{"id":25925,"date":"2023-04-12T13:23:28","date_gmt":"2023-04-12T20:23:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/?p=25925"},"modified":"2023-04-12T13:23:30","modified_gmt":"2023-04-12T20:23:30","slug":"whole-foods-closure-is-epic-fail-for-sf","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/2023\/04\/12\/whole-foods-closure-is-epic-fail-for-sf\/","title":{"rendered":"WHOLE FOODS CLOSURE IS EPIC FAIL FOR SF"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

by\u00a0Randy Shaw<\/a>\u00a0on\u00a0April 10, 2023 (BeyondChron.org)<\/h4>\n\n\n\n
\"Whole<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Drug Dealers Killed the Market<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cSan Francisco must take urgent action to revitalize its Mid-Market and Tenderloin neighborhoods. There is no more time to waste<\/em>.\u201d Randy Shaw, \u201cUrgent Action Needed for SF\u2019s Mid-Market and Tenderloin<\/a>,\u201d August 1, 2022.,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The \u201curgent action\u201d many of us sought never came. And we now have the first major victim of the city\u2019s failure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The SF Standard reported<\/a> today that the Whole Foods Market at 8th<\/sup> and Market Street will be closing due to \u201cstaff safety concerns.\u201d It is a monumental setback for the Mid-Market neighborhood and an epic fail for City Hall.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The drug dealers won. They staked out open drug markets on multiple blocks surrounding Whole Foods and the city never forced them to permanently leave. Last October,  Leighton Woodhouse described the graphic details of addicts attacking store employees<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is a sad day for me because many of us tried for decades to get a supermarket to open within walking distance of the Tenderloin. Whole Foods was the first major supermarket to ever do so.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s also sad because the new Trinity Plaza was set to be the linchpin of a revitalized Mid-Market. Much of the progress made in Mid-Market during Ed Lee\u2019s mayoralty is being reversed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There has been so much attention on drug markets near Whole Foods that one has to ask Chief Scott why the SFPD never cleared the area. There needs to be a Board of Supervisors hearing to get to the bottom of the city\u2019s failure to protect two major investors who took a chance on Mid-Market: Trinity and Whole Foods.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

First of Many Closures?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I regularly hear rumors of other closures in the Mid-Market and Tenderloin. I\u2019m sure many who have been holding on will respond to the Whole Food closure with resignation and despair.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After all, if the city doesn\u2019t care about protecting Whole Foods why would it protect a small business?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019ve written dozens and dozens of times that San Francisco\u2019s economic future depends on closing open air drug markets. That so many drug markets still operate near Whole Foods is a testament to a city heading in the wrong direction.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Randy Shaw<\/a><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Randy Shaw is the Editor of Beyond Chron and the Director of San Francisco\u2019s Tenderloin Housing Clinic, which publishes Beyond Chron. Shaw’s latest book is Generation Priced Out: Who Gets to Live in the New Urban America. He is the author of four prior books on activism, including The Activist’s Handbook: Winning Social Change in the 21st Century, and Beyond the Fields: Cesar Chavez, the UFW and the Struggle for Justice in the 21st Century. He is also the author of The Tenderloin: Sex, Crime and Resistance in the Heart of San Francisco<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by\u00a0Randy Shaw\u00a0on\u00a0April 10, 2023 (BeyondChron.org) Drug Dealers Killed the Market \u201cSan Francisco must take urgent action to revitalize its Mid-Market and Tenderloin neighborhoods. There is no more time to waste.\u201d Randy Shaw, \u201cUrgent Action Needed for SF\u2019s Mid-Market and Tenderloin,\u201d August 1, 2022., The \u201curgent action\u201d many of us sought… Continue reading → <\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[408],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25925"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25925"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25925\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":25926,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25925\/revisions\/25926"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25925"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25925"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25925"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}