Dear Editor:
Just what Central Lonsdale residents need - another high-end grocery store. Many of us checked out, then ignored the flashy Loblaws at 17th, which recently rose fromthe debris of an affordable but low end Extra Foods outlet, then shopped at the more affordable "low end" Safeway at 13th. With Safeway's impending closure, our neighbourhood will soon have two pricey high-end but no low-end grocery outlets. Where's the balance? Flashy, expensive high-end grocery outlets are probably OK for the affluent and trendoids who occupy or will soon occupy Central Lonsdale's numerous shiny new condo towers but many other residents - pensioners, young families and the marginally employed - will suffer higher grocery prices as well as the neighbourhood's generally declining affordability. A developer-driven gentrification/densification agenda is being forced on Central Lonsdale with the connivance of city council and the city's planning bureaucracy and any meaningful input from its residents is being ignored. Arise citizens of Central Lonsdale. You have nothing to lose except cheaper groceries!
Phil Chubb
North Vancouver
