Some members of the Edgewood, Brentwood, and Eckington neighborhoods have rallied to the defense of the Safeway in the RI Avenue Shopping Center. Some coverage here.
Advocates seem to have secured the involvement of Councilmember Harry Thomas, Jr. to push for keeping the neighborhood Safeway.
As I already pointed out, I can understand the desire to keep this grocery store as it's a much more convenient store to walk to than the Giant. Comments in the City Paper article made it sound like people were lazy or that they had forgotten the fact that Giant is "just across the street". If you drive to Giant, than it probably feels like it's just across the street but to those of us who use that old fashioned method of locomotion, known as our two feet, it's definitely not just across the street. Especially for those who maybe senior citizens or who prefer not to venture out...navigating the roadways and parking lot up to Giant can sometimes be intimidating. Not that the RI Avenue Safeway doesn't have it's issues and I am sure that those lobbying to save the store were just as disgusted at the recent vermin issue but they still want a grocery store that is more walker-friendly and that's on a more "pedestrian-scale". That really is the future of neighborhood and urban development in the U.S....small, densely-populated nodes of development providing amenities within walking distance and that seems to be what DC Gov is going for in it's 'Great Streets Initiative' for Rhode Island Avenue. Of course, we'll see how well that plans holds up and whether it takes into account what residents actually need instead of building some pie-in-the-sky flashy monstrosity.
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