So Trader Joes is not wanted in Portland's black Albina neighborhood because such an upscale store would entice more rich people to move there and therefore displace poor blacks?

Really? Trader Joes is not like a Williams-Sonoma or even Whole Foods. For example, they have relatively good cheap wine - cheaper and better than you could get at Safeway.

@1
Don't miss this:
https://www.yahoo.com/news/trader-joe-39…
Sad but apparently so

Portland's racism...

Of course the entire city is made up of nothing but racists. Great way to describe a community.

Why does the gentrification cry always come up from areas that are doing badly? Is it either you "gentrify" or crappy areas stay crappy because that's how they've been for awhile? Traders Joe is where white people shop, oh no!

Maybe if people shop there after it's built they'll find that hey, you can be black and enjoy cheap multi packs of cucumbers and peppers too because it's *just a grocery store*

One of the few ways I can think of that a supermarket might "primarily benefit the black community" is through black community ownership of the business.

And maybe that's not such a bad idea?

@6 how do you do that? What for profit supermarket chain (and face it you need a large chain to keep priced low in a lower income community) is going to do that? The only way that would happen is through some sort of angel investor or grant or government program. And then you're starting a non-profit grocery company from the ground up that would require a significant investment in time and effort from he community to work. I just don't see that happening in a blighted or low income neighborhood.

Trader Joe's is all you people got from an article about over a century of racism?
The reason long-time residents get mad about things like this is because they have been pleading for improvements and development for decades and no one gave a shit until well-off white people started moving in. The ones being ineluctably pushed out are smart enough to know this stuff isn't being done for their benefit.

Nice sleight of hand: Claiming progressives "hackles automatically rise when others point out that we're not doing enough on these subjects." is a nice way to let yourself off the hook for actually advocating FOR policies which explicitly cause displacement and a literal replacement of black and latino retail and cultural venues with white-friendly ones.

More Popeyes!!!

So you're saying that private investment is unwanted then. It all has to be public?

But I'm gay how can I be racist?

@11: IDK if you're addressing me but that isn't what I was saying. People are angry because no one ever wanted to put anything nice in the neighborhood FOR THEM. As indicated by the fact that no one did for decades. Now that new (well-off, white) people are moving in and they're slowly being squeezed out there are suddenly all these shiny new projects proposed. What a coincidence!
Also even private development is driven by government policy. The city was offering TJs big incentives to build there, as is often the case.