This afternoon, a rally against the new Whole Foods store in the Hyde Square section of Jamaica Plain in Boston drew about 80 protesters (not including children under 18) on the site where the national supermarket chain is being built. Promoted by Whose Foods?, an organization that claims to have presented more that 1,000 signatures against Whole Foods, the rally was led by young Latino activists and brought together a diverse mix of people: from young families to older activists and Latino youth. We filmed portions of today’s rally and will report tomorrow about what we found at the rally, For now, we will let the video tell the story.
Saw a little bit of the overwhelmingly white rally and just got back from reading the messages the protesters attached to the construction fence. From “skee ball and pancakes” to “an abortion clinic” to a “flea market” and many messages calling for a “farmers’ market”, what struck me most is that whatever people’s dream are for Hyde Square, it’s not Whole Foods holding them back.
If it took 1400 “invitations” and days of phone banking to turn out 80 people, I’d say that the Whose Foods movement is over and Jamaica Plain’s long history of change and progress endures.
Make that 1600 “invitations,” according to the Whose Foods facebook page.
There is still no proof of the 1,000 signatures.
It’s funny how after living in JP and having a small business in Hyde Square for more than 15 years I do not recognize any of these people, not one.
And it is so true what you said Gretchen- they can still make any of those ideas happen, because luckily there are still tons of vacancies in Hyde Square! Just not at 415 Centre St.
It just boggles my mind that if a LiquorMart or JunkyAutoSupplies was preparing to open right now, this “protest” never would have happened. Talk about Bizarro World.
Good point
You didn’t recognize anyone because they’re probably not residents of JP.
Think Wisconsin —> on a small scale the JP protesters were probably bussed in.
Interesting
It looks like all 80 of the mutants from city feed showed up to protect their monopoly of over priced, organic, eats.
To everyone protesting Wholefoods moving into the area, stop, please. Your efforts are not going to get them to stop. If you don’t like them, then don’t shop there, I’m pretty sure there are 3 latin oriented bodegas on center street that you can support and a stop and shop.
Excellent point. Focus the energy on revitalizing the Latin Quarter. I mean, imagine the traffic a new WF would get. If I were El Oriental, I would be jumping for joy.