(image via city of New Orleans)
The proposed new Subway sandwich shop in the corner unit of a strip mall on Magazine Street has become the latest flashpoint in the ongoing battle over chain fast-food restaurants on the historic Uptown thoroughfare, with a broad array of neighborhood and civic activists organizing opposition as a vote by the City Council approaches.
The new Subway is planned for 4637 Magazine Street, in the far-right corner of the same building near Valence Street that also houses next to a nail shop and laundromat, according to plans submitted to the city. The project will add a small porch area outside the Subway space, and will be operated by Amite Patel, who previously owned the Subway sandwich shop at 1116 Louisiana Avenue that was forced to close when the building was converted to a Walgreens, the application notes.
A rendering of the exterior of the Subway sandwich shop planned for Magazine Street.
(image via city of New Orleans)
Because it is a fast-food restaurant, the Subway needs a conditional-use permit from the city in order to open, and the request had its first hearing before the City Planning Commission on March 27. The commission voted 5-3 in favor of the request, but the issue drew opposition from a variety of nearby neighbors and civic activists.
Betsy Stout of the Louisiana Landmarks Society was the first to speak, setting the tone for the debate over the issue as less about the specific restaurant in question and more about the integrity of Magazine Street. Magazine is the most common destination for tourists from the French Quarter, but chain restaurants make the street less appealing to them and less affordable to local businesses that give Magazine its character.
“Fast-food chains destroy the economics of Magazine Street,” Stout said. “National chains pay higher rents, which is great for the landlord, but it’s deadly for the local business who are pushed out because they can’t afford those rents.”
Planning Commissioner Jason Hughes said he would vote in favor of the Subway, however, citing as precedent a number of other chains already present on Magazine Street, such as Starbucks, CC’s, Izzo’s Illegal Burrito. Commissioner Robert Steeg said that the City Planning Commission is charged with deciding land-use issues based on how the property will be used, not who the prospective owner is, and doesn’t have the legal ability to differentiate for chains.
“If it were another Guy’s Po-Boy, we’d be inclined to vote for that, so I think we have to vote for Subway,” Steeg said. “Otherwise, we’re carving out chains as some special use to say ‘No’ to, whereas I think we’re not allowed to look at it that way. We have to look at the use, and a sandwich shop seems like an appropriate use to me.”
The request now appears on Thursday’s agenda of the full New Orleans City Council for a final decision. As the hearing approaches, a flurry of emails have been sent around the neighborhood, asking residents to call or email council members or appear at Thursday’s hearing in person.
The Bouligny Improvement Association board voted to oppose the restaurant, and urged association members to joinn them in an an email sent Tuesday morning.
“Best planning has long recognized the wisdom of protecting Magazine Street from becoming just another highway lined with fast food franchises,” the email states.
At-Large Councilwoman Stacy Head, who will be at her final meeting on Thursday, added her voice to the opposition to the Subway.
“This is a dangerous precedent. In fact, the City Planning Commission cited the other existing fast food restaurants on Magazine as reason to allow this one. The proliferation of fast food chains needs to stop here,” Head wrote in an email to residents. “Magazine Street is known throughout the world for its local shops and restaurants. Please help protect it and aggressively oppose this Subway conditional use.”
R. Stephanie Bruno, a celebrated local architecture journalist who lives nearby, said that the property owners should be striving to improve the street, rather than trying to join the race for more fast food.
“The intersection is blighted by an abandoned fried chicken/seafood stand where people park trucks, hang out in the evenings, and leave garbage and debris. In the mall itself is a predatory lending operation – a check cashing or payday loan establishment – that preys on the economically disadvantaged. We can do better,” Bruno wrote in a letter to the council.
“Picture Magazine Street – a true treasure – lined with fast food businesses rather than shoe repair places, hardware stores, a range of restaurants, millwork shops and seafood markets and you can see the damage that granting this conditional use can do,” Bruno continued. “It does not matter what the specific fast food business is. What matters is that we put an immediate stop to the proliferation of fast food businesses on Magazine Street.”
The City Council has a June 4 deadline to make a final decision.
[Update, 3:17 p.m.] The Bouligny Improvement Association said Wednesday afternoon that the Subway item will be deferred until the May 24 meeting of the New Orleans City Council, after the new members are sworn in.
