1/22/2024 0 Comments Grocery store near gaslight lofts![]() ![]() Marilyn Hyland, a former Cliftonite and public relations consultant now living in Indian Hill, led the effort. Ultimately, concerned citizens decided to take matters into their own hands. Goessling invested a great deal in the site, most notably a new roof, before his financing fell apart and he backed out. After Keller’s IGA closed in early 2011, Steve Goessling, a local grocer and developer, tried to resuscitate the store. “It’s like giving birth to a child,” one woman said, laughing. It had been an up-and-down couple of years for the market. At the subsequent celebration at Ludlow Wines, the atmosphere was giddy. In December, Clifton Market closed on its loan from the National Cooperative Bank, giving it the funds necessary to proceed. But if these two markets can thrive-or even just survive-they have the potential to send a powerful message to other parts of the city that feel their vitality, not to mention intrinsic character, slipping away: Rally fellow concerned citizens, pool pennies, then bug your neighbors for a couple years-you might be more powerful than you think. Apple Street, in the middle of one of those difficult periods that general manager Christopher DeAngelis identifies as the “groan zone,” will take longer. Both are learning from each other, though, and simultaneously showing that neighborhoods do not need to resign themselves to the cost-benefit analyses of enormous corporations.Ĭlifton Market began construction in April 2016 as long as there are no unpleasant surprises, it should open by the end of September. Apple Street, more than anything else, is intent on meeting the pricing needs of its poorest residents. Clifton Market’s business plan (they call it “uptrend”) anticipates touch-screen kiosks and a fair amount of razzle dazzle. Clifton Market will host wine-and-cheese parties Apple Street Market, in Northside, inclines more toward bingo night fund-raisers. And while the end goal remains the same, they are each pursuing different models and very distinct vibes. Each neighborhood has marshaled countless man-hours of (mostly volunteer) labor, raised large sums of money, and found ways to maintain energy and optimism despite a steady stream of delays, cost overruns, and setbacks. Over the past several years, both have been fighting to launch cooperative grocery stores. Call it the Age of Food Desertification.Ĭlifton and Northside, just minutes down the road from each other, felt this shift occur and decided, independently, to address it. Unless a new store can be enticed to open, an ugly pattern establishes itself: longer commutes to more distant shopping venues, and funds flowing out of the community instead of recirculating. Neighborhoods are left with empty eyesores, and residents have to travel farther and farther to procure fresh food. From Avondale to College Hill, smaller grocery stores are closing. Gaslight Clifton wept openly at the shuttering of Keller’s IGA on Ludlow, and Northside said goodbye to its Save-a-Lot. Within the space of a few years, two old Cincinnati neighborhoods lost their grocery stores. ![]()
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