I'm sharing this news with you because Roseland can be viewed in the same way as Englewood. The Whole Foods store at 63rd and Halsted is closing in the near future after being open since Sept. 2016. It was supposed to be an oasis in the food desert.
I want to note the statement of the Mayor recently on this issue via Block Club Chi:The Englewood Whole Foods was supposed to be a South Side Chicago game-changer. Now it's pulling out. https://t.co/YkHesTVTtc via @crainschicago
— rolandsmartin (@rolandsmartin) May 3, 2022
At an unrelated news conference Monday, Lightfoot called the closure a “great disappointment” and “gut blow” to Englewood. She said the Whole Foods was an “interesting experiment” from former Mayor Rahm Emanuel, who she said championed a store that was too expensive for the neighborhood and where few residents shopped.
“I don’t know about most of you, but most Chicagoans are hard-pressed to pay, for example, $15 a pound for a piece of steak,” Lightfoot said.
The store was often empty, even on Saturdays when “grocery stores all over the city are absolutely crowded with people,” Lightfoot said.
“To me, what it underscores — and I wasn’t here when this decision was made — you cannot bring investment to the community without talking to the community and making sure the investment makes for that community,” Lightfoot said....The storefront won’t be left empty, leaders said. Lightfoot said her team will work with the community to make investments that “make sense for those neighborhoods.”
“We’re going to work our tails off to get a new alternative — one that the community wants and can access and participate in,” Lightfoot said. “It shouldn’t be that we’re plopping something down in a community where we haven’t engaged with them, we haven’t talked to relevant stakeholders to see if it’s something that they want, they need and that they’re going to be able to take advantage of.”
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