Columbia Heights Listserve vs. Ross
The Columbia Heights listserv has been a heated battle ground of thinly veiled race and class issues of late. When they're not sniping back and forth, many of the posters have been loudly bemoaning the Ross and Marshalls discount clothing stores coming to the new DCUSA development at 14th and Irving NW. They also complain about the incoming Lane Bryant, Foot Locker, and Mattress Discounters.
The listserv has been abuzz with messages such as "How do we encourage Ross, NOT to come into CH?." The way some posters talk about the stores, it sounds like they expect the only people who will shop there will be crackheads and burglars looking to break into cars and stick people up on their way to and from buying some pants and a belt. The discussion has been noted a few other places too.
For the most part, listserve participants are avoiding stating their reasons for opposing Ross and Marshalls other than a general desire for Whole Foods or Trader Joe's, which has come up time and again. They've also said that Ross and Marshalls are too similar to each other.
Photo by dabdiputs
However, commenters at the Columbia Heights News blog are more direct about it: "Come-on folks, I really don't think we need the demographic (socio-economic) that Ross is going to attract to CH" (parenthetical theirs, not mine). Other commenters call them "ghetto ass stores," adding "Let's hope when Xmas time comes no one gets mugged walking home with Best Buy bags." The site's bloggers talk of their hearts sinking when Whole Foods and Trader Joe's said no, with rhetoric like "And it looks even worse when you consider who the top contender for the space maybe now...you guessed it - Ross Dress For Less."
At least some people want or at least don't mind Ross, Marshalls and the like. The same poster also makes the point that the listserv is hardly representative of the neighborhood as a whole, so saying that "most people don't want Ross" is inaccurate.
Sometimes you have to call a spade a spade: there are some Columbia Heights residents posting to their neighborhood listserve who are uncomfortable with new retail services that cater to lower income individuals and families. Whether their predictions that residents aren't interested in these stores are true will only be borne out after they open: if the stores do solid business, it'll be tough to keep up the argument that discount retailers aren't welcome in the "new" Columbia Heights.