The De-Latinizing Fast Food Harbinger
Want definitive proof that the Lindbergh area is changing? Zesto’s has changed back.
There had been a Zesto’s on Piedmont Road for years. In the 1990s they did a major overhaul sprucing the place up and then a couple of years later creating Burrito Brothers. They still had ice cream, but the cuisine changed to pretty good affordable Mexican food and they even served beer! Tecate Sundaes anyone?
Why did they do this? Because the Lindbergh area was so predominantly Hispanic. Then MARTA hit the real estate market, and all the affordable apartments that housed all the Latin Americans who are Buckhead’s chief employees began to be plowed under to create much more expensive homes near the station.
Wealthy White people want to take their kids for a foot long hot dog and some onion rings, so now following the trend, the traditional Zesto’s menu is back.
When the fast food joints change formats you know change is in the works. The question is where will the Hispanic community that has formed around Lindbergh go? This is something with which all Buckhead businesses should be concerned. The folks who live down there are an important part of the Buckhead economy and if they can’t live near where they work, business costs go up. Higher absenteeism, folks wanting to work fewer hours, and fewer people applying for jobs will only be the beginning.
Then again, this is going to be an increasingly difficult problem all over the metro. Affordable housing is becoming harder to get, especially walking distance from train stations. Mayor Franklin? Have we got a new challenge for you!
March 11th, 2007 at 10:10 pm
Maybe they’ll go back to Mexico. Seriously, the majority of that community isn’t here legally.
March 11th, 2007 at 10:31 pm
Don’t look to the government for an answer on this one, the invisible hand is at work. Royal Bus Lines is providing better routes for the Hispanic community at a cheaper price ($1.50). I would not be surprised if Zesto’s, Cafe Jalepeno, the laundromat and the pawn shop are redeveloped, too.
March 12th, 2007 at 10:42 am
There is almost nothing that local government can do to fight these types of market driven real estate trends. Once it became cool to live closer in, real estate prices hsot thruiogh the roof. You can’t say the words “affordable” or “work force” housing in areas like this without reaping the whirlwind.
March 12th, 2007 at 10:42 am
There is almost nothing that local government can do to fight these types of market driven real estate trends. Once it became cool to live closer in, real estate prices shot through the roof. You can’t say the words “affordable” or “work force” housing in areas like this without reaping the whirlwind.
March 12th, 2007 at 11:39 am
Alex, that’s the dumbest thing I’ve heard all day. How do YOU know who is and isn’t here legally? Besides, it’s not the issue at hand, but folks in the blogosphere do seem to enjoy feasting on red herring.
March 12th, 2007 at 4:24 pm
The issue is affordable housing and it’s a huge issue. The issue of affordable housing for the Hispanic community around Lindbergh is also an issue but a much, much smaller one. Affordable housing for illegal immigrants is non-existant. So no, it’s not a red herring.
If you’ve ever been around Lindbergh it’s a very easy assumption to make about the number of illegal immigrants. Shopping at Home Depot is a nightmare trying to run the gauntlet of immigrants hanging out on the sidewalks, stalking the parking lots, etc. I don’t think it’s any stretch of the imagination to guestimate the percentage of illegals around Lindbergh in the 70-80% range.
March 13th, 2007 at 12:31 pm
Emphasis mine.
Hasn’t anyone ever told you what happens when you assume?
March 15th, 2007 at 9:32 pm
What’s funny about this (funny peculiar not ha-ha) is years before when Lindbergh was Broadview Plaza, that is where you went to see all the low-riders cruising around!
March 15th, 2007 at 10:14 pm
Come on Amber, you’re splitting hairs because you don’t like the actual answer. Can you prove that the sun came up in Moscow yesterday? Well, unless you were there, you can’t because any word of mouth you get or photographic evidence could be fake. And even if you were there, you couldn’t prove it to me because I wasn’t and you might be lying. It’s a stupid game, isn’t it?
So if you want Alex to prove to you that there is a large percentage of the day laborers who hang around Home Depot here illegally, then of course he can’t do it. Do you really honestly believe that they are all here legally or are you playing word games to try to avoid the heart of the issue?
That said, so what if the low end of the labor market gets pushed out and ends up costing business more money to employ? That just means that the prices will have to go up to accurately reflect the cost of doing business instead of the corporate games of externalizing as much of the cost of doing business as possible. It’s the same in North Fulton where they cry like babies about MARTA buses driving around in their microcosm, “causing” crime, but without the cheap labor MARTA brings out there, the price of everything would go up and they’d cry about how the government should do something to bring in cheap labor (those “guest workers” El Presidente loves to talk about) so the government would have to cover part of the cost of their tshirts from Hot Topic and Whoppers at the North Point Mall food court instead of them paying the full price.
One way or the other, someone has to pay, it’s a question of if it will be the person consuming the good or service or should the cost be subsidized by everyone. Cheap labor usually isn’t truly cheap, it is just hiding some huge externalized cost that is pushed off on everyone else.