The petition "Chief Financial Officer: Stop Walgreens from coming into Windsor Terrace, Brooklyn" asks the question
What is a neighborhood without a supermarket?
and then cites the potential answers if a drugstore moves into the Key Food space rather than a supermarket:
- Elderly and disabled citizens will have great difficulty getting the food they need.
- 50 Key Food workers are losing their jobs. The Walgreens representative said only 25-30 Walgreens employees would be hired and they will be minimum-wage, non-union jobs.
- People will be less likely to move to Windsor Terrace because no one wants to move to a neighborhood without a supermarket and thus, property values may go down.
- This might put our two drug stores out of business, creating either empty storefronts or the beginning of the chain-ification of Windsor Terrace, something most residents don't want.
These are just a few of the reasons we don't want a Walgreens at Prospect and 11th Ave.
With this petition, we are letting you know how we feel. We tell you to reconsider.
Don't come into our neighborhood! Or, if you must, make sure this location has a full grocery store! That is what the neighborhood needs. Anything less and we will boycott.
As a drug store in our neighborhood, you will fail. As a supermarket, you will succeed.
Leonora Stein, creator of the petition and owner of Babbo's Books on Prospect Park West, will be in front of Key Food tomorrow with paper petitions for people who aren't online to sign. She would appreciate getting help from the community. Call her today at Babbo's at (718) 788-3475 or tomorrow on her cell phone at (917) 209-7567, or send her an e-mail at mostconvenient @ yahoo.com.
