Questions for Rouses

1) I'm always glad to see new grocery stores opening up but why can't we get one in badly underserved Central City, Gentilly, or Bywater/9th Ward neighborhoods before we move on ways to better convenience the hotel and condo dense CBD area? I know Reggie Bush and Jeremey Shockey live there for part of the year but if Twitter has any credibility as a source Shockey lives mostly off of Pita Pit while Bush prefers Taco Bell so he can update us on its progress through his digestive tract.

2) Why is the Mayor announcing your company's real estate acquisition at a big to-do press conference? Are there public funds involved in this proposed development? The NOLA.com article doesn't tell us. But, if there are, I think that further underscores the point of my first question. Why are public funds (if there are any) going to development in a tourist/condo neighborhood when there are areas of greater need being neglected?

3) What the hell is a "frozen lifestyle" anyway?


Rouses on Tchoupitoulas 6/9/2010

Update: Rouses spokesperson (Tweetsperson?) answers via Twitter

He (the mayor) stopped by on his way to another meeting to welcome us to the neighborhood. Very nice of him. No city funds involved. Lots of press folks at the event, will surely be more in depth coverage tonight / tomorrow morning.

Upperdate: The Gambit blog report on the press conference also leaves us with a raised-eyebrow.

Mayor Mitch Landrieu was joined by three members of the New Orleans City Council this morning to announce that Rouse’s Market intends to open a new supermarket in downtown New Orleans the vicinity of the CBD/Warehouse District in December 2011.

Guess they all just "stopped by on the way to another meeting" Why not? Nice day, open mic.

Rouse told Gambit he is “not quite sure yet” how much the new store is going to cost. “We’re still doing the plans and the manipulations and such, but it’ll be huge,” he said. He also said the grocery store hasn’t done a market study to determine the viability of the new store—a common tactic undertaken by large out-of-state chains, before entering a new market. “We’ve been in business for 50 years,” said Rouse. “Sure I could bring someone in to do a market study, but at this point we don’t need a market study.”

Something still seems odd about this. I'm not sure what but I'd like to know a little more about "the manipulations".

Random observations

• Jumping the gun?
  
  
  I took this picture last night (Sunday August 2) at Walgreens. I get tired of Summer too but looking forward to Halloween this early will just make the days seem to drag even more.



• Buy local
  
  
  
  The Rouses on Tchoupitoulas is selling these teddy bears dressed in paraphernalia from Uptown high schools. (This one obviously supports McMain.) There were also Cohen bears available. Does the Mid-City Rouses sell Warren Easton bears?



• I'll just come out and say that I don't like White Linen Night. I'm interested in art well enough and I certainly don't have anything against public street festivals. But this event always seems to be more about scenesterism than anything else.
  
  On the other hand, the participants who end up in the Quarter afterwards can do some entertaining shit. As we were on our way to Fahy's Saturday night, we encountered a young man dressed in his White Linen finest having an animated discussion with a woman we presumed to be his date. We wouldn't have stopped but the guy was kind of screaming, "YOU'RE WRONG! NO, YOU ARE WRONG! LISTEN TO ME I KNOW WHAT I'M TALKING ABOUT!" Each "WRONG!" was punctuated by a turn and punch to the wall they were standing beside. "LOOK IN MY EYES I AM TELLING YOU YOU ARE WRONG!" (quick turn and uppercut delivered to wooden latticework) We decided to hover on the corner for a few moments, if only to determine what the poor girl could be so WRONG about.
  
  Turns out it was about directions. "NO, LISTEN! CANAL STREET IS THAT WAY!" (lifts presumably bruised hand to indicate Canal St.) "SATCHMO PARK IS THIS WAY!" (points bloody stump down Toulouse toward Rampart street supposedly in the direction of Armstrong Park.) And so my question here is this. "Satchmo Park"? What? I'll admit to a degree of unhipness but is that really a thing? Are the cool kids who have "flash-mob pillow fights" at douchey art parties taking it upon themselves to rename shit? Or is the seersucker panted angry fellow acting on his own accord?

Update (because it seems to fit with this post somehow): Meanwhile, dismembered bodies continue to behave strangely.