The Food Lion on West Gwinnett Street and Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard, along with several others, will close its doors this month.

We ran out of wood and charcoal at about 11:40 p.m. one Saturday night, and had but a single option left before midnight. Food Lion was a block away from my apartment on West Bolton Street where my neighbors and I were barbecuing.

Soon we’ll have to better prepare to avoid similar under-stockings. Once Del Haze, Food Lion’s parent company, closes its West Gwinnett Street and Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard store later this month, this part of town will regress into a food desert.

Less than a year after its opening, a ceremony attended by the mayor and city aldermen, the news came earlier this week that, along with several other area Food Lions, the one around the corner from me will no longer stand.

Sigh.

The Food Lion that created 60 jobs, served Kayton and Frazier Homes public housing developments and students was the first full-service supermarket on the west side in decades. One could only hope that a new grocery market will take its place.

For an area as deserted as this, dotted with two, nay, three, no … four fast food establishments, it’s no wonder that this part of town is in slow decay. The local government, with its new council and mayor, should seek to focus more energy and money in reviving this part of town, not neglecting it.
Contact Kenneth Rosen.