This is HUGE. I have always loved this unique intersection. With the streets coming together in the way it does, it has a remarkable resemblance to a stage-set.
The corners lack a neighborhood idenity. I've always tossed around the idea of calling it The Five Points. Any takers? :0)
Wow! Can't wait! What a great addition to the neighborhood. Hope to see him install the Wi-Fi...I know I'd make the walk regualry for a cup of coffee if he did.
I'll definitely make the walk over when they are open. From what I understand, up until a few months ago, the location was a bodega that would let drug dealers make transactions in plain site, inside and outside the door. I guess some of the Urban Roots folks and neighbors chased them out of business. Chalk one up for the good guys!
I took a tour a little while back with Harvey for the West Side Community Collaborative and he showed us the plans for this "five points" intersection. what theve done with this area and what they plan to do is really exciting!!!!!!! KEEP IT UP!
i hate to bring up the "g" word but i continue to be concerned about gentrification in this westside neighborhood. no critical conversation about the loss of a neighborhood resource for food (not to completely dismiss the alleged illegal activity, but where are low income people going to get food?).i guess i just don't think any development is good development. and i love gelato! but really i think that critical analysis is seriously needed. please.
I am sorry, but did you ever buy anything at this store? I did, and I refuse to see the closing of a shop that sold primarily cigarettes, junk food, and beer to the neighborhood as a loss. The number of children under ten that frequented this store in order to buy ice cream and candy everyday was out of control. Their store reeked of smoke (cigarettes), was unsanitary, and did not offer real food. There are corner stores with better real food selections within 3 blocks in two directions (6 within 10), and another store offering beer, cigarettes, and junk food across the street.
The opportunity for children in this neighborhood to discover artisan made gelato for treats after school is certainly a positive. Not even to mention the vegetable, herb, and fruit plants and trees sold at Urban Roots for reasonable prices, which people in the immediate neighborhood raise in order to eat fresh products.
Gentrification, sure. But if it allows people that live within a walkable distance access to foods that are not entirely composed of chemicals, then more power to 'em!
Likewise, I was on one of Harvey's tours earlier this year, with several others from RaChaCha who are working on a vacant properties initiative. Urban Roots was one of the highlights of the tour, and we spent quite a while there hearing the great story of how it came to be, and plans for the building which are clearly coming to fruition with amazing speed. BTW, I've often heard it said - not completely tongue-in-cheek - that two signs of a neighborhood turn-around are a coffee shop and an ice cream shop. Five Points is getting both - Sweet!
Great to get these updates on the progress.
I would give anything for something like this to open on our corner. It would be worth losing "Bill's Deli" which caters to a 40oz'er and scratch off ticket crowd who do nothing but bring down Allentown [not to mention the liter they create]. Good Luck guy's!
I'm way ready for some gelato, and if gentrification means no drug dealers hanging on corners transacting business right in the open 24 hours a day, no car stereos blaring profanity and shaking my whole house at 2 am, no people who believe the whole West Side is their personal trash bin, and no boarded-up, squatter-filled houses, then bring on the gentrification.
I have lived a block away from Urban Roots for the past 16 years and I love the diversity. I have Puerto Rican neighbors, Yemeni neighbors, honkey neighbors, black neighbors and Vietnamese neighbors and almost all of them are great neighbors who won't be pushed out by any so-called gentrification. This corner already has and will continue to give hope to those who have given up on this neighborhood (and who now believe it is normal to put up with the crap they put up with despite being good people) that it is no longer ok to spew profanity out of your mouth at high decibels or throw 40 ouncers against brick buildings when you finish them off or to treat my sidewalk and front lawn as a trash receptacle.
And if someone opened a quality food store in this neighborhood, it would be welcomed and supported. Queen Sheba was a horrible, horrible corner store. It offered no redeeming value and anybody who misses it had blinders on.
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