Cala leaves, political impasse arrives

Cala Foods at Haight & Stanyan shut down last month, up goes the chain-link fence, and the plans for a new grocery (rumored to be Whole Foods) along with 50-60 rental housing units are submitted.


Then the unions get involved (because Whole Foods is non-union), and I'm sure the 'Supes will get involved, and my guess is that I'll be retired and living on an island before the Haight has a full-service grocery in that location, not to mention the associated living units (RENTALS, too!) which won't get built until the property owner knows that he can put a grocery store in there.


What a shame.


From today's BeyondChron,

The closing of the full-service, unionized Cala Foods in San Francisco’s Haight Ashbury district has prompted a neighborhood battle over the future use of the site. Longtime neighborhood builder John Brennan purchased the property, and plans to construct between 50 and 60 condominiums above a new full-service supermarket. Opponents of the project believe the proposed 176 underground parking spaces will create a traffic nightmare, and many prefer affordable housing to condos (though Brennan rents out his condos). But the bigger question involves the plan for a non-union Whole Foods supermarket to replace Cala. As the Bay Area’s unionized supermarkets fight to survive against non-union competitors, Whole Foods expansion could come at the expense of the industry’s living wage blue-collar jobs. On the other hand, approving Whole Foods keeps a full-service market in the neighborhood and creates a great opportunity for a labor-community union organizing campaign. [more...]

HANC Hampers Whole on Haight [SFist]
City’s grocery stores grow increasingly rare [SFHomeBlog]