That's heartening news for my neighborhood. Now, I will have a New Season's even closer! Plus, I'll be able to make easy price and quality comparisons with Freddy's.

good news--far better than the condo crap that went in down the street "H45" or whatever.
one question though
where are people going to park? that lot is tiny...

It'll just be pedestrian, bicyclist and mass transit friendly.

So what's with the reference in the article to "whole foods" store? Has the brand name Whole Foods become generic and supplanted the term "natural foods"?

What would be great if the New Seasons at Southeast 20th and Division were to be relocated to the old Daily Grind site. The yuppies who don't mind spending two or three times for a comparable loaf of bread clog the intersection of 21st and Division with their yuppie Subaru's waiting to turn into this New Seasons. Very few walk or even ride a bike. I'd rather have a Walmart than these yuppie like rip off stores.

Right, Bob. If you want to see clogged intersections, just put a Walmart at that location.

Bob,

Have you ever noticed that the bike racks at the New Seasons on Division are almost always full?

It's amazing to me that some people save their disdain for innocuous things like Subarus, young people, bike riders, and responsible retail establishments.

Hey Bob, you know what's a rip off? Doing absolutely zilch to help the local economy. Walk through a New Seasons or any other grocery co-op and you'll find hundreds/thousands of local businesses represented in one way or another. I'm sure you must own stock in Proctor and Gamble or Kraft Foods because that's all you're going to find at WinCo. Or maybe you want to dismiss something mundane as a grocery store as yuppie because you don't want to understand.

Maybe people drive a Subaru because it's utilitarian, retains it's value and gets better mileage than an SUV. Maybe people shop at New Seasons because they want to take care of themselves with food that resembles what food looked like before your generation bastardized it. Maybe people just want to do the smart or right thing... You gotta problem with that?

I advise the immediate neighborhood to get involved with New Seasons early and get any agreements with them in writing. I live near one of their stores, and I can speak from experience that it will have a huge impact on the livability of their neighborhood: noise, trash, car traffic, truck traffic, and parking (already a premium in that neighborhood, and once the store is in place, they can be quite unresponsive and hard to work with.

I think New Seasons is a great local company, but I have found that they are more invested in neighborhood involvement when it's a high-profile, feel-good kind of issue that will provide good eco-community-PR than when it's an annoying issue about getting along with their neighbors. They'll talk a good game going in, but once the store is in operation, they have little incentive to get along with the folks next door, and in my case, only seem to do what's easy and cheap to lessen the huge impact one of their stores has on a residential neighborhood. They make it very clear the relative size of their company vs. a few unhappy homeowners around them.

I'm sure that having New Seasons as a neighbor is better than a Mall-Wart, but they clearly state their goals of being a responsive, responsible member of the community, and as such hold themselves up to a higher standard than an out-of-state big-box. When they speak of being a member of their community, I think they are talking about the larger community of paying customers, not so much the people who live nearby (isn't that community?). I think it odd that at my store, many of the folks who live near the store have gone from being pretty big fans to wishing they lived a few blocks away. Sad, really.

...and even sadder, I KNOW they think they are doing a good job.