As previously noted, members of the 11th Street A-B-C Block Association met last night at Father's Heart Ministries to discuss the incoming 7-Eleven on East 11th Street and Avenue A..
A tipster passed along a quick recap of the No 7-11 meeting...
The meeting was the usual mix of brainstorming, with some good ideas and some silliness, but it all came from the heart. There were some ideas put forth that a lot of us had not even thought of — for instance, how to keep schoolkids from patronizing a shiny, magical 7-11 instead of a Slurpee machine-free bodega?
There was talk about banding together with other block associations to fight this and other chains...
The problem, and believe me I don't mean to sound cynical, is that a lot of this is sound and fury ... I have been on many committees and in many groups, and have repeatedly found that while you might have any number of interested people, only a few of them will actually step up to the plate and take on the struggle, with the rest encouraging from the sidelines. That's a hard way to win a war, and sometimes it doesn't work.
Jeremiah Moss always has a summation here.
And here are a few quotes from Serena Solomon's article at DNAinfo this afternoon:
"People come to New York because it is not the suburbs," said Rob Hollander, the meeting's organizer, who also heads up the 11th Street A-B-C Block Association. "7-Eleven is not here to contribute to the culture of New York, and someone has to stand up for that culture."
And!
Bob Holman, founder of the Bowery Poetry Club, was also on hand at the meeting to blast the store.
"They are boring. They are bland. They are not New York," said Holman, who wore thick links of industrial-size chain around his neck to symbolize the fight. "They are Pringle-izing our population."
A writer from Gothamist was also at the meeting. Read that post here.