Giant Launch Postponed

Posted on the Cleveland Park Listserv:

We want to give all the members of the community an opportunity to join us for a launch of the new project to redevelop the Wisconsin Avenue Giant and Friendship Shopping Center, which will be known as Cathedral Commons. To honor the High Holy Day, Rosh Hashanah, we will postpone the previously announced launch event.

For additional information, go to Wisconsin Avenue Giant.

Rose Jackson
Giant Development Team
www.wisconsinavegiant.com

Wisconsin & Newark Giant Launch on Sept. 9

This is the day a lot of people thought would never arrive.  The renovation of the old Giant at Wisconsin and Newark is finally going to start.  Here's the "Invitation to Giant Launch" that went out to the community from Rose Jackson, spokesperson for the Wisconsin Avenue Giant Redevelopment Team:

Giant Food President Robin Michel invites you to join Mayor Adrian Fenty, Council Chair Vincent Gray, Councilmember Mary Cheh and Councilmember Kwame Brown as we introduce

Plans for our new Wisconsin Avenue Giant at  Cathedral Commons

Thursday, September 9, 2010 at 2 pm

Giant Food Parking Lot
3336 Wisconsin Avenue, NW
Food, Fun, and Festivities

All are welcome to attend!

Poll Results: Overwhelming Support for Giant Supermarket

The results are in and by an overwhelming margin people support Giant's new supermarket and residential/shopping complex at Wisconsin Avenue and Newark Street, NW.

The vote was 89 percent against the lawsuit to block the Giant; 10 percent for the lawsuit.  It doesn't get much clearer than that.  The poll asked, "Do you support or oppose the lawsuit to block the Giant supermarket and residential/shopping complex at Wisconsin and Newark?"

All Life Is Local's poll results are very close to the verdict of a similar poll on the Cleveland Park Listserv conducted in February 2009, in which 93 percent of the people responding said that they support the new development.

Poll: Do You Support or Oppose the Lawsuit to Block the Giant Supermarket?

There's a new poll about the lawsuit to block the Giant supermarket shopping/residential project in the Cleveland Park neighborhood of Washington, DC.  The poll, which you can find here at All Life Is Local asks:

Do you support or oppose the lawsuit to block the Giant supermarket and residential/shopping complex?

The debate about the Giant continues on the Cleveland Park Listserv.  But oddly, the recent debate has been completely one-sided.  Not a single party to the lawsuit has spoken.  Since the lawsuit has been filed the anti-Giant filers have remained silent.  So let's hear from you.  What do you think about the effort by a handful of residents to try and stop the project?

If you're not up to speed on the plans to modernize the Giant, both DCist and Greater Greater Washington have good articles on what's involved.  For over ten years there's been a battle over whether or not a modern supermarket should be built at Wisconsin Avenue and Newark Street.  The Zoning Board has given the okay to the project and the only thing standing in its way is the lawsuit.  What do you think about this lawsuit?

The Giant and the CPCA

On several occasions the Cleveland Park Citizen's Association's executive committee has voted to oppose the Giant supermarket's proposed modernization and residential/shopping complex.

A question was posed recently on the Cleveland Park Listserv: "Didn't the Cleveland Park Citizens Association vote against this? Did the recently revamped board do anything to reverse their stated position on the Giant?"

The answer is no. The Cleveland Park Citizens Association has not reversed its position against a modern Giant supermarket.

Last year the CPCA's former president declined to revisit the question, stating on the Cleveland Park Listserv, "The Giant hearings have ended and the record is closed. The Zoning Commission will decide whether all the upzoning requested in our low-density neighborhood is worth the potential impact."

Anti Giant Forces Sue to Block Supermarket...Again

Reported yesterday on the Cleveland Park Listserv:  A handful of neighbors filed a lawsuit to block the development of a new supermarket and residential/commercial complex at Wisconsin Avenue and Newark Street.  Despite the fact than an overwhelming majority of neighbors --93 percent in a Listserv poll-- support the new supermarket project, a few neighbors think that their vision of Cleveland Park should prevail.  

A determined few have been trying to block the new Giant for ten years.  Their strategy of block and delay has been, unfortunately, successful.  Hopefully, this is their last stand and they will fail.

For some people, that vision includes the idea that a neighborhood like Cleveland Park --what they think of as a "village" in Washington, DC-- shouldn't even have a modern, well-stocked supermarket.  They worry that a large supermarket will attract shoppers on their way home from work.  Personally, I've never understood the fear of having people who live outside of one neighborhood shop in another.  It's actually a good thing when dollars are brought into a community. Other supermarket opponents insist that Cleveland Park can get along just fine with a small supermarket.  "Busy city dwellers do not need to spend an hour doing the family shopping, walking miles around inside huge markets," wrote one person on the Cleveland Park Listserv who opposes the concept of a larger supermarket.  Never mind that other people want a better supermarket; the opponents think they know what's best.