Much to the dismay of many Moon Valley residents, it looks like a Goodwill store is going to open in their neighborhood.
A couple of months ago, New Times obtained several e-mail chains among residents of the North Phoenix country-club community, including former Republican U.S. Congressman John Shadegg, rallying others to demand City of Phoenix officials not to allow Goodwill to open the store at the former location of an AJ's Fine Foods store, at Seventh Street and Thunderbird Road.
See also:
-Moon Valley Elitists Trying to Keep Goodwill Out of the Neighborhood
The photo at the top of this post was taken Wednesday, so it looks like that ended up being a losing fight.
Phoenix Vice Mayor Bill Gates, who represents Moon Valley as part of his district, told New Times in June that one of residents' primary concerns was property values. He said some residents have called this potential Goodwill store the "gateway into Moon Valley moving onto Seventh Street."
We noted at the time that Moon Valley isn't the same neighborhood it used to be. The large homes remain on the side of the surrounding mountains, but other things have changed, and the first major sign of that came last year when the Moon Valley Country Club and its golf course declared bankruptcy.
The snobbish e-mails, though, showed apparent disbelief that a Goodwill was going to be placed in the former AJ's location.
It's described in the e-mails as "INCOMPATIBLE with the current tenants of the [shopping center] and the surrounding residential areas and neighborhoods."
It's "completely inappropriate," according to an e-mail spread by "neighborhood advocate" Amy Mais. The retail stores around other Phoenix Goodwill stores are "very troubling" and "of the lowest possible quality."
In one of Shadegg's e-mails, he was upset that city officials and "what they have done to us" -- you know, like not keep charity efforts away from their homes.
The people fighting the Goodwill were the ones tasked with finding a new tenant to lease the space for their wishes to be considered, so it looks like that didn't go too well.
Get thrifty, Moon Valley.
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