Henry's - Yuppie Paradiso Now Open
I admit it - me and the roommates cruised up to Western to see what was up with tonight's grand opening shindig at the Henry's market - undeniably the first real sign of gentrification in Pedro, if only because the two incoming Starbucks haven't managed to open their doors yet. We didn't actually go inside, or even park, because Park Western Plaza was a disaster of traffic and parking.
What information did I manage to gather from this shoddy recon mission? Nothing food related - I presume that Henry's is a Whole Foods analogue and that's really all we need to know. What I did gain was the knowledge that more than our much propagandized "art district" or "historic downtown", the average Joe San Pedran desperately wants to shop till they drop in the same usual boring places that litter America. It's almost embarrassing - I see so much pride in things local, but I don't see the crowds at the events that are truly local. But for the opening of a supermarket on a street that has four of them already - everybody makes it their business to turn out.
What information did I manage to gather from this shoddy recon mission? Nothing food related - I presume that Henry's is a Whole Foods analogue and that's really all we need to know. What I did gain was the knowledge that more than our much propagandized "art district" or "historic downtown", the average Joe San Pedran desperately wants to shop till they drop in the same usual boring places that litter America. It's almost embarrassing - I see so much pride in things local, but I don't see the crowds at the events that are truly local. But for the opening of a supermarket on a street that has four of them already - everybody makes it their business to turn out.
23 Comments:
Excellent points. Funny how you'll never see a crowd at A-1, the real Italian grocery store in downtown SP; or at South Shores, the place to go for Croatian meats; or even at Slavko's.
Um, I wouldn't exactly call the opening of a supermarket...on Western Avenue...in a location that used to house a supermarket...a sign of anything remotely resembling gentrification. And mind you, this is me talking; it is well known that I see gentrifiers lurking behind every corneOMGTHERESONENOWDIDYOUSEEHIM!!!!!!!!!11!!!!1!1!
Chalk this one up, instead, to the mainstreaming of the organic/natural/"whole" food culture. A lot more of your average Joes are tossing around terms like "bioflavenoids" and "superfoods" and displaying curiosity about where their oranges are grown. Food consciousness, having long ago marched out from bohemia and annexed first the yuppies and then a good portion of the American middle class, is now making significant inroads into the lower-middles and the working class.
So if A-1 and Slavko's et al want to see crowds, they just might want to make a note of this rapid granolafication of the proletariat (or vice versa, if you like) and consider widening their range just a bit. No, I don't think Pedro is quite ready for tofu sandwiches on raw grain bread at Busy Bee, but on the other hand it probably wouldn't kill some of our beloved local merchants to stock some Naked Juice along with all the 99%-high-fructose-corn-syrup bevvies they currently carry. Even in Pedro, tastes change.
BTW, Henry's is a subsidiary of Wild Oats.
I couln't keep the smile off my face as my wife and I were walking around the cars trying to find parking spaces last night anywhere near Henry's.
Is this what we are in for, parking-wise should Ponte Vista actually get approval for 2,300 homes?!?!?!?!?
Sorry my bad. I just couldn't help the analogy.
MW
Hey, you chose to live out in the 'burbs. Don't player-hate just because a couple of thousand others are following your example. Did you really think your tract would be the last?
imbg, was your comment at 12:40 PM directed at me?
MW
MW - Never you mind about IMBG. In earlier posts, he's unequivocally stated that one has to "earn his respect" or some 13-year old childish crap like that. So until that time, he gives himself license to dispense with all social graces (and pull lame accusations out of his ass like "you live in tract housing").
Last I heard, the brave, anonymous IMBG was living comfortably in a tidy apartment complex on 40th St., so I wouldn't take his words as blanket condemnation of all suburban life.
Back to the original topic, I will say our local merchants do need to clue in on the market for health products and stop peddling triglyceride-raising, artery-clogging, fat-unwed-mother-making toxic garbage that barely passes for food and drink.
Mark,
I wasn't smiling when I (finally) found a parking space near the new Henry's Market off Western. Unbelievably crowded. I asked one of the employees about this and the response was basically "get used to it." So bad that two cars were trailing me as I walked back to my car, asking if I was leaving so they could have my space.
Keep some perspective, people. This was an opening night event. Henry's 's not always going to be that crowded.
Anonymous 6:07 PM, you are very correct in stating Henry's will not always be as crowded as it was last night or today.
I happen to be in the luxurious position of living almost equadistance between Henry's and Trader Joe's. Ah, such is the good life, I write with tongue in cheek.
In my original comment I was wondering if all the parking lots might look like Henry's did last night and today if Ponte Vista becomes the location of many, many homes.
