Food co-op can be a benefit to South Side

Here’s the difference between a regular grocery store and the co-op grocery store being planned in Peoria’s South Side:

“Get off our property.”

A regular retail establishing cannot and will not keep the riff-raff out, especially when it’s located inside a neighborhood where the federal government stores the riff-raff (such as Harrison Homes or the privately-owned, Section 8 subsidized Pierson Hills).

A co-op, however, is a private organization. And the 1st Amendment guarantees freedom of association, which includes the right to not associate privately with who we don’t want to.

While a known neighborhood scumbag (drug dealer, gangster or run-of-the-mill crack head) can walk into any business he wants to and make a pest of himself, a co-op can tell this same citizen to take a hike.

Hence, the improved safety for shoppers.

Kudos to those working behind the scenes to bring this to Peoria. I approve.

Now, we have to wait and see how hard the city is going to make it for these people to operate. My guess is that because this is something new, there will be an orgy of red tape, as City Hall paper pushers cover their asses.

food coop,south side