Sure, I don't mind opening a can of worms...

Will Doig, 'urban commentator' has an article in today's Salon.com magazine. Entitled 'Whole Foods is coming? Time to buy, it's an examination of the company as a driver of development in neighbourhoods. 

You know, as in 'LRT is a driver of development'.

Here's a couple of paragraphs from the article:

“What something like a movie theater or a Whole Foods does is it creates an extended-hours district,” says Reid. “Lots of downtowns close up shop at 6, but there are certain amenities that can make a downtown go from being a 10-hour thing to a 16-hour thing.” When this happens, evening foot traffic arrives, and new types of business can thrive. When Whole Foods moved onto P Street in Washington, D.C., 13 years ago, the only nightlife on the block was a divey (and awesome) rock club called the Vegas Lounge. The Lounge is still there, but it’s since been joined by a popular burger joint called Stoney’s, a “food-to-fork” locavore restaurant called Logan Tavern that owns a farm 30 miles south of the city, a Starbucks (open till 8 p.m.), a coffeehouse-slash-bar called Commissary and several retail stores, all squeezed onto the same block as Whole Foods.

Once evening-oriented development starts attracting people from outside the neighborhood, the area acquires what realtors call the “dwell factor,” a fancy way of saying it gets used in multiple ways. When we talk about the value of mixed-use neighborhoods, we’re often thinking of physical attributes — housing, retail, parks — but you could just as easily think of “mixed-use” in terms of time: school and work during the day, shopping in the afternoon and evening, restaurants, bars and entertainment well into the night.

Now, I'm fully aware of the standard mindset is regarding getting a grocery store/supermarket in Downtown Hamilton: 'affordability' seems to be the touchstone, the defining parameter. I don't quite understand why an historical downtown should need to have that as its primary requirement, especially given as how the area had  –before it was tag-teamed by the Harris downloading of social services initiative and the general betrayal of stewardship of the downtown by successive Councils– traditionally been where you went to get the best selection of the best merchandise. You know, the way most downtowns had been...until the 'going to the mall' mentality took over. 

So I'm not that interested in having that argument. (Additionally because as I had started a conversation some months ago that was predicated on the idea of a variation on the 'co-op' model, with the community partnering up with a major chain.) If the downtown goes through a resurgence, and the effects ripple out...especially to the east and north-east...then neighbourhoods will change. (Oh. I can see 'gentrification' lumbering into the conversation...)

So I guess my reason in presenting this article isn't to prompt discussion about Whole Foods, or even whether a chain is a good fit for Downtown Hamilton, but more to ask the question 'How much change are those people who have an interest in seeing the downtown thrive, willing to see unfold?'

I suspect the answer is aligned with the way so many look back on the past fifty years with remonstration in their hearts: everything is judged by what they value now, not on any sort of reasonable perspective or realistic context. 

I'm just not sure, unless these benevolent-minded ones suddenly win Lotto Max and they're the ones to decide how things actually change, that what is bound to happen will make any of them happy. 

Whole Foods, or not. 

M Adrian Brassington