I did get an answer (sort of) as to why parking in parking lots wasn't studied in the Ponte Vista DEIR. I will post what I learned on my blog, perhaps this weekend. The bottom line, I was explained, is that under most conditions, housing development DEIRs do not include parking lot studies.
It was also pointed out, quite verbally, to me by my sister: "Why in the heck did Henry's have its opening during the holiday shopping season?" It seems she needed to go to Office Depot, but gave up after viewing the CARnage. Thanks, Ruth.
MW
Another lame store, in a crappy crowded parking lot, that's only going to get worse once thousands of more drones flood the area. Yeah, that's the proper "perspective."
I'm glad this blog reminded me to check out Henry's tonight. Lots of parking available.
8 mangoes -$2
5 avocadoes - $1
2 lbs. apples - $1
Proving yet again you're all just a bunch of whiners - priceless.
Of course there is at night you moron. Now get a life.
I'm not sure whether I should be flattered or creeped out that my words have had such an effect on Mr. Tospill that he has evidently made it his life's work to document my writing and try to figure out who I am. Don't you usually have to, like, accomplish stuff before people start volunteering to be your biographer?
MW: Yuppers, my comment was directed at you. It was, as was your comment about living the good life, tongue in cheek. But there was a little barb in there (in the comment, I mean, not in my tongue or in my cheek...because that would hurt). After all, it's not like your car won't be taking up a space in that parking lot, right?
Howdy imbg,
Your humor is noted.
As for choosing to live where I live, you are partially correct. In 1998 I returned to the house to live with my wife rather than having the family sell it. Originally I did not have the choice to move into the home I grew up in because I was only one-day old at that time and I don't remember having even the choice of which parent was going to carry me over the threshold.
The tract of homes I grew up in was the first tract built between Western and Miraleste. It's construction began in 1948 and was the original "Eastview". I have written about these facts before. Of course folks who live in the first tract of homes in an otherwise unpopulated area can't believe their tract is the last tract.
Does my car have to take up a parking space at Henry's? NO! Imbg, if you have ever traveled near the Marie Calendar's on Western, you have probably noticed that there are stores within walking distance from that restaurant. I don't live at Marie's but I sure live close by. I have walked to and from the stores many times. The only reason I did drive to Henry's was because I was running errands that took me longer distances away from where I could easily walk.
I freely admit me and my neighbors have it pretty darn swell where we live. We have the right, responsibility and obligation to each other to keep it that way, too. Whether we chose to live here or our parents brought us here, why shouldn't we try to keep what we have and love?
Who has the right to come into our community and tell us we have to accept whatever they want just because THEY think THEY know what is best for OUR community? There seems to be quite a number of intelligent folks who chose to live in the community that have opinions that differ from this those persons.
Now imbg, why don't you tell us what you would like to see at Ponte Vista, and why you want to see whatever you want. It is fairly simple, in my opinion, to write down what you want.
Please allow me to create an example using your identity, again, hopefully tonge in cheek.
I'm "imbg" and I think whatever Bisno wants is o.k. with me because most of San Pedro is stuck in narrow-minded thinking and deserves whatever crap is thrust on folks living here. If we can't have a community exactly as I would like it to be, then just do what ever happens and live with it.
Hey Bill T., did I come close to the example I chose to write as "imbg"?
MW
Imbg: I got one of those once on a car forum. "One of those" meaning an obsesso anklebiter. In my case I didn't say anything politically controversial, I was just talking about whether it's safe to cut a coil or two from your springs.
I won't say which side of the issue I was on but damn if it didn't anger some "no-lifer" enough that he started answering every post I made, no matter what subject, with a rant about what a bad dude I was because of my spring post. Then he got all Detective Clouseau and posted what shop I work at.
Heads up, they're usually harmless but they don't go away.
MW wrote:
Now imbg, why don't you tell us what you would like to see at Ponte Vista, and why you want to see whatever you want.
I would like to see something like the nature preserve at White Point, but without the militancy about native plants. Fat chance of it ever happening, of course, but you did ask what I'd like to see. It's not often you get a chance to reverse sprawl, so it's really dispiriting to see people shouting themselves hoarse over how best to preserve sprawl instead. You can never have too many places like White Point (another place that the military didn't need anymore, remember), and right now we don't have nearly enough.
As you can no doubt guess, I am not sold on the "need" for housing or other high-impact uses on this spot. San Pedro, Wilmington, and Lomita have plenty of fugly parking lots and struggling strip malls that should have a reasonably dense housing and commercial mix on them instead. Beautify neighborhoods while increasing housing stock and reducing car trips. Senior housing? Well, if I were a "senior" I don't think I would want to be shunted off from the rest of the world out in Sprawlvania, and the proximity to Green Hills just seems...mmm, unnecessarily poignant. The DiCarlo bakery would have been a better site for the LAUSD's high school, and would have spared us a local-business-killing Target store. And so on. It's not rocket surgery.
