Off-Target
A new superstore ignores its Spanish-speaking neighborhood.
By Bobby Allyn
March 27, 2008
Customers shop in the downtown Minneapolis Target, Thursday, Nov. 13, 2003. Minneapolis-based Target Corp. reported an 8.7 percent increase in its third-quarter earnings Thursday, as strong sales offset disappointing results at the company’s Marshall Field’s and Mervyn’s. (AP Photo/Jim Mone)The recent opening of a Target store in Columbia Heights in Northwest Washington, D.C., has aroused a range of emotions among community activists, local residents, and the media, from unfettered praise to cynicism and ambivalence. The store is part of a larger project of developer Grid Properties that also includes a 1,200-car garage, Bed Bath & Beyond, Best Buy, and more than three dozen new restaurants. The project is a textbook example of modern, rapid gentrification. One of the biggest concerns for those leery of the project is that it will permanently change the face of Columbia Heights, a diverse neighborhood with a high percentage of Spanish-speaking residents. Critics argue that even if the development benefits most people at the moment, the resulting increases in neighborhood housing prices could eventually push out some of its longest standing residents.
Target is off to a bad start in allaying these worries. Despite the fact that Columbia Heights has a high Spanish-speaking population, the store has no bilingual signs. Given the demographics of Columbia Heights, Target’s decision sends a clear message: This store is for the new Columbia Heights, not the current Columbia Heights. And it can only amplify the concerns of those worried about what the frenzied pace of development will do the neighborhood.
The absence of bilingual signs in the new Target (which has enshrined its interior with red-and-white framed displays of cheerful multiethnic people) is disconcerting given the store’s immediate vicinity. According to the D.C. Office on Latino Affairs, nearly half of the District’s Latino community lives in Ward One, which includes the neighborhoods of Columbia Heights, Mount Pleasant, and Adams Morgan. (Target is in Columbia Heights but sits just to the east of Mount Pleasant’s eastern border.) The Office of Latino Affairs also estimates that one in three Latinos in the District has difficulty with English. The neighborhood around the new Target abounds with Latino culture. The Tivoli Theater, the nation’s first Hispanic Spanish-language theater, the Mexican Cultural Institute, the Latin American Youth Center, and the Latino Community Center are all nearby, and the area of 14th St. NW immediately to the north contains numerous establishments with almost exclusively Spanish signage. According to George Escobar, media spokesperson for the Office on Latino Affairs, there the more than 50 Latino-based organizations in the District, and they are most heavily concentrated in the Columbia Heights neighborhood
Target’s signage is fodder for community activists who say that the Target and other new stores are being built mostly for the sake of Columbia Heights’ future residents, not its current ones. While Escobar praised Target’s efforts to collaborate with the local community, citing its concerted efforts to hire local Latinos and plans to create “a bilingual capacity” in its workers, he admitted that there is no way to forecast the efficacy of the store’s accommodation efforts. “They have a responsibility to the community. A large portion of their clientele is Latino,” he said. “There have been mixed messages, though. We have to have a wait-and-see attitude with them.” Walda Katz-Fishman, a professor of sociology at Howard University, was less guarded in her assessment about Target’s choice to only display signs in English. “This represents a transition of who is living in the neighborhood. They are not sensitive to the community. The project is for the people who are coming in, not community residents,” Katz-Fishman said. Parisa Norouzi, co-director of Empower DC, an organization that assists lower-income District residents with housing, child services, and government accountability, was also pessimistic about the signs. “The lack of bilingual signs is indicative of who the development project was planned for,” Norouzi said. “If the Target was planned to serve the residents of the community, [accommodations, including signs] would have been a major factor. This is a good example of a major realtor feeling they have no need to serve their community.”
Target Spokesperson Elizabeth Wolf argues that Target’s commitment to diversity is evident in the relevance of items the store carries and the level of respect it gives its diverse guests. Wolf explained that the decision to not install bilingual signs came after the company’s market research and land development team surveyed Columbia Heights’ demographics and commerce trends and concluded that the store does not fit the criteria for bilingual signage. (There are, however, some Target stores that have bilingual signs, including ones in New Jersey, Massachusetts, Texas, and Florida.) And Wolf stressed that Target employs team members who are available to answer question from Spanish-speaking guests. But how accommodating can Spanish-speaking team members be when nothing in the store is written in Spanish? And if a Target is in a neighborhood that contains nearly half a city’s Hispanic population, but doesn’t qualify for bilingual signs, how could it qualify?
