November 25th Announcement
This email was sent to me for sharing…
Friends and Neighbors,
It’s time for some grassroots community organizing.
Focus Property Group is planning on building a 7-11 in the Historic Ballpark District at 2425 Broadway, between Silver State Lofts and the PBA Architectural Firm across the street from the Granada Fish Company and the site of the new Plus Gallery. This 7-11 will also be two blocks down from The Samaritan House and Denver Rescue Mission. Focus Property Group is the same group that drove out the independent coffee shop Monkey Bean and claims an all-night convenience store next to an alley already infamous for drug deals will be good for the community. Quick reminder of the 7-11 at 14th and Pearl that eventually had to be shut down because no amount of security cameras or policing could keep it clean. This is a fragile time our for neighborhood and something like a crime-ridden 7-11 could potentially tip it in a direction none of us desire. Not to mention, there’s already an independent mom & pop day-time convenience store on 24th between Walnut and Blake, one block away, that will surely be put out of business.
So what can we do? There is a meeting on Tuesday, November 25th at 6pm in the Premier Lofts (2200 Market St) with Focus Property Group, the Ballpark Neighborhood Association and Steve Oliver, the 7-11 Real Estate Manager for North America. The Ballpark Neighborhood Association will be in the meeting and the people will be in the street. My goal is 200 people in front of Premier Lofts protesting this 7-11 at the time Steve Oliver arrives to decide if this is a good decision for his company or not. I also have a contact at Channel 2 News that I am going to try my hardest to interest in this cause. I am asking people to arrive at 5:30pm in front of Premier Lofts, 2200 Market Street, I will have some signs pre-made, but feel free to make your own. Together we can do this.
This is our neighborhood, this is our opportunity to come together as a community and make our voices heard. Please send this along to anyone you think might be interested stepping forward for the greater good of our community.
In Solidarity,
Brianna Martray
Studio/Gallery
900 Santa Fe Dr, G
Denver, CO 80204
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11 comments
This is the notice I was sent from my property management company.
Please be advised, the next Ball Park Neighborhood meeting will be held on Tuesday November 25, 2008 at 6:00pm at Premier Lofts. The meeting will be held in the community room on the first floor.
The topic of discussion is the proposed 7- Eleven that will be located directly behind Silver State and how it will affect the Ball Park Neighborhood. Owners will have a chance to have their concerns addressed by a 7- Eleven representative and the developer.
Hope to see you there!
In addition to the mom & pop store on 24th and Blake there is another local convenience store at 21st and Larimer. I really don’t think we need another.
http://maps.google.com/?ie=UTF8&ll=39.754292,-104.991373&spn=0.001233,0.002004&t=h&z=19&layer=c&cbll=39.75382,-104.991468&panoid=4ffYBdPACKpAVarEWIeSbg&cbp=1,294.08255905578255,,0,5.000000000000001
I’ll be there. As much as I’m for 7-11’s (I love frozen coke) we don’t need one right there. To push two mom-pop operations out, no thanks.
[...] twittered this, and now I know where I’m gonna be tonight after work. The next block up from the office, at [...]
Blogged it too: http://johnwilker.com/2008/11/just-say-no-to-7-11/
This seems to be a particularly hot topic for Denver that I am not as familiar with so please feel free to share with friends and post comments. I’ll try and stay close to my computer and keep the comments posting (the comments go through a spam checker). Today is the discussion so please feel free to share your thoughts here.
Don’t forget to come back and share comments on how the meeting went and what you thought of the discussion there. Or just share feedback with those who could not go.
I decided to do a little research after tonights meeting and became very incensed when I pulled up the following, which I certainly had my suspicions of in relation to Bahman’s other properties in that neighborhood (all of which have gone out of business or have been forced out of business):
http://denver.craigslist.org/off/844604943.html
This is a craig’s listing for Bahman’s property at 24th and Larimer, which used to house the 400 club (I believe). His least rate is outrageous, simpy stunning for this neighborhood. My rent one block away from this property was less than half that at its highest this year, and I’m 100% certain that no retail (other than maybe a 7-11) is going to agree to that kind of rate in our neighborhood. The reality is that Bahman is a big-time developer, the property with the 7-11 is small, small beans to him, and he absolutely does not have the interests of the neigbhorhood in mind. Pass this along.
[...] can’t be good. And How did this all go wrong for Focus? The Internet. Skabber twittered a blog link, that was an Email from someone else. I twittered the event, and blogged it. Word spread fast. In [...]
was an interesting meeting. The only two people not opposed to the 7-11, don’t live in the community. Go figure. I hope 7-11 got a good feel for the community, and I’m thinking Focus Property Group is going to have a tough go of things in the future, based on what most folks said. Hopefully it works out. I got the distinct impression “there’s gonna be a 7-11, so suck it” but we’ll see.
Thinking it might make sense to find a new president of the Ballpark Neighborhood association too. I mean really? we elected some one who doesn’t live here? How’s that make sense?
John Wilker posted a great write up of the meeting on his blog. http://johnwilker.com/2008/11/a-lesson-in-2008-dont-f-with-community/
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