You're absolutely right - an empty lot is not a floor, just the a point on the continuum.
It sounds like what everyone's dancing around is the concern that a TJs in that community would start the process of gentrification that would raise the cost of living and make it untenable for the current residents to continue living there.
Assuming that gentrification is a real problem (I have zero experience, so it's hard for me to judge): have you heard of any solutions to the issue besides rent control or "keeping out" the middle class?
It is not starting the process of gentrification, it is continuing it. It is not an issue of pro development vs. anti development, but rather of who is involed in determining what development is done and by whom. The city has a long history of acting on the neighborhood when people outside the neighborhood decide they want to do so while not acting when people inside the neighborhood want change. Giving large discounts to wealthy developers with no connection to the neighborhood without any discussion with people who live in the neighborhood shows that this process continues today. Here is one analysis of the historical process (pdf from 2007):
http://www.kingneighborhood.org/history/Bleeding%20Albina:%2...
Comments
You're absolutely right - an empty lot is not a floor, just the a point on the continuum.
It sounds like what everyone's dancing around is the concern that a TJs in that community would start the process of gentrification that would raise the cost of living and make it untenable for the current residents to continue living there.
Assuming that gentrification is a real problem (I have zero experience, so it's hard for me to judge): have you heard of any solutions to the issue besides rent control or "keeping out" the middle class?
It is not starting the process of gentrification, it is continuing it. It is not an issue of pro development vs. anti development, but rather of who is involed in determining what development is done and by whom. The city has a long history of acting on the neighborhood when people outside the neighborhood decide they want to do so while not acting when people inside the neighborhood want change. Giving large discounts to wealthy developers with no connection to the neighborhood without any discussion with people who live in the neighborhood shows that this process continues today. Here is one analysis of the historical process (pdf from 2007): http://www.kingneighborhood.org/history/Bleeding%20Albina:%2...