Target’s opening will undoubtedly benefit Columbia Heights in certain ways. It will bring jobs to the neighborhood, for one thing, and scads of cheap goods that used to be a long subway or bus ride away. And Target may yet be pressured to change its policies. Councilman Jim Graham, who represents Ward One, said in a official statement that the city is working with Target to accommodate the Columbia Heights residents and claimed the city will bring the signs to Target’s attention. But the store’s decision not to include bilingual signage reflects the deeper fears of certain residents and observers: that the real question about Target and Columbia Heights gentrification isn’t whether it will have short-term benefits, but rather whether, in the long run, it will severely reduce the socioeconomic and racial diversity of the neighborhood by spurring the development of more luxury and upper-class housing. Target’s weak grasp on neighborhood demographics is unlikely to assuage these fears.
Bobby Allyn is an Editorial Intern at Campus Progress and sophomore at American University.
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“... and the area of 14th St. NW immediately to the north contains numerous establishments with almost exclusively Spanish signage.”
I find this disturbing. After all, 2 out of 3 Latinos, and 9 out of 10 Caucasians speak and read English. Until these stores are willing to place bilingual signage, they send a powerful message that they are only for Columbia Heights’ current residents – not any future ones.
— cg - Mar 27, 02:42 PM - #I live relatively close to that neighborhood, and I can attest to the voracious pace gentrification has set all over DC, but especially in Columbia Heights and Petworth.
And kudos to Empower DC, which has been doing fantastic work fighting alongside the District’s most disadvantaged.
— For Student Power - Mar 27, 04:33 PM - #I agree 100% with the first response. This article could not have taken a more biased tone. The article simply brushes aside the positive effects of this much-needed development and focuses on the (very limited)negative aspects exclusively. If not for the economic development projects in the last few years many local residents would not have jobs and the area would remain what it has been for far too long: a ghetto.
— jg - Mar 27, 04:34 PM - #Speak English
— Marsharina - Mar 27, 04:48 PM - #Apprende Englis
This is the USA
Si?People here are refused hiring because they don’t speak Spanish.PLEASE!ENOUGH!
Apparently the store hired Latinos without discrimination; Latinos pushing for bilingualism is arrogant. Shopping is a good experience to learn English.
— Estaban - Mar 27, 05:12 PM - #I came to this country as an immigrant and learnt to speak and write English over two decades.
If I had signs in my native language and didn’t strive to learn English to speak to people, I would’ve probably done worse in this country.
Give us all a break and stop painting everything so negative.
— Rob - Mar 27, 05:53 PM - #I don’t understand… just exactly what signs are necessary to shop at Target? I’m pretty sure that you don’t need a sign to tell you where detergent is (perhaps with all the other cleaning products) or where the pharmacy is (perhaps near the pharmacy desk). This is just more whining. Give me a break. Quiero a la comunidad hispana pero se necesita aprender el ingles!
— Allison - Mar 27, 06:02 PM - #I think being bilingual has its advantages there is little argument there. Economic necessity is a given when arriving here and there is great effort by many who arrive to learn. Unfortunately the systems set in place does not work for those “1 of 3” due to the extreme working conditions some face. I would encourage the rest of you to think outsided your bigoted worlds and show a little more empathy. Willan
— Willan Cervantes - Mar 27, 06:23 PM - #This is just a complaint looking for a problem. When you have a SINGLE legitimate customer (rather than activist) complaint about the signage, you have permission to re-open this issue . . .
— Nate - Mar 27, 06:32 PM - #When I was shopping at the Target opening weekend, I saw all types of people taking advantage of the ability to purchase the things they need, cheaply, close to home. These included everyone from latino families to white recent college graduates.
Why is there an assumption that new stores are only for white people? I won’t argue that steps need to be taken to keep housing affordable and that Target should do all it can to work with the neighborhood (including Spanish signage), but a store that seems to meet the needs of the neighborhood shouldn’t be demonized.
— Jenny - Mar 27, 06:58 PM - #Campus Progress just keeps looking for problems with this Target. It is absolutely ridiculous.
— argh - Mar 27, 07:59 PM - #Campus Progress just keeps looking for problems with this Target. It is absolutely ridiculous.
