Looks like we're getting a slum store instead of a used electronics store

[ron_newman]

A couple of weeks ago, the former Planned Parenthood office had signs advertising "Organic Used Electronics" to open November 1. Those signs are now gone, and instead we now have gaudy "Cash for Gold" and "We Buy Diamonds" signs, threatening a Grand Opening on November 15.

Perhaps gentrification is over?

Comments

Gentrification.

[prunesnprisms.livejournal.com]

Oh yeah, I totally called that gentrification stuff off. I mean y'all don't eat burritos like you used, you don't want no froyo, can't tell yet if anyone is going to eat oatmeal or poké, but what we NEED is a pawn shop.

[actorcracked.livejournal.com]

Eh, I don't see what's so wrong with a pawn shop. More useful to me than an organic shop. If gentrification is over, I'll drink to that!

Re: Gentrification.

[frotz.livejournal.com]

Hey, wait, who's selling poke? (Hopefully not "reinvented and reinterpreted" past all recognition.) I'm happy to support the fading light of gentrification in this one small way before it slides into oblivion.

Re: Gentrification.

[ron_newman]

Pokéworks is coming to 261 Elm Street, next to O'Ginger.

[vonelftinhaus.livejournal.com]

I believe we have a pawn shop already - not my place to say but feel like one of these type's of places is enough

[teko.livejournal.com]

The original replacement for Planned Parenthood was an electronics shop.

I think one slum-style WE BUY GOLD pawn shop is more than enough for a block.

[smammy]

"Slum store"? I expect better from you, Ron.

[ron_newman]

Usually a store like this is found only in economically depressed areas.

[twilighttremolo.livejournal.com]

Yes, and used by the people who live there. If you mean economically depressed say it, don't say a word that's a step away from "ghetto."

[somergirl80.livejournal.com]

I rather be "economically depressed" as you say or old Somerville as us Villens would say then this gentrified place none of us who grew up here recognize or feel comfortable in. I'd take a pawn shop over another ecentric over priced place I've never heard of, any day. Just my two cents which as a Somervillen hasn't mattered to anybody the last 15 years, lol. Just being honest.

[ron_newman]

The used electronics store we were supposed to get would have been useful to everyone, old-timers and newcomers alike.

[teko.livejournal.com]

Pawn shops are a utility that people can surely take advantage of; I have no issue with having them around. But we currently have a pawn shop, a Goodwill, and two clothing consignment stores in Davis Square. There's no shortage of places to buy and sell used goods. To get yet another pawn shop is unnecessary; to get one with big signs yelling WE BUY GOLD is ugly and unsightly as well.

A potential used electronics store has nothing whatsoever to do with gentrification. Then again, perhaps that was a euphemism for a pawn shop anyway.

Let's stop the xenophobia

[cbeland.livejournal.com]

I'm tired of hearing people decide that particular businesses aren't "necessary" because they personally don't want to patronize them, or because they cater to people from a different subculture or socioeconomic status. Somerville is a strongly mixed community. We should treat everyone as if they belong here equally, because they are here. They are our neighbors, and it's time we started acting neighborly.

If you don't find a particular business useful, don't spend money there. If people agree with you, it will not last long. If enough other people do find it useful, they will spend their money there and it will stay.

RE: Let's stop the xenophobia

[ron_newman]

I don't know what's "xenophobic" about being dismayed that a predatory business is opening in the neighborhood. It does not serve any particular ethnic group. We'd surely welcome a halal butcher or a Brazilian baker.

RE: Let's stop the xenophobia

[cbeland.livejournal.com]

Describing this as a "slum store" sounds like "we don't want people from slums and the businesses catering to them coming here", which sounds disturbingly us vs. them. Xenophobia applies just as much to excluding poor people as it does excluding people based on their ethnicity.

If your only objection is that pawn shops are predatory, then that's a matter for state or federal consumer protection law. I think we should be careful not to implicitly adopt the attitude (and I'm not saying you are) that this type of store is tolerable in "slums" but not tolerable in "our" neighborhood - that seems either classist or NIMBYist.

It seems xenophobic to classify some junk and used item trading posts as OK (like used clothing stores and Goodwill) and some of them as not OK (like jewelry trading shops) because of their cultural or class associations. It definitely sounds us vs. them to worry about whether or not the "gentry" are still arriving in Davis Square, since that's been a flashpoint of conflict between residents from different subcultures (like hipsters and professionals vs. old Catholic Somerville).