Letters From Our Readers

The Big Vote for Whole Foods

From: The 3135 Esplanade Steering Committee
To: Mr. John Mackey, CEO, Whole Foods
Date: 4 April 2005
Re: Whole Foods site, Esplanade Avenue, New Orlean

Dear Mr. Mackey,

We are writing to follow up on Whole Foods’ promise to give the local community an opportunity to comment on potential purchasers of your Esplanade Avenue store in New Orleans.

We are an ad-hoc committee comprised of neighborhood residents and Whole Foods shoppers who volunteered after two community meetings that were called to address Whole Foods’ decision to close our neighborhood store. We are providing the community with as much information as possible on what is happening with regard to the site. To that end, we have established a list-serve, a web site (www.esplanademarket.org) and a binder of the information included on the web site for people who do not use computers. We invite you to submit a letter, which we can post to the web site, to update the community.

We have defined the community to be (1) the immediate Faubourg St. John neighborhood (Whole Foods has been the heart of our neighborhood for more than twenty years); (2) the surrounding neighborhoods of Gentilly, the Esplanade Ridge, Mid-City, the French Quarter and Faubourg Marigny; and (3) the people of New Orleans who value historic Esplanade Avenue and who shop in our neighborhood. We intend to mobilize this community in our efforts.

We will give the selected bidders for the store the broadest possible publicity and then hold a mass meeting open to all interested persons at which the participants will express their preferences among your choices. We are referring to this as the “Big Vote.” The request for proposals circulated by your real estate broker indicates that sealed bids must be submitted by April 14 and must be irrevocable through May 15. We hope to receive information from Whole Foods or its broker as soon as possible after April 14 about the bidders so that we may publicize it in the community. In order to plan for the “Big Vote,” we would appreciate hearing from you about when we can expect to receive Whole Foods’ top choices among the bidders. We would also appreciate confirmation from Whole Foods that the approach we have chosen is an acceptable format for addressing community preference.

In the two public meetings held on February 19 and March 5 (minutes posted on our website), community members expressed a variety of desires for the site. We believe you will take satisfaction that Whole Foods has embodied many of the characteristics of value to the community. We hope that the following list will assist you in evaluating potential future occupants of the site. The community’s general preferences, set forth in no particular order, include:

• local ownership
• businesses that pay at least a living wage
• businesses that will complement, rather than simply compete with, existing businesses
• businesses that will honor the historic quality of the location
• businesses that will mesh with the existing neighborhood fabric
• businesses that will provide a positive hub of activity after dark
• businesses that will replace what we are losing, i.e., a natural or gourmet food store

There is a general preference against national chains, hard liquor retail, and fast food outlets.

We very much appreciate the opportunity to work with Whole Foods on this issue. At this point, we request that you please designate a representative to act as a liaison in moving this effort forward. If you have any questions or wish to submit information to us, please contact committee chairwoman Renee Allie via e-mail.

Sincerely,

The 3135 Esplanade Steering Committee

Renee Allie
Forest Bradley-Wright
Charlotte Ford
Steven Jackson
Stephanie Lawrence
Peter Reichard
Anne Sobol
Robert Thompson