Where Does the Buck Stop on Greenmount?
A Call for Worker Empowerment Over Woke Capitalism on a Vital Baltimore Avenue
A Familiar Set of Complaints
Recently, an uproar erupted when it came out that a long vacant former pharmacy building on the 3100 Block of Greenmount was leased by the owner-developer to a corporate dollar store. Those blocks of Greenmount are being gentrified and a store for working class people doesn’t fit into that plan. In contrast to the traditional disruptive model of neighborhood redevelopment, how then do we build an alternative vision for a corridor of economic democracy along this vital Baltimore avenue?
Dollar stores sell poor quality goods and exploit their workers. But the shades of gray between capitalist Jr. and capitalist Sr. that some middle-class liberals make a big deal about is often an irate distinction without much substantive difference in terms of how owners and bosses exploit workers and the types of goods and services they sell (I experienced this when I went from working at an independent grocery store in New York to a Whole Foods in Oakland, CA– different flavors of worker, environmental, and consumer exploitation). The difference at the root of the uproar: to whom they sell those goods and services.
Would I rather have a co-op health food store on Greenmount than a corporate dollar store? Yes. Or a union shop? Yes. Should folks with power like state Senator Washington (who’s hosting a panel discussion on the important hidden costs of dollar stores Feb. 12) and first term Councilmember Ramos proactively and systemically address the bad practices of corporations and local businesses alike via legislative and zoning solutions. Also, yes.
You can tell from reading this article in the Baltimore Brew what kind of people some of the most publicized voices among those alarmed by the dollar store want in the area– middle class people who shop at middle class-oriented businesses.
“What kind of stores would be desirable?
‘Pet supplies. A pharmacy. A bank branch. A nice clothing store. A great restaurant,’ …”
Those types of businesses are in fact more represented in the neighborhood than dollar stores, with which the complainants in the article say the area is over-saturated. There’s a pharmacy just south of the planned dollar store at 416 E. 30th St. at Greenmount and another in the Giant just north. There’s a Bank of America branch 0.4 mile west (3121 Saint Paul, *which upon reflection is far for many people*) and a PNC location two blocks away (again, in the Giant). Note the “nice” in the clothing store that’s desired in the quote above– Main Street Hats is nice, I’d say, and Herman’s is cited as a clothing store that will suffer when the dollar store goes in. There are plenty of great new and stalwart restaurants in the area: My Mama’s Vegan, Pete’s Grille, Thai Restaurant, and others are all within a two-block radius.
It’s true the nearest pet store is 1.5 mi. or a 20 min. bus ride away. But pet supplies can be bought at the Giant (from union workers) or at the Waverly Ace (which is transitioning to worker ownership) around the corner more affordably than at a standalone. So, it seems the most publicized argument against the new dollar store is not really that Greenmount doesn’t have enough locally owned businesses, it’s that there’s no room for a business with a business model that markets explicitly to working-class people.
How do we deepen our opposition to the proposed exploitative business in our community?:
- By grounding that opposition in the needs of long-time working class and Black neighbors, and;
- By being imaginative, proactive, specific in envisioning a future for this stretch of Greenmount Avenue that offers development without displacement founded on intersections of racial, economic, and disability justice.
Let’s build together a corridor of economic democracy that leverages the emerging critical mass of worker-, Black-, women-, and queer-owned businesses, increases affordable housing, plans for climate adaptability, and improves public transportation.
A Grassroots Set of Solutions
Let’s focus on building worker power and enacting consumer protections, not on demonizing one flavor of capitalist and valorizing the petit bourgeoisie in order to accelerate the gentrification of this stretch of Greenmount. Let’s focus on affordable housing and keeping long-time residents in their homes in north-central and near-northeast Baltimore, rather than a tried and failed strategy of building new things for prospective new people who, if they do materialize, do so as a function of the serial forced displacement of working-class Black Baltimoreans that is playing out in Middle East, Perkins Homes, Poppleton, and elsewhere. Preventing the worst of serial forced displacement in Abell, Better Waverly, CHUM, and Harwood will require neighbors to pressure those with top-down power to enact a more worker-friendly development model along this vital stretch of Greenmount.
*It is also important to consider distance relative to ability and mobility from all sides of this discussion, as one reader pointed out to me. The nearest dollar stores to 3133 Greenmount are 0.3 and 0.6 mi. away, while the nearest pharmacies are a block and two blocks away, the nearest banks are 0.2 and 0.4 mi. away, and the restaurants mentioned above are across the street and about 1.5 blocks away, respectively. How we discuss, live, and plan for “near” and “far” are multi-faceted equity considerations that all our neighbors should consider and that I will keep in mind as I come to future discussions about how we use our community spaces.*
Want to hold developers and landlords to account in order to maximize community wealth and wellbeing? Incentivize Black ownership, community land trusts, co-op incubators, union shops, and community control through state legislation, municipal zoning code reform, and neighborhood community organizing. Much of the most publicized uproar over the prospective Greenmount dollar store doesn’t seem to be that.
Let’s name the harm corporate dollar stores do while acknowledging that harm is a result of capitalism, not just a specific capitalist business model. Let’s set our sights higher toward structurally strengthening workers’ relative position in relation to capital through labor organizing, legislative advocacy, and community building that includes working-class neighbors in our collective future, rather than ostracizing them. There’s no shortage of grassroots reform priorities in Baltimore that lawmakers and local leaders, instead of being propelled by the furor of a few in reaction to yet another harmful but incidental dollar store, should prioritize.
