minneapolis Issues Forum - A City-focused Civic Discussion - Mn E-Democracy Post messages to: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Subscribe, Unsubscribe, Digest, and more: http://e-democracy.org/mpls
