Whole Foods Facing an Uphill Battle in Gowanus
It’s been a tough slog for Whole Foods in Brooklyn already and the organic grocery giant hasn’t even started construction on the 68,000-square-foot market it wants to build at the corner of 3rd Street and 3rd Avenue in Gowanus. The store, which will include 37,000-square-feet of underground retail space, can built as-of-right (once the environmental…
It’s been a tough slog for Whole Foods in Brooklyn already and the organic grocery giant hasn’t even started construction on the 68,000-square-foot market it wants to build at the corner of 3rd Street and 3rd Avenue in Gowanus. The store, which will include 37,000-square-feet of underground retail space, can built as-of-right (once the environmental clean-up is complete), so no approval from community groups is required; that doesn’t mean there’s been a lack opinions voiced. “They’ve wrapped themselves in the cloak of being green and organic, but they’re certainly not acting that way,” said Eric McClure, campaign coordinator of Park Slope Neighbors. “Their talk is not matching their walk.” Another local group, Green Roof Brooklyn, says it supports the arrival of Whole Foods in general but wants to company to cut about 140 parking spaces and add a green roof to help ease pollution in the area. A third group, Friends and Residents of Greater Gowanus, is critical of how the environmental stage of the project has been going, claiming that the process is pushing benzene and other contaminants into the underground water supply. Whole Foods paints the naysayers as a small minority of the thousands of residents who will be served by the store. We’re curious to know how the Brownstoner community feels about this one. Take this quick poll to let us know. Update: As of about 2:15 today, 120 people have taken the poll. The results so far? Over half of respondents say that they are “psyched for the Whole Foods plan as is and think the critics should shut up and get out of the way” while about one third say they “welcome the idea of an upscale market in the area but have concerns about the environmental impact of the project.”
Whole Foods Meets Opposition in Brooklyn [Austin Statesman] GMAP
Whole Foods Poll [Survey Monkey]
Photo by leahlb
fyi. the paper’s name is Austin American-Statesman
must preview.
Meant to say that arguing that the efforts to modify development projects are equivalent to trying to stop them altogether and thus being against anything being built is foolish. By that logic, nobody should ever say anything negative at all about development projects. We should just smile and say thank you giant corporation for bringing us this wonderful store?
Anon at 3:41:
On the parking issue — I think what NeoGrec said deserves to be reposted:
“So many of the big new developments in Brooklyn depend on car access, viz IKEA, Fairway (basically anything that gets built in Red Hook), Whole Foods etc. It really shows up a lack of a basic urban plan for our borough — and I’m not talking about the kind of “plan” that subsidizes big developers to erect luxury condo towers downtown. Bloomberg and Markowitz should be discussing an expansion of public transportation, including ideas like an electric trolley line between RH and PS. Don’t tell me this is quixotic. The only reason NYC’s economy is so robust is because it is still relatively easy to move millions of workers and residents around on a daily basis.”
Also, the parking issue isn’t a matter of “compelling people to make the ‘right’ choice — as if some kind of essential freedom is being taken away by a nanny government! Please! This is a very childish argument. We have a serious problem with air quality and traffic in this city. Every big development project that is going to increase traffic needs to be carefully evaluated.
As for the organization pushing for a green roof — well why the hell not? Why does this mean being hostile to the building of Whole Foods altogether? I really don’t understand your argument. I haven’t looked into the green roof issue particularly, but I can imagine why it would make sense to push for a green roof on a store that’s going to have thousands and thousands of square feet — isn’t that exactly the sort of roof where there are sufficient economies of scale to make it worthwhile? I don’t understand why the fact that this group hasn’t petitioned condo tower developers for a green roof makes their petition of Whole Foods illegitimate. I can well imagine why the first wouldn’t make sense but the second would.
Community groups should have a place at the table in such essential matters as zoning and development. The fact that these groups are not elected is another silly argument of yours. Did someone elect the developer? Or — as I pointed out in an earlier post — are we supposed to put the fate of our neighborhoods in the hands of the Building Department? That part of city government that has proved incapable of standing for the public interest? Or perhaps the City Planning Commission? That rubber-stamped AY?
Your belief that the efforts of local groups to modify development projects are illegitimate is equivalent to being “anti-development” or trying to stop anything from being built is symptomatic of terrible short-sightedness and ignorance that is all over the comments section of this blog.
I used to want to retire to Scarsdale but with the corporate owned stores moving into Brooklyn, now I won’t have to! Thanks hipster wannabes!
i agree wholeheartedly, NeoGrec.
while i don’t oppose the whole foods, i can’t imagine how putting it in one of the already established brooklyn pedestrian neighborhoods wouldn’t have made more sense.
you’ll notice in manhattan they are in columbus circle, chelsea and union square.
not inwood, battery park or 7th and ave. D.
I’m perfectly happy to see Whole Foods come to Brooklyn. But it’s really too far for many PS shoppers who are on foot and faced with carting heavy groceries several long blocks (certainly anyone who lives east of 5th Ave). And what about the traffic impact? So many of the big new developments in Brooklyn depend on car access, viz IKEA, Fairway (basically anything that gets built in Red Hook), Whole Foods etc. It really shows up a lack of a basic urban plan for our borough — and I’m not talking about the kind of “plan” that subsidizes big developers to erect luxury condo towers downtown. Bloomberg and Markowitz should be discussing an expansion of public transportation, including ideas like an electric trolley line between RH and PS. Don’t tell me this is quixotic. The only reason NYC’s economy is so robust is because it is still relatively easy to move millions of workers and residents around on a daily basis.
SPer:
The urgent matters of public interest the “community groups” (which is not the same as saying they represent the majority of community opinion) are fighting for are:
1. Creating a green roof at a site that was formerly a brownfield. Why is a green roof any more urgent here than at, say, any new condo development? Why not petition them? The fact that they choose to make it an issue here, and only here, tells me they are hostile to the very idea of the Whole Foods, even if it would be bad PR to say that explicitly.
2. Compelling Whole Foods to reduce parking in the belief that, given too much parking, shoppers will make the “wrong” choice and must be compelled to make the “right” one.
ANd as for the poster who cannot seem to find foie gras in Park SLope — try Blue Apron.
Are people who post in comments actually unable to read? Nobody said anything was wrong with Whole Foods being built. Community groups act as a balance to large corporations and a very complaisant city government. Have you noticed that nobody but community-based groups have been fighting to make sure developers do the right thing? Honestly! Why is it “unrealistic” to make demands of developers? Developers are out to maximize benefit to themselves. In the old days, government was there to represent the common good. But we have a completely complicit and/or complaisant city government when it comes to development, so it has fallen to community groups to represent the common good.
Once again — it isn’t a matter of halting the construction of Whole FOods, but of negotiating with the developer to get the best possible plan that takes community needs and environmental issues into full consideration.
Once again — what, precisely, is wrong with that???