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[Westsiders for Public Participation]

From WestSideSpirit.com - Anne Cottavoz has been encouraging the organic lifestyle for 17 years at Columbus Natural Food, her store on Columbus Avenue and West 95th Street. But now she is organizing loyal customers against her landlord's plan for expansion that will change a swath of the avenue's landscape. Cottavoz's store, the Chinese restaurant Hunan Park, a Subway sandwich franchise and a Banco Popular branch would be in the middle of a construction site and at risk for closure or relocation. Read more.

[marilyn miller]

i'm requesting that this project not go forward.  a neighborhood is not simply a mall. it's a human enterprise. i don't mind a mix of large stores and smaller independent stores, but i do mind when the small stores vanish, bulldozered by the one thing that seems to matter above all, increasingly--the claims of big money, big commerce, big real estate.  and the neighborhood suffers; it becomes an area of transient population, exemplified in the large new buildings, which, for many renters, represents just one stop on their path, rather than a long-term residence/investment in this section of the upper west side, and in the mega stores themselves, which generally have no investment in the neighborhood--except as a commercial enterprise, or cash cow, despite protestations to the contrary.

CPW, however, has a population mix of long-term residents with an investment in the neighborhood, and short-term residents, who may or may not. it's critical for the long-term vibrancy of a neighborhood that both are represented, and why small independent stores are absolutely essential. why? they don't simply sell a product, they provide a human service;
they know their customers as people, often over real time, and the connection between customer and store is not some fleeting impersonal exchange.

Columbus Natural is such a store. it's a lovely place; the staff has been there for a long time. Even if the landlord promises a new lease in the new building, by that time many customers will have moved on. we all know this is the reality. and it is also the reality  when these stores are forced from  a neighborhood, and replaced by a megastore, we all become commodities. can't we for once, just say, "no, not this time, not here."?


marilyn miller

[Cathy Unsino]

"What Anne and her Columbus Natural Foods store faces is a microcosm of the big picture that affects us all. Her plight warrants united and sustained advocacy in support of her survival.

Independently owned stores, average citizens, and our neighborhoods are squeezed by the insistent greed of the few who are as dedicated to maximizing their individual profits, as they are indifferent to the harm they inflict on the many in achieving their ends.

The market-driven ideology that endorses this trend at the highest level of city government is committed to diminished public review and accountability, de-regulation, zoning exemptions, and the blending of private and public facilities, and its purview extends from real estate to nursing homes and--new to our neighborhood--to merging both fields.

By supporting Anne Cottavoz, we are advocating for our community's right to light and air and uncongested sidewalks, to our right to patronize stores like Anne's and her husband's Sing and Sing Market across the street--the highly successful Mom and Pop stores with excellent products and personal service that respond to customers' needs like no other. They are at the heart of our community. Anne has emerged as an inspiring community leader, and the growing roster of signatures of concerned neighbors on her petition attest to the great value in which we hold her."

[Abigail]

I am strongly opposed to the re-development proposal involving 95 West 95th Street.  Please make note of this and fight this change that would destroy our neighborhood.

[Bertha]

Comment via http://westsidespirit.com/2010/05/05/columbus-ave-retail-proposal-raises-hackles

I attended the hearing at CB7 and the comments from the Board President of Columbus House were totally selfish. All they care about is themselves and getting the scraps of renovations the landlord promised them. The same landlord who is currently in two litigation cases with them. They are willing to go along with this plan which we all know would destroy the fabric of the block and the neighborhood as well as remove loyal businesses which we love just to get something for themselves. For shame! I hope they get what they deserve when the landlord gives them the business a few years from now. Additionally, there was a CB7 board member who had the nerve to say that 95th street was "unattractive" in it's current state. Seriously, who does she think she is to speak that way about OUR neighborhood where she does not live? All this after she got up and whined about the Redeemer Church on the East side which has built additional levels to its original building and has become a bad neighbor. She was very clear about her problem about something that had to do with her situation but did not show any empathy for this situation in my judgment. She really had a lot of nerve. And to boot she had the absolute gall to abstain from the voting. I hope she receives the same when they vote on the Redeemer Church issue!