Whole Foods, good?

Here in Chicago, we have about 20 Whole Foods outlets. They have expanded their reach and audience rather rapidly over the last few years and are currently building a new one in the infamous Englewood neighborhood. So the question comes to mind, is this a good thing?

The Englewood neighborhood has been historically black and under-served for generations. The area is infamous for having some of the poorest residents of Chicago and a legacy of violence. These recent years, the city has been dedicated to improving the infrastructure in this area. There was a extremely dilapidated shopping district at the heart of the area which has been demolished and is being replaced. Abandoned properties have been knocked down after sitting idle for years and the available public housing has been revamped and repurposed. Kennedy King College, a long standing city college, has built a new campus in the neighborhood which was well over due.

Right near one of the busiest intersections of this area, Whole Foods is rapidly building a shopping center and their store is slatted to be the anchor. This outlet is across the street from the new college campus. Many residents are curious to find out if this will a profitable venture. I would agree that the area needs a grocery store of better quality than the other available offerings nearby, made up of mostly liquor stores with some groceries and a few low cost store chains. But is this the right move for the area?

Englewood is one of a few food deserts present in Chicago, and it has been that way for a while now. Residents have had to go outside of the neighborhood to buy groceries of quality for as least as I have been a resident, I am 45 and lived here all my life. The difficulty of living in a food dessert is two fold, the residents that can travel outside the neighborhood quickly, mostly by car, are spending their economic power in another neighborhood which keeps the other area vital and their area continues to degrade. Secondly, the residents that can't travel by car regularly to do their shopping are left with little option that to buy substandard food offerings which will degrade their health and leaves little economic improvement in their own area.

It is wonderful that there is an effort to make a course correction in this matter. However, Whole Foods has been among the priciest offerings available in this city, and the organic and other high priced food offerings are not familiar to the population of the area. I support the revamping efforts to bring that location back to being a vital and strong location. What no one knows yet, is if this will be successful. Many people are questioning if this is a signal that the city is not just improving the area that has been in such need or are we seeing the first signs of gentrification? Will the current residents embrace and be able to afford to support the store? Or is the store building there ahead of a change in the racial and economic shift in the residents? In Chicago, when a neighborhood makes changes like these, it usually means that the minority residents who have lived in that section for generations, will be pushed out and replaced with non-minority residents with much higher incomes.

The stroller crowd has been rapidly moving into a area of Chicago that is known as Boy's Town, it was a heaven of activity and housing for our LGBT people. With that shift in population, the area is being forced to close some long standing business and the lots of its residents can no longer afford the increasing property values since the area became popular and desirable.

Will the same shift happen in Englewood? Or will Whole Foods fail to improve the health and options of the residents? If the neighborhood is gentrified, where will poorest of the residents be push into next? If Whole Foods fails, will any other chain store be willing to build in the area and keep from having yet another closed store sit idle? I think, everyone wants the area to be improved, but how do you do this successfully??