Image: Whole Foods JP Shopping Bag
In today's Boston Globe there's a story about Whole Foods looking to open another store in Boston, Grocer apt to pick old Herald site, Jenn Abelson brings up the store's opening in JP and gets the story wrong. She writes::
Whole Foods opened a smaller store in Jamaica Plain last year, a move that divided the neighborhood and sparked opposition from some residents who worried that the company’s arrival would mean gentrification and the eventual displacement of low- and moderate-income families.A DIVIDED NEIGHBORHOOD
The neighborhood was not divided. A small group of vocal people opposed the store.
Small group.
Very vocal.
It wasn't a civil war.
It was only a neighborhood divided in the eyes of the media, who always wants to write a story that has two sides to it.
In this case, the majority of the neighborhood was in favor of Whole Foods. It was the media who built it up to being a divided neighborhod.
GENTRIFICATION
This claim isn't true either. Whole Foods doesn't cause gentrification.
Opponents liked to throw the gentrification word around, but it's not accurate.
Sandra Story wrote about this in the Jamaica Plain Gazette, JP Observer: Has JP become gentrified?:
The white population seems to have been shifting between 50 and 53 percent over the past 10-15 years, with no major changes in racial/ethnic mix from the 2010 census count of the actual JP neighborhood at 53 percent white, 25 percent Latino, 13 percent black, 4 percent Asian and 2 percent multi or other.I'm looking forward to reading an actual study about the effects of Whole Foods on JP.
One is being done.
Hub institute to study impact of Hi-Lo Foods closure, Whole Foods opening in Jamaica Plain
For me personally, Whole Foods in JP has been a big improvement. I can walk there to get fresh food. There haven't been any traffic problems. The sky hasn't fallen.
Plus, we're finally getting seating, so that it can become a true neighborhood gathering place. ;-)
I love it.