More on Home Depot pulling up stakesAs Tim Redmond blogged yesterday, Home Depot has notified the city that it will not be opening a store on Bayshore Blvd. – ten years after the land entitlement process began. Guardian intern Michael Leonard spoke with several people involved in the process:
Supervisor Sophie Maxwell, whose District 10 would have hosted the outlet expressed regret at the giant retailer’s decision, “People were certainly looking forward to the jobs and the convenience…and the sales tax dollars," Maxwell said. "Now, it's back to the drawing board."
Not everyone in Maxwell's district, however, or the city at large, was eager to have a mammoth chain store located in a vital neighborhood.
"Actually, there was not a lot of community support. There were people with money who tried to override real community voice," Marie Harrison, a community organizer for GreenAction, told the Guardian.
According to Harrison, community opposition centered around two factors: the extra traffic and resulting pollution in the already industrialized area; small, local businesses being forced to close by a large, national chain.
It remains unknown what will become of the land plot. Mayor Newsom has requested that Home Depot hold off on pulling out of the deal. Maxwell stated that the some in the community had suggested a Target store or a movie complex during talks in past years.
As for Home Depot, the behemoth home improvement firm says it is not giving up on San Francisco. Spokeswoman Kathryn Gallagher told us, “We want to reiterate our thanks to the many customers, city officials, and partners that expressed support of us…We hope to be part of the community someday."
Harrison had some words of advice for Gallagher and other company officials should the firm opt to show up in town again. Noting that their proposed job numbers constantly fluctuated and that the estimated economic benefits of the proposed location never added up, she stated, "Don't make promises that you can't keep."
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Comments (1)
SOUTH EAST SECTOR SHENNANIGANS.
Given Home Depot's stated reason for withdrawal "a flagging home improvement market", maybe Lennar will finally cite "a downturn in the economy and decline in new home sales" and get out of town before their share prices drop even lower. After all they have already claimed that "there is no market for rental units", and the District 10 Supervisor supported them in reneging on their agreement to build 'affordable' rental units in BVHP when she wimpered " the rental market is very, very difficult ".
But the gentrification and displacement proposals backed by City Hall continue to eat away at the beauty, uniqueness and diversity of San Francisco.
Latest on the hit list are the Redevelopment proposals for Sunnydale and the Cow Palace. The State Senate granted a temporary reprieve to this most recent land-grab and thinly disguised attempt to further 'whitewash' and and gentrify our city when they declined to act on Leland Yee's bill, SB1527, that proposes to declare the Cow Palace as 'surplus property'. I think the Kronikles report of his statement in support is informative as to the real intent and motivations'
"Yee argued that the arena is a relic of times past and that the needs of the Bayshore and Visitacion Valley neighborhoods outweigh any concerns from the Cow Palace's out-of-town users. The surrounding community is a rather seedy area where it's not safe to walk at night. Redeveloping the property would be huge boost to to the area and it's residents."
Does that not sound suspiciously similar to some of the justifactions used for gentrificastion and displacement in Bayview Hunters Point. Perhaps it would be more truthful and accurate to say that, in what appears to have become the official and over-riding policy of this City and the current administration, 'nothing outweighs the needs and concerns of out-of-town speculators and developers, and those who stand to profit at the expense of, and to the detriment of, city residents.
The recent article in the Kronikle expressing concern for the problems in Sunnydale and this proposal to 'redevelop' the neighboring Cow Palace site is surely no mere coincidence.
There is no question that care, compassion and resources are much needed in Sunnydale. It is an area that for decades has possibly been even more neglected and marginalised than Bayview Hunters Point. As a Home Hospice nurse I have had patients in Sunnydale. On a couple of occasions patient have been reluctant to accept services or keep needed pain medications in the home out of fear that it might make them more vulnerable. That we should tolerate such third-world conditions is deplorable, but that we should enrich the few by threatening residents with potential loss of their homes and further depriving those in need of the basic requirements for life and some measure of happiness is despicable.
What do you suppose is the reason for this sudden concern for the welfare of 'area residents'; where have all these compassionate, caring good samaritans been hiding during the past few decades of neglect.
The fact that the 'complexion' of the neighborhood is changing and that there are beaucoups big bucks up for grabs couldn't be what brought them out of the woodwork...could it !!
Posted by Patrick Monk.RN | April 3, 2008 12:42 PM