Petitions bearing the signatures of more than 6,000 people who are lobbying for Trader Joe's, a specialty grocery chain, known for its private-label foods, to open a store in Palm Springs will be hand-delivered to the City Council. The petitions, the result of a Neighborhood Organization's grass-roots effort, will be delivered at the Wednesday, April 2, City Council meeting. David Carden, Chairman of the Baristo
Contact: Cindy Uken
Communications Director
City of Palm Springs
760.323.8250
March 25, 2008
Petitions bearing the signatures of more than 6,000 people who are lobbying for Trader Joe's, a specialty grocery chain, known for its private-label foods, to open a store in Palm Springs will be hand-delivered to the City Council. The petitions, the result of a Neighborhood Organization's grass-roots effort, will be delivered at the Wednesday, April 2, City Council meeting. David Carden, Chairman of the Baristo Neighborhood Organization, will be flanked by neighborhood representatives from through the City when he
presents the petitions to the City Council. Carden, who spearheaded the project, far surpassed his initial goal of collecting 5,000 signatures by April 1. The residents of Palm Springs have wrapped their arms around this project and the response has been overwhelming," Carden said. "We have exceeded
all of our goals and are so appreciative of the thousands who have participated in the Trader Joe's petition drive."
Carden, with the support of Mayor Pougnet, City staff, the Palm Springs Neighborhood Involvement committee, and a team of committed volunteers, spent the past two months collecting signatures from all corners of the community - and in a variety of methods. Petitions were available online, photo copied, mailed to residents, passed from resident to resident in beauty shops, ice cream shops, mobile home parks and doctors' offices, and were available each week at VillageFest in Downtown Palm Springs, where organizers collected more than 2,000 signatures alone."What has been totally amazing to me is that neighbors all over our City have had conversations about retail revitalization," Carden said. "Many people walked their neighborhoods to collect signatures."
"We hope we have a large crowd show up to support the Mayor's effort to woo Trader Joe's and show that the City of Palm Springs would welcome them with open arm," Carden said.
Doug Maguire, a Palm Springs resident, spent five weeks collecting signatures at VillageFest, and said he collected more than 200 names each week. "It was all quite interesting," Maguire said. "I carried two clipboards each night because there were so many people. I could have easily carried three because
there was so much interest."
A similar petition drive was successful in 2000, in Long Beach, where Carden lived at the time. He was one of 5,000 people who signed a petition to convince Trader Joe's to open store in Long Beach although the company had a store just 4.5 miles away in Seal Beach.
Carden is asking residents to show their support for Trader Joe's opening a store in Palm Springs by wearing Hawaiian-themed apparel to the April 2 City Council meeting, which begins at 6 p.m. in the City Council Chambers of City Hall, 3200 E. Tahquitz Canyon Way.
Photo Caption: Lending support to the Trader Joe's petition drive is Debbie Belleau, manager of the Ramon Mobile Park and David Carden, Chair, Baristo Neighborhood Organization who spearheaded the petition drive. The BNO has collected more than 6,000 signatures, which will be presented to Mayor Steve
Pougnet at the April 2nd City Council meeting.
