The following is an excerpt of a conversation between a group of friends that are all Belhaven residents.
Gorjus: So, the Jitney 14 on Fortification—or as they insist on calling it, the “Winn Dixie”—is on the market.
What I want to know is, should we buy it and turn it into a disco? I’m thinking we could call it Welty’s.
Larry Ferrari: I assume by your email that this is an authorization by you to start the work. Are you going to purchase it? I REALLY think you should. I will send over a contract tonight for you to sign and we will start the work.
Jaysus: It’s gonna be a Whole Foods. Trust the Jaysus on this.
Wah: It needs to be turned into one, just because I’m too lazy to drive all the way to Fondren to the Rainbow for groceries. Otherwise, my second choice would be a disco.
Sally: Is that just the Jaysus’s gut feeling, or have you heard something?
jp!: I heard that was going down, too. What did you hear?
Jaysus: It’s a combination of what my innards tell me and conversations with little birds.
Sally: Um.
Jaysus: Okay, it was a late-night, alcohol-infused, top-secret conversation at Hal and Mal’s several months ago. There are many, many people in jackson who want this to happen, and I think the market could support it.
Gorjus: I’ve heard the Whole Foods rumor for a few months myself. Reasons why I think it wouldn’t work:
1. A significant portion of the Jitney 14 crowd comes there because of its existence at roughly the corner of 3 communities: Belhaven Proper, the Heights, and That Way over State Street. The Whole Foods product concept does not serve those communities; quite frankly, you can’t get no ribs or neck up at the Whole Food.
Reason why it could work:
1. It would attract dollars from other areas that currently go to Kroger/Brookshire/&tc.—including Belhaven itself. I mean, sometimes I just have to go to Kroger if I want a particular brand of FGDC.
Reasons Why I Don’t Want It:
1. God, I’m already too bourgeois. And seriously: we don’t need a Whole Foods in Jackson—we already have Rainbow, which is a locally-owned cooperative. Sure, as a a vegetarian I’d love even more options, but . . .
Larry: FU, Fascist! And . . . “FDGC”?
Gorjus: Fake Dead God’s Children. Um, faux meat.
Wah: But what, Gorjus? You are against increasing properly values or attracting other businesses? Wouldn’t that be the whole point of a Welty’s Disco?
Jaxxie Glam: Putting a disco in there would be about as smart as trying to reinvent a bar formerly housed in a trailer as an entire office building. Maybe you’d like to consult that particular genius on his business plan.
I agree that Whole Foods doesn’t serve the lower income residents who outnumber those who can afford $7 packets of lunch meat. As much as I’d like some of that fancy prepackaged food and exotic technicolor veggies, I don’t want to drive to Kroger in order to get staple items without having to secure a bank loan first.
Of course, if the Gentrification Mart really does come here, it will cut down on the foot traffic of CRAZY & POOR ASS BLACK PEOPLE in Belhaven Proper, saving us the money we’d have to spend money putting up that fence. Hooray for progress!
Jaysus: so, you’re racist??
Jayrah: What would a Whole Foods mean for Rainbow?
jp!: “Out of business” would be my guess.
Wah: I recant my previous statements; Jaxxie’s “Gentrification Mart” comments make me question the appropriateness of a Whole Foods. As well as our friendship.
Vaguely related to the crazy people comment, I did find a rather odd lady on my front porch once around midnight, carrying a Winn-Dixie bag.
When I asked her what she was doing, she asked if she could borrow a knife.
Gorjus: I love that story. And I still say you’re a hater because you told her no.
Jaysus: I honestly wouldn’t mind just a wee bit of gentrification around the neighborhood. Hell, all those ramshackle old monster houses along the Jefferson corridor in the Heights are slowly being returned to livable status. It’s all a historic district now . . . but what’s the point if the residents have to drive several miles to buy milk and bread? Or, go to a non-Irish bar?
A Whole Foods would be cool, but probably a bit much. That’s the beauty of the Jitney 14—there’s always a rich tennis lady right behind a family of eighteen buying red hotdogs.
Jaxxie: “A wee bit of gentrification . . . .” Perhaps YOU are only a wee bit RACIST! HA, motherfucker!
Ya’ll know I’m being sarcastic. But it’s true—the Winn-Jitney is the farthest point east of State Street, and the only one I can think of offhand, that serves the extremely poor (and more than its share of crazy) demographic to whom the Knife Lady belongs.
I don’t need my liberalism validated by being able to point to the bag lady in “my” grocery store and say “see, I don’t REALLY live in Honkytown.” If gentrification benefited everyone, I’d be ALL FOR IT, but I’ve seen it in Chicago, and it doesn’t. Poor folks always get screwed but there’s just enough silver lining for them that developers can spin their justification.
It’s gotten so the neighborhoods in Chicago have a life cycle of a year now. As in, if you’re a college student you can move in a semi-decent neighborhood, but you’ll have to move in a year, because the property values triple.
Sure, the ‘East of State’ crowd can shop at the New Deal grocery store, but they are the ones who most need the benefit of the tiny discounts of chain supermarkets.
jp!: What about McDade’s? I understand he’s open to ordering stuff that he doesn’t carry if people ask.
Larry: I don’t care what goes in there . . . it just better be something good. Fondren is kicking Belhaven’s ass right now! We need something good to kick off the new zoning and streetscape plan for Fortification Street.
I don’t think that McDade’s has the money to buy another grocery store after just buying that old Jitney over by the Duling School. I like the idea of a locally-owned grocery store, but I also like to buy fresh bread, milk and produce. Mold is very low on my list of things I want from a grocery store. I wish I could shop at Rainbow, but patchouli gives me a headache.
