The Admiral Neighborhood Association may be best known for bringing you Summer Concerts at Hiawatha every year – just wrapped up last week – but that’s only part of what ANA’s about. Earlier this month we mentioned the survey the group opened in hopes of getting your answers to questions like the ones above. If you haven’t answered it yet – last call – it’ll close soon so the all-volunteer group can evaluate the results and chart a course. The survey starts here!
I’d like ANA to talk with the Fire Department about a possible fire-code violation at Admiral Safeway. The 24-hour store and its staff are favorites of mine, but its southwest (California & Lander) doors are locked every night at 8 PM. In other words, night customers have one less emergency exit in the event of an earthquake or other worst-case scenario that calls for quickly evacuating the building. Thanks.
That’s not generally something a neighborhood group would do – you can contact SFD directly. But, what did the store say when you asked them about it? Closing some exits after hours seems to be a common thing with supermarkets – Roxbury Safeway closes its north entrance/exit, for example.
It’s probably due to staffing and to prevent shoplifting. I’ve seen teenagers run out of that store with Safeway staff chasing them outside. Seems like that might be a problem there. But like WSB stated, most Grocery stores I’ve been to do this.
It’s not a code violation and it’s not an emergency exit. People parking in the fire zone marked areas “because it’ll only be a second” is.
Mike, that may indeed be a violation but surely you will understand that it’s OK if they do it.
Finished the survey! Thanks for setting that up ANA.In response to Sue T. above…The original design of the Safeway (and how it opened) included a Starbucks coffee counter in that entry area. That put people and eyeballs near that doorway. It was an important part of the plan to “activate the California Ave facade”. The Starbucks shop has since moved and that area has become an empty, strange part of the store. I’m assuming that has contributed to the locking of the door. I actually stood outside that entry one evening with my dog while my spouse was grabbing something in the store and a number of people tried to enter, couldn’t, and walked away.Unfortunately, the design of the store is poor. We (myself and other neighbors) were pretty diligent during the Design Review process, but there was only so much one can do. It’s pretty clear to me that Admiral didn’t (and doesn’t) really need a 50,000 sq. ft. grocery store. The new PCC will be 25,000 sq. ft. I believe, and I think Met Market is around that size. Appropriate sizes for a neighborhood like Admiral.Long story short, I wish the City, the Design Review program, and the neighborhood could revisit some of these projects years after they are built and see how things are going – what worked, what didn’t, etc.
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