— argh - Mar 27, 08:00 PM - #I have absolutely no problem with a bilingual Target, but do any Targets have bilingual signage? I spent 6 years in Arizona and I don’t remember ever seeing any signs in Spanish other than the occaisional TV ad or flyer. The Spanish-speaking population seemed to handle it just fine, and I’m willing to bet that in Tempe that percentage was at least as high as Columbia Heights.
— Skoochie - Mar 27, 08:18 PM - #did you read the article?
(There are, however, some Target stores that have bilingual signs, including ones in New Jersey, Massachusetts, Texas, and Florida.)
— ryan t. - Mar 27, 08:22 PM - #I think the message is good and clear: learn to speak goddamn English people-jeez.
— loganmo - Mar 27, 08:51 PM - #What is disconcerting is that 2nd, 3rd and 4th generation non-English speakers expect to be catered to rather than to assimilate into American culture, and that when so ignored, that their protestations are suddenly worth being heard in all languages.
— Justin - Mar 27, 11:31 PM - #I just sent a message to the Community Involvement department of Target Corp. that reads…“A new superstore ignores its Spanish-speaking neighborhood” is the title of an article on Campusprogress.org’s website. The Columbia Heights neighborhood in Northwest Washington, D.C. has no bilingual signs in a majority Spanish speaking neighborhood. This is unacceptable behavior for a corporation who claim they help neighborhoods. Either you’re lying to your shareholders, employees, and general public about how much you are or you are extremely ignorant of any culture then American Fascism. Please correct this matter or a boycott might be in order. It happened to McDonald’s and Subway with their fight against the Coalition of Immolakee Workers over the price of tomatoes, it can happen to your organization over its neighborly inconsideration. Have a good day and do the right thing.
— edward elam - Mar 28, 12:25 AM - #jg,
“I agree 100% with the first response. This article could not have taken a more biased tone. The article simply brushes aside the positive effects of this much-needed development and focuses on the (very limited)negative aspects exclusively. If not for the economic development projects in the last few years many local residents would not have jobs and the area would remain what it has been for far too long: a ghetto.
— Dave - Mar 28, 05:58 AM - #— jg – Mar 27, 04:34 PM – #
“
What do you think is happening to the outlying areas where the displaced people go?
Does the Giant across the street have bilingual signage? I was there just yesterday and didn’t notice the aisles marked in English and Spanish.
Does Bed Bath and Beyond have bilingual signage? Does the CVS?
If people don’t or can’t learn enough English to shop at Target, guess what?!? They’ll shop where they always did before Target opened.
This is a tempest in a teapot.
— D - Mar 28, 06:52 AM - #This is America. Speak Engrish.
— AW - Mar 28, 08:49 AM - #Isn’t this a little silly? Is there any evidence that Spanish-speaking residents of Columbia Heights (who manage to navigate Metro, and who shop at Giant) can’t understand the relatively simple English in store signs? It’s patronizing in the extreme to suppose that Spanish-speaking residents aren’t able to translate “Pharmacy” to “Farmacia,” or “Electronics” to “Electronica.”
This seems like an instance of people getting outraged over nothing at all. Why not spend your time on issues that really matter?
— nobody - Mar 28, 08:53 AM - #I shopped there last week, and I honestly think there should be more concern for the lazy security guards (nice job there, DC USA) than for the unimportant lack of bilingual signs. This country does not need to accommodate people who refuse to learn the language of the country they’ve moved (some legally, most not) to. As someone else pointed out, this is America. Speak English, or GTFO.
— Jennifer - Mar 28, 09:02 AM - #This is ridiculous, I think everyone can understand what theyre looking at on the shelf of Target…
— Jon - Mar 28, 09:20 AM - #Anglos who don’t bother to learn Spanish don’t like people
— Frank Lornitzo - Mar 28, 09:25 AM - #around speaking Spanish
because they can’t know if they’re talking about them.
Bilingual signs is asking to much. The staff are very helpful for Spanish speakers. Especially the CVS down the road (which onlly has English signs). I’ve lived in countries where I speak not a word. Those signs are so helpful for me to learn, it’d be a shame if there had been English signs because it really would have hindered my ability to learn.
— Dan - Mar 28, 10:12 AM - #This article is definitely alarmist. Target should not be singled out as anti-latino, or anti-neighborhood simply because they chose not to place bilingual signs. They did the demographic research and determined it was unnecessary. I live in the neighborhood, am bilingual myself, and agree: Latinos living in Washington are by and large entirely capable of reading signs in English and navigating a target. By taking this stance, the author is more patronizing than activist. I have spent a lot of time living outside the U.S. in Spanish speaking countries, and it never occurred to me to complain that there was not English signage in my local grocery store. All in all, while I don’t want to see the face of my neighborhood change drastically, Target is providing jobs and low-cost products to people who need them.
