Right now, I am supporting the NOPA Farmer’s Market happening as I type on Grove @ Divisadero. I own a small business in this area and have noticed that since the farmers market has started, a few local cafes are serving the produce. This is great for our neighborhood, but will only continue(like any business) if the neighborhood supports the effort.

Please shop Local!

Frankee Uno

By the way, Richard, I hear your preference on a WF vs. Safeway, and personally I’m in agreement. I’m a big natural foods person, and I never shop at Safeway. But on the other hand, I’m very familiar with WF as a corporation (having worked for them and in the rest of the natural foods industry, perfectly amicably, for ten years), and though they have some good points and I would prefer to shop there over a conventional chain supermarket, they also heavily greenwash, aggressively push out local comptetitors, lobby for organic laws and regulations that lessen some standards and raise others to suit their already exitsting practices and put burdens on local natural retialers, cater much more to luxury-oriented foodies than local or organic seekers (just look for local stuff in the produce aisle), and are one of the chains at the forefront of the anti-union movement. And the fact is that although I would prefer personally to shop at a WF if the choice was Safeway, that’s because I have some disposable income for food and can manage to buy there. For many residents of D5 (in which I live and vote, by the way), putting a WF in the lot is the same as not adding a market at all, and the only net effect on people without extra income will be to put in yet more unaffordable housing, making the crunch forcing them out of the neighborhood even tighter. I’m not actually advocating for Safeway or some such thing, if you’ll notice – I think that we need to explore local options, and it saddens me that this isn’t discussed. In fact, the only discussion points seem to come directly from the realtors who stand to benefit from this ever-gentrifying neighborhood change.

I support the Whole Foods project too, and I’m a District 5 resident.

But I’m not considering voting for you, even for a second. Guess why?

Your personal grudge against bicycles and your nuisance lawsuit have blocked the city from making any bicycling improvements, no matter how minor, for the last two years.

We can’t even get new bike racks on the sidewalks because of your "environmental" injunction.

If that’s the kind of governance you want, I sincerely hope you don’t even make the ballot.

yours,
Theo

I’m running against Mirkarimi in D5 and support the Whole Foods project, which I think is ideal for that location. I’m now scrambling to get signatures of registered voters in the district. Let me know if you’d be willing to sign my petition (the signatures won’t be used in my candidates’ statement, just to qualify for the ballot). I’d also like to contact Mr. Brennan, too, if you have an email address or phone number.

Regards,
Rob Anderson
rmajora@comcast.net