Thank you, imbg, for your comments.
Can I move them to my blog? You have given folks a good blueprint on where you stand and why you stand there.
I suppose you know that there is an Advisory Committee member that shares your interest in building nothing but recreation and open spaces at Ponte Vista. I would eagerly support such a development if were even remotely possible.
Unfortunately, reality has me by my little round sensitive thingys and I have to live with that.
Proponents of more open space have the facts in their favor.There is not enough open spaces and recreational areas in our area. Sadly, it looks like the need for more housing trumps the facts in this case.
Thanks again. You made some great comments!
MW
You can reprint my comments wherever you want. I write them to be read.
I'd still like for somebody to show me some actual proof (assertion is not proof) of this alleged need for housing at the edge of SP/PV.
I suppose you know that there is an Advisory Committee member that shares your interest in building nothing but recreation and open spaces at Ponte Vista. I would eagerly support such a development if were even remotely possible.
The possibility of desirable things actually happening would be measurably less remote if more people were willing to support them despite the seeming remoteness, n'est-ce pas?
You have your own reasons for doing what you do, but I just couldn't imagine myself wasting any of the short time I have on Earth agitating for Sprawl Model A instead of Sprawl Model B, when what I really want is No Fucking Sprawl At All.
(I have other things on which I prefer to waste the short time I have on Earth, like searching the Net for pictures of rocket surgery.)
Thank you again, imbg.
Sometimes folks get passionate about something and they choose to spend time, money, and energy following that passion.
For now, it is probably correct to think dealing with the Ponte Vista issue is one of my passions. It hasn't always been a passion of mine to deal with community issues, but I felt the pull to get involved, so I am.
Sure, there are many more issues and ways to spend one's short life, other than debating the pros and cons of what some developer wants.
My kids are all grown up and I am a G.I.W. (Grandpa in waiting) so when the first grandchild shows up, and that could be in one-three years, I have the time to deal with Ponte Vista.
I am not retiring in the next 4-5 years, so work takes it's portion of my time. I usually comment between the time I finish dinner and head out for a walk or a trip to Bally's, or some other evening activity.
My blog and comments have taken the place of all but three hours of necessary weekly Television time, so dealing with (hopefully) intelligent community members far surpasses staring at the tubeless flat screen.
Being a parrothead, I would like to quote from the chorus of a song by Mr. Jimmy Buffet:
"I'd rather die while I'm living, then live when I'm dead."
MW
Nobody's hassling you for spending time on the Bisno issue. I'm saying, if you're going to spend that much time on it then why not push for something worth pushing for?
Thanks imbg,
As long as I am on the Community Advisory Committee, I feel I must limit my "pushing".
Whether I should remain on the committee has been an ongoing debate within myself and has been pondered on by others.
I would be quite fair to believe that when I am no longer on the committee, my blog will change dramatically and will appear to be in harmony with Life on the Edge's postings relative to Ponte Vista.
But for now, you can read my positions on my blog, reading "Why I Support R1 at Ponte Vista" and "The Ugly Truths."
I am still waiting to see if organized groups form to oppose Mr. Bisno's plans. I shouldn't join any at this time, while I am on the committee, but I am holding out hope that Mr. Bisno's groups of supporters will be met in greater numbers by opponents of Mr. Bisno's plans, at least by the January 18, 2007 Open Forum meeting.
You are also correct that I should consider an open space/recreational site more seriously at Ponte Vista. Perhaps if the big school gets built, the remaining land should be left for more open space type of activities. I have actually proposed to Mr. Bisno that the current open storm drain that runs along the south side of the property be restored to its original stream setting that it had long before anyone lived in the area. I think folks in the condos on Fitness Drive could learn to live with sounds of frogs, birds, and other wildlife back in the area.
MW
Why, exactly, do you feel that you must limit your pushing as long as you are on the Community Advisory Committee?
What, exactly, is the function of a member of a community advisory committee appointed by a government body, if not to give advice to that body as to how its actions might best serve a community?
Is there something about membership in a CAC that, in your view, precludes a person from expressing actual honest opinions? If so, you might consider the possibility that you would be a far more valuable resource as a member of the public, advocating what you actually want as part of the public comment process, than as a member of an "advisory" committee forbidden to advise.
Howdy imbg,
I posted your last comment and my response on my blog.
You make fair points.
I hope you have read "Why I Support R1 at Ponte Vista" and "The Ugly Truths" on my blog.
I appreciate all the contributions in opposition to Mr. Bisno's plans within the posts and comments of this blog. I visit this blog every day and it is an essential site for everyone who opposes anything other than R1 at Ponte Vista.
MW
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