All and all Belhaven is still coming together. Jefferson Street is slowly getting its act together, outside of a few rogue property owners, which is great. I just don’t want to see all the development and good ideas for the city go farther north to Fondren.
Living around Fortification Street, I am a really big fan of that becoming a “nicer” corridor to downtown and much more selfishly my front door. I want some more real urban living, god-DAMN-it. Fondren is stealing my dream of actually being able to walk out my back door and buy anything I want and need.
Of course, right now all I can buy in Fondren are some nurse’s uniforms or some elaborate girl’s clothing in a size 2. I don’t need either of those things at the moment, but dammit, it’s more than I can buy on Fortification. Granted, if I were more like Gorjus, all I would need and want was some Wild Vines and fruit pies—which they do have. But wouldn’t a fresh fruit pie be better?
Gorjus: Don’t forget about Kat’s Wine Cellar, my man. A great liquor store, a good wine selection, and outstanding service, and they’re expanding very soon.
Larry: Yeah, I forgot about that. Jackson is slowly coming around, and at work I’m seeing that more and more of the “white flights” that left in the mid 90’s for the “greener” pastures of Madison are slowly returning back to the city.
Is this a good thing, you might be asking? I for one think it is. With their money comes their ideals, and as a general rule those suck. But their money is important to the city. It brings progress and development, which equals a livelier downtown/midtown and more commercial opportunities. All of which provide us some much needed variety in the city, and saves us a trip to County Line Road or down Lakeland.
All: WE HATE COUNTY LINE ROAD!!
Larry: The sidebar to all of this is that more money and the tax revenue stays in Jackson instead of the surrounding suburbs and Jackson becomes a better city, and Belhaven becomes a better community.
Jayrah: Which we all want.
Sally: Indeed we do.
Jaxxie: Is it time for a drink yet?
Gorjus: It’s always time for a drink.
sometimes, i am glad i don’t live there so that i wouldn’t have to have an ENORMOUS conversation about a freakin grocery store. sheesh…
Didn’t you read it?? It’s not about a grocery store: it’s about the future of Jackson!!
i like where the “faux meat” link takes you.
no, it is not about the future of jackson. it is clearly about the future of ya’lls little neighborhood and what it will do for the upper crust and the crazy people that are so gracefully combined in Bellhaven.
but, it does still hinge on a freaking grocery store.
Yeah, living here sucks, what with all the talk about the economic future of our neighborhood and all.
What’s up with the Fondren hate’n? You all sound like you need to take a trip to the Pig and Mike’s Gas Plus.
my man on the inside claims whole foods was seriously considering the jackson area (although he was talking more madison area), but backed out due to the state’s “legal climate” and the potential liability costs.
make of this what you will.
y’all fools need to cash in your belhaven property values and step to brook dr. we have an irish-pirate-bike-hardware pub right across the street and a piggly wiggly within biking distance. not to mention a wig shop.
gorjus, it’s not too late for you. the house down the street was just fixed up, and now they’re flipping it for the bargain basement price of $550,000. you could probably turn it into a disco. and fill the swimming pool with wild vines.
Yeah, but does your Brook Dr. Home Depot outbuilding/Irish pub have Bobby Bare, Jr. coming to play?
!
Jaxxie’s Indie Rock Backyard Amphitheater does
Stay tuned for details!!
I think I just had a little seizure reading this.
now, now, miz jaxxie,
the irish pub is no home depot outbuilding. it was built with the property back in the day, fair and square. and if you show up over there on a fri. night with anything edible, they’ll happily throw it in the fry daddy for you.
if you sign up and move on over now, we’ll let you in on the new top o’ fondren leisure league: bocce ball and croquet…PLUS! there’s a bingo parlor right round the way, next to best wok!
no bobby bare. but they do have a fry daddy.
stop by tonight and neighbor dan will fry up a bacon-wrapped cheese-stuffed hot dog just for you
and i’ll even let you drink from my priceless nekked lady glasses in the 4429 dart bar.
i might make you listen to high on fire, though.
Oh lordy. I stand corrected.
Can I do this AND squeeze in watching the Persians kick Klinkhammer’s ass that the BoTB?
Who says there’s nothing to do in Jaxxon???
Do you think it’s fair to say that this conversation and its attendant concerns are primarily relevant to larger cities? I ask because my wife and I, along with friends of ours, used to discuss such matters when we lived in Los Angeles (tons of local economies and choices), but the idea of talking about this stuff while living in Starkville (or anywhere in the GT) seems ridiculous. Our choices are Wal-Mart, Kroger, and Foodmax. Period. Unless, of course, you count the health food store (whose name I always forget) in Columbus that’s 35 miles away and extra-expensive along with the small local produce co-op about which I keep meaning to inquire. Maybe there are more I don’t know about, though. I hope so.
Kicker, I don’t think that these concerns are entirely exclusive to larger communities, but I think that for the most part they are. We can only be concerned about exclusion when there is a place for others to be excluded to.
Franklin, I don’t like going to Mike’s Gas Plus because the roof is ringed with razor-wire. And that? Makes me nervous.
Man, I turned in my Jackson card and never looked back. I was on the far edge of Fondren and had a few too many blue lights at the neighbors’ houses for comfort. And then they were searching for a guy in my back yard at 1 a.m. and I packed my fam and moved to Clinton! Yee-Haw! Bernie Ebbers be damned! Clinton rocks!
Problem Solved: send Whole Foods to the Coast. Tell them to forget Jackson. The Coast doesn’t even have a Rainbow. Easy, huh?