Supermarkets are super news for downtown Raleigh

The question is not whether the city of Raleigh and downtown residents are happy to have a Publix grocery store coming to the ground floor of a planned apartment tower at Peace and West streets. Of course it’s welcome in a part of town, the core, long denied such a place. A Harris Teeter is also being planned for Seaboard Station.

Both are part of the once-improbable phenomenon of a downtown core bustling with residential and commercial development. But the naysayers have long been answered: Whereas it once was thought downtown didn’t have enough of a population to provide adequate business to retail outlets, it’s now become the place to go for everyone from downtown workers in search of the “urban lifestyle” to retirees downsizing from the suburbs.

But the question about the grocery stores is whether those in lower-income neighborhoods some distance from these places will be able to have transportation to do business with these groceries. The R-Line will help, and presumably the city will consider expanding service hours.

And yes, these good developments point again to the city’s ongoing need for affordable housing – something that will enable average residents and those on the lower end of the income scale to cling to their neighborhoods and find decent housing. Such housing must remain a priority of the city, even as it justifiably celebrates the long-awaited arrival of one of the key pieces of the downtown puzzle, grocery stores.

This story was originally published November 5, 2017 at 9:00 AM with the headline "Supermarkets are super news for downtown Raleigh."