"Plan for Good" left the following comment on the "Introduction and Mission" entry, and I thought it was interesting enough to merit its own post. Plan says:
"I think this is coming and our job is to help direct it positively. So lets think big: architect/design competition for new model of revolutionary "green" supermarket in terms of layout, parking, planted courtyard to increase and host the pedestrian traffic in the area, super bike & stroller storage/loading, energy efficiency (setting a new standard for carbon footprint for markets around the country, compostable everything and solar panels), new delivery models with direct farmer delivery, on-site fabulous recycling center and ecology booth with a volunteer ombudsmen/answer guy.
It could be a win-win for neighborhood and safeway by being inviting not big, worthy not wasteful, cost saving not consuming, and could lead meaningful change across America. An opulent luxury boutique store is not what we want here in rockridge so let's make it ours."
I think what his idea captures is the desire to have the Safeway store reflect our neighborhood identity, not their corporate one, and help Safeway see this project as an opportunity for innovation - embracing the very real cultural shift underway towards life lived locally and sustainably, a shift that Rockridge already epitomizes. At the meeting last night, there were so many comments about the possibilities Safeway could embrace, with a constant theme of a pedestrian (and transit) friendly store, open space, and most importantly, small scale, both in height and frontage.
There was a well-received suggestion for a design charette - an invitation for multiple architects to create a broadly-sketched out plan in response to the program for the site. One person observed that the reason Safeway has received so much opposition is that they've only given us two options: giant and enormous. Why not offer the community -and themselves - the opportunity to consider multiple options?
Todd Paradis, the Safeway real estate manager, seemed receptive to the proposed program the Stakeholder representatives presented (see Oct. 1 blog entry), but then again, one person mentioned that Safeway had been engaging the community and gathering comments for well over a year, only to present a 76,000 sq. ft. behemoth. Another person expressed her nervousness that he would so radically shift his position to a "clean slate" one in just a week - how genuine is that intention, and what are the machinations behind that shift? And finally, the Contiguous Neighbors representative alluded to the ongoing problems Safeway's closest neighbors have with the store, with 2 years of discussion yielding little result. "This is your job, your corporation," she said, "but these are our homes. This is our neighborhood. This just can't be dialogue. It has to be real."
I'd like to invite readers to leave comments with their ideas for what the new store might be. This is an open forum, so all ideas are welcome. Please make ready use of the proposed program below - it is still a work-in-progress, but already contains many of the concerns of the neighborhood.
I look forward to hearing from you.
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1 comment:
I've not been able to come to the meetings because of prior commitments, but I do want to express that I love the idea of a model "green" store. I was curious why the stakeholders asked to have the recycling center removed. We use that recycling center all the time to bring bottles and cans that we find littering the streets. And I know there are homeless and poor people who do the same.
And I'd like to see Safeway put in bulk food bins rather than all the packaged crap that they sell. And more organic choices from smaller, local vendors rather than only Safeway's industrial organic selections that are only somewhat more eco-friendly than conventionally grown food.
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