— jessindc - Mar 28, 10:32 AM - #Ok so let’s put the signs up but lets not forget about the Vietnamese, Russians, Middle Easterners and the Blind. I go to Target and see the staff there doing a great job on helping the people find what they are shopping for. I know this since I get ask all the time If they can help me find anything. Fine if you need the signs so bad let’s have them in some type of universal language like the crosswalk signs that once read “Walk Don’t Walk”. That way no one needs to read and can just look for the symbol of the item they are looking for. We can even have the symbols taught in school so our kids don’t need to read and can fall even further behind the other countries.
— Tony Myres - Mar 30, 05:15 AM - #But this is just my two cents.
Do you really think so little of the Hispanic population here in NW to suggest they can’t navigate a Target without sign in Spanish. Bobby, I certainly hope you do leave Tenleytown on occasion. We are not as dumb, inconsiderate and naive on this side of Rock Creek Park as you seem to think.
— rj - Mar 30, 03:20 PM - #“What do you think is happening to the outlying areas where the displaced people go?”
What is your point?
— jg - Mar 31, 11:32 AM - #“What do you think is happening to the outlying areas where the displaced people go?”
What is your point?
— jg - Mar 31, 11:33 AM - #To Skoochie
I live in Arizona in Mesa actually. There are several Target stores here that have Spanish/English signs. The one at Southern and Longmore has both.
However that said I would disagree with this article 100%. I lived in DC and worked at the PG plaza Target store that is another area with extreme gentrfication and the only existing Target store on the Metro line. That store does not have spanish signs and in the time I worked there It was never needed.
Give Target credit they do a great job forcasting and researching the area’s they are moving into. Also why did you post an AP comment thats almost 4 years old.
— Ray - Apr 3, 05:54 PM - #This is America, people need to learn to speak English as it is the unofficially the official language and soon will be officially. Hispanics are arrogant and fresh that they desrve special treatment compared to all the other immigrants who may speak other languages yet they never ask America to accomodate them like the latinos do and these other immigrants have been here way longer in most cases. Shame on the Latinos. Real Americans will AND SHOULD boycott such stores who pull this crap.
— Rick - Apr 3, 08:41 PM - #We are not helping them in the long run if we keep doing this; it will only take them that much longer to learn English and they will keep living in poverty until they learn the English language.
This is America, people need to learn to speak English as it is the unofficially the official language and soon will be officially. Hispanics are arrogant and fresh that they desrve special treatment compared to all the other immigrants who may speak other languages yet they never ask America to accomodate them like the latinos do and these other immigrants have been here way longer in most cases. Shame on the Latinos. Real Americans will AND SHOULD boycott such stores who pull this crap.
— Rick - Apr 3, 08:42 PM - #We are not helping them in the long run if we keep doing this; it will only take them that much longer to learn English and they will keep living in poverty until they learn the English language.
This is America, people need to learn to speak English as it is the unofficially the official language and soon will be officially. Hispanics are arrogant and fresh that they desrve special treatment compared to all the other immigrants who may speak other languages yet they never ask America to accomodate them like the latinos do and these other immigrants have been here way longer in most cases. Shame on the Latinos. Real Americans will AND SHOULD boycott such stores who pull this crap.
— Rick - Apr 3, 08:42 PM - #We are not helping them in the long run if we keep doing this; it will only take them that much longer to learn English and they will keep living in poverty until they learn the English language.
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— adaruto - Apr 7, 11:29 PM - #アダルトな一夜を過ごしてみない？
— アダルト - Apr 7, 11:32 PM - #mucho gracias
— lk - Apr 11, 02:36 PM - #mucho gracias?
— lk - Apr 11, 02:43 PM - #mucho gracias? ?
— lk - Apr 11, 02:47 PM - #素敵な出会いをオトドケ
— 出会い - Apr 12, 09:30 PM - #In California, the Socialist put up bilingual signs when there is less than 10% Spanish speaking illegals, and still the Latinoa complain. Americans are sick of this Machismo arrogance. Speak English or go back and complain from your own country
— Dawes - Apr 15, 11:48 PM - #