Posted on 02/09/2014 8:02:24 PM PST by 2ndDivisionVet
The Trader Joe’s grocery chain has withdrawn plans to build a store in the heart of a predominantly black neighborhood after a black leadership group fought the move.
The Portland Development Commission was set to give the grocer a large discount on property that had been vacant for years, pricing it at just over $500,000, down from an appraised value of $2.9 million, according to The Oregonian.
The Portland African American Leadership Forum sent a scathing letter in December to city leaders, saying the plan would price residents out of the area and the group“remains opposed to any development in North/Northeast Portland that does not primarily benefit the black community.”
Trader Joe’s would increase displacement of low-income residents and “increase the desirability of the neighborhood,” for “non-oppressed populations,” PAALF wrote.
“[This decision] reflects the city’s overall track record of implementing policies that serve to uproot, displace and disempower our most vulnerable community members,” the letter said.
Trader Joe’s bowed out amid the controversy.
“We run neighborhood stores, and our approach is simple: If a neighborhood does not want a Trader Joe’s, we understand, and we won’t open the store in question,” a company spokesperson said in a statement to The Oregonian.
But not everyone is happy about the outcome.
“There are no winners today,” Adam Milne, owner of Old Town Brewing Co., told The Oregonian. “Only missed tax revenue, lost jobs, less foot traffic, an empty lot and a boulevard still struggling to support its local small businesses.”
You can’t make this stuff up. Sometimes, truth is stranger than fiction.
I like Trader Joe’s. Wish we had one here in Greensburg, PA
The reality is that some neighborhoods just feed on crime and no supermarket can survive in that environment.
Now it appears that the other side of the coin is that the racists who live in such neighborhoods are trying to chase all the white people away, and their food stores as well.
I shed no tears for the so-called "food deserts".
Stupid be as stupid do......
doubt the “residents” rejected it, it was wacko lefties acting as “community organizers”
oh boy. “We’re miserable and we want to stay that way.” (unless federal tax dollars are sent to appease us).
It’s just hopeless.
I live here, the err...natives in this area are generally very quiet. Their hood isn’t all that bad.
Because white liberals know what’s best for the Black Community.
they want black communities kept poor, it is their gravy train
Minority group leaders have a stake in keeping their community disaffected, miserable and under-served.
Their own worst enemies
It is clear that the race baiters and Marxists consider productivity to be evil. Shock. /spit And they are winning. /shudder
“I am afraid that there is a certain class of race-problem solvers who don’t want the patient to get well, because as long as the disease holds out they have not only an easy means of making a living, but also an easy medium through which to make themselves prominent before the public.” - Booker T. Washington
A lot of poor folks prefer the Democrat solution.
To me this qualifies as weird news.
hasn’t that been obvious since the 60’s?
//sarcasm
They found the time to protest against Trader Joe’s by taking a break from complaining about the lack of decent stores to shop in because the racist white run corporations won’t build in the black parts of town.
Sounds like TRADER JOE’S did not grease the palms of the local shakedown crew.
Starving morlochs? I’m OK with that...
Gee, I thought only white people were racist.
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