Grove First:
Talking Points
Why
Every Grove Resident Should
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Grove First:
Talking Points
Why
Every Grove Resident Should Join the Opposition to Home Depot
At the Former K-Mart Location |
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Some Grove residents are not yet aware that Home Depot is knocking on the door to our community. Some think it does not affect them. Some think it might be good for the economy of the community. Some think it is going to be the nice designer version where they can shop for bathroom fixtures by Phillipe Starck. Some think it is better to have a Home Depot than an empty site. Coconut Grove, this is awake up call! |
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1. "I heard it's going to be an Expo." It is
most definitely NOT going to be a Home Depot "EXPO Store."
Many in our community do not feel threatened because they are under the
impression that the old K-Mart site is being replaced by a Home Depot EXPO
Store the upscale home design center. It is not. Those stores are being
phased out. What's coming is a full-fledged, warehouse just like the one
on S.W. 8th street. But, for them to turn a profit, they need more than
the 70,000 sq. ft. space which K-Mart had. They need between 85,000 and
100,000 sq. ft., plus they need to add another 14 feet of height. 2. "But what about Payless, Walgreens and
Milams?" 3. "I
welcome Home Depot because it will bring jobs to our community.”
·Home
Depot employees have no job security.
The company can let an
employee go at any time without any justification or cause.
· Home
Depot employees must submit to substance abuse testing. Anyone testing
positive for a prescription drug without a written prescription can be
fired.
· Home
Depot employees must agree to submit to "search of personal
belongings while on company property." This also includes lockers.
· Home
Depot has faced various racial and gender discrimination lawsuits across
the country, including Southfield Michigan where 12 African-American
former "associates" sued for racial discrimination citing that
managers at HD denied them promotions and training. (For more about Job
Opportunities in Home Depot, read starting page 9 in In Orange Blood, A
view of Home Depot from hometown America, by Al Norman, founder of
Sprawl Buster). |
·Home
Depot, in fact, takes the money out of the community to
its home-base 'in
Atlanta. The former K-mart site would b
better served by local merchants who
will keep the
money in the community. 4."I would rather have a
Home Depot there than a empty place where drug deals and crime may start to happen. ·Crime increases in every
vicinity in which Home Depot opens. Police departments
throughout the country have experienced a significant rise in calls
whenever a Home Depot has opened in their town. At a zoning hearing
in Boylston, Mass., a city official said that Home Depot "ge 5. "I
live in another part of the Grove, and don't
think Home Depot's proximity will
affect my quality
of life." Think: Really Bad Traffic. It will be
impossible to move along Bird
Avenue between 27th and US 1.
·Where
Kmart had the traffic of 500 –
750 customers per day, Home Depot will brings 3,200 – 5,000 per
day, and you know what that will mean to traffic.
· Home
Depot makes its vendors deliver 24 hours a day.
Picture a line of trucks with their engines running waiting to be
off-loaded up
and
down Bird.
·This overflow of
traffic surrounding Home Depot will also affect every other artery in and
out of the Grove. The traffic displacement will create heavier traffic on
32nd Avenue, 27th Ave., Bayshore Drive, Tigertail, Grand Avenue and Main
Highway. Think:
quality of life. You chose the Grove, and the higher
taxes that go with it, because you enjoy
its laid-back village |
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·Think:
property values in the area of the
Grove closest to the HD site stand to be adversely affected buy at least
25%, and in the not too distant future, that will also affect your
property’s value. |
Here is what you can do: 1.Vist our Web site and get more information:
wwwthegrovefirst.com 2.Write to
Commissioner Winton and his
staff urging him to draft an ordinance enforcing the C1 Zoning
(Restricted Commercial- limited to 50,000 sq. ft.) ·Johnny Winton Jwinton@ci.miami.fl.us |
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·Think:
what would happen in case of a fire? Toxic fumes.
That is what happens when sacks of fertilizer, plastic lawn furniture and
pool chemicals burn together. Toxic fumes will affect not just the Center
Grove, but the West Grove, the South Grove, the North Grove, Dinner Key
Marina and our neighbors in whichever direction the wind is blowing.
Add to that equation the corner gas station that pumps 150-160,00l gallons
of fuel a month, and the fire would turn into a catastrophic incident.
It took 2 school buses and 15 ambulances to haul away stricken fire
fighters at a Home Depot fire in Quincy, Mass. in 1995, and in Ann Arbor,
Michigan, only last week, someone deliberately
and easily started a fire at the Home Depot in Pittsfield Township
by simply pulling a cleaning and thinning solvent from a shelf and using
it to set boxes of sinks on fire while the store was open Friday evening
November 19, 2004, thus combining two of the above listed
bullet points now associated with Home Depot: crime and toxic
fumes. 6.
“But, I like to shop at Home Depot.” |
3. Write to all our commissioners. Tell them you do not want a Home Depot in Coconut Grove.
·Tomas Regalado
TR@ci.miami.fl.us If you do not have
access to email, drop the letters off at City Hall 4. Write a letter to the Editor of The Miami Herald
and other local newspapers. 5. Help spread the word any way you can. Educate your neighbors. · Grab a handful of these flyers, photo copy them if you run out, and slip them under your neighbors’ doors. · Tell parents who are waiting to pick up their children from school. · Tell the people waiting in line at the grocery store.
· Put it up in your condo bulletin board, and talk about it at
you association meetings. · Designate a member of
you neighborhood or condo association to obtain information and keep
everyone in the loop. |
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·Wouldn’t you prefer a choice of 2 grocery stores over 2 hardware stores? South Miami and Coral Gables each have several grocery stores. So should the Grove. ·Shell Lumber has a superb
selection of hardware and lumber. They never ran out of plywood
through 4 hurricane warnings this year. The store is a long standing
member of the community, staffed with knowledgeable and neighborly
individuals whose livelihoods depend on and deserve our support. · Still, if you really, really love shopping at Home Depot, there is already one a scant 3 miles away, on SW 8th street. We are not asking you to boycott Home Depot, we just want you to help send the message that one 3 miles away is sufficiently close to us. |
6. Help fund the fight. It takes funds to have lawyers working on our behalf. Your donations count. Checks should be made payable to “The Grove First c/o Sarnoff & Bayer Trust Account”. · Think of that check as a special present to yourself and your family for the holidays. · Get the kids involved. Hold a bake sale, create a lemonade stand. · Donate photo copying of flyers or materials. 7. Give us input. Let us know if your have any good ideas, if you have services you can donate, or friends with services they can donate. VOLUNTEER. 8. Let us know what kind of establishment you would like to see there instead of Home Depot. Believe it or not, you get enough people saying they want something in particular, and it will create a momentum. |
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7. “You can’t fight these things, it’s probably already too late, and there is nothing I can do personally.” Wrong. There are many dedicated communities that have successfully fought to keep Home Depot out of their neighborhoods. Over 100 of them, in fact.But you cannot leave the fight to a few activist neighbors. This affects all of us.
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TO Contact us: EMAIL: info@thegrovefirst.com TELEPHONE: 786-302-5352 3000 SHIPPING AVENUE,COCONUT GROVE, FL 33133
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