Can someone please explain to me why a place couldn’t be found for Mustasa and Yousef Jaarah to open up their business over here on the East Side? The businessmen are now going to open up shop in Lackawanna.
Crews are already remodeling the building at 174-178 Ridge Road near North Steelawanna Avenue, Lackawanna Mayor Norman L. Polanski Jr. confirmed Thursday. While acknowledging that there has been some opposition to the project, Polanski said he believes that the plan to open a butcher shop, grocery and produce store, and bakery will be a benefit to a neighborhood that is largely commercial.
A Brooklyn developer has apparently abandoned plans to open a slaughterhouse in an East Side building that contains a Subway sandwich shop, opting instead to buy a property in Lackawanna.
If you recall, Mustasa and Yousef Jaarah wanted to set up operations on William Street but ran into opposition.
David A. Franczyk visited the Jaarahs’ business in Brooklyn in the spring and found it to be clean and well run.
You would think with the surplus of vacant commercial buildings throughout B-F and the East Side that a home for this business could of been found.
Chris,
I don’t think the reason was location in East Side, but opposition based more on slaughtering of animals and ethnic prejudices. A major voice in opposition were based upon dietary preferences plus ethnic prejudice.
Every site this group proposed drew opposition. And, Lackawanna is the historic home of the Yemeni community in the region. So, there was probably more tolerance.
Hopefully, someone could pay them a visit and see if they would be willing to open up a halal stand in the market.
I understand why they decided on Lackawanna…the point is we shouldn’t have let them slip away.
I agree with Chris. What a lost opportunity. People from the East Side need to wake up and realize that it is going to be ventures such as this to help the neighborhood more than government intervention or silver bullet projects.