Environmental And Racial Concerns Raised Over Starbucks Plan

NEW ROCHELLE, NY — Speakers told the mayor and city council members that plans for a new Starbucks coffee shop with a drive-through would be bad for traffic, the environment and will disproportionately disrupt life nearby in one of New Rochelle's more diverse neighborhoods.

A new place to grab a quick coffee on the way to work sounds like a dream come true for some commuters, but at a hearing on Tuesday, neighbors and civic leaders told New Rochelle Mayor Noam Bramson and City Council members that the proposal to build a new drive-through Starbucks near Main Street could have an unanticipated negative impact for nearby communities. Of particular concern among the speakers was the proximity of apartments set aside for formerly homeless families.

“All you need is some basic common sense to see that this is not a good location for a drive-through,” New Rochelle resident Lisa Burton told the council members. “From the street, you can see the apartment windows from Fountain Place where women and children who were formerly homeless are now living. And this is where you want to put a drive-through?”

Burton told the city officials that the proposal to allow a drive-through coffee shop at the location at 80 Huguenot St. would not only be bad for the environment, but also comes at the expense of a diverse neighborhood with already at risk residents.

“The city does not allow a drive-through, for example, at the McDonald’s on North Avenue," Burton said. "It is inconceivable that the apartments for White Oak and the new development there would ever be subjected to the noise, the pollution, of idling cars sitting through a drive-through but somehow it’s okay over near Bracey and by Fountain Place. The difference is kind of obvious. One is a black neighborhood, a poor neighborhood. The other is white and middle class.”

The developers, however, say there are no fewer than three businesses with drive-through lanes near the proposed location. The site to be developed in a commercial district was the location of a busy chain restaurant for years prior and is closely neighbored by a car rental agency, two fast food restaurants, a hotel with a restaurant and a 24-hour pharmacy.

Still, in addition to voicing concerns about potential traffic congestion, speaker after speaker echoed Burton's sentiments. One neighbor pointed to the hypocrisy of the city council officially declaring a climate emergency and then considering a proposal to add idling cars and traffic to the area just a few weeks later.

SEE ALSO: New Rochelle Officially Declares Climate Emergency

New Rochelle Municipal Housing Authority (NRMHA) Executive Director Angela Davis-Farrish submitted a letter calling the environmental studies on the proposed project "wholly inadequate and unresponsive." She said her agency is opposed to the plans in their current form.

At the meeting, Blaise Jones-Yellin read a statement from his father, New Rochelle Alliance for Justice Co-Chair and NRMHA Commissioner Michael Yellin.

"This is environmental racism," Yellin wrote. "Nowhere else in New Rochelle is a drive-through permitted in a residential district ... Drive-throughs increase emissions and fuel consumption and are being banned across the country because of their negative impact on climate and on health. These issues of environment and race are closely intertwined. Environmental justice is racial justice.”

The site in question is already zoned to allow for a coffee shop, but policymakers will have to decide in the coming weeks if plans calling for a drive-through lane will be permitted.