Outraged North End residents fight against proposed Starbucks

More than 100 people showed up on Thursday night to tell Starbucks they aren't welcome in the North End.

The group packed a local community center to make one thing clear: they did not want a Starbucks to come to the area.

"It's about preserving what neighborhood we have left here in the North End," Robert Afrippino, a lifelong North End resident, said.

Afrippino used to own a convenience store in the North End, but said big chain stores forced him out of business.

"It demolished my business," Afrippino said. "It cut it right in half."

Afrippino said he feats another Starbucks, especially on Hanover Street, will do the same to local shops that give the North End its Italian flavor.

A Charter Realty representative, a company that owns the strip set to be developed, was repeatedly interrupted on Thursday.

The developer offered to build an Italian heritage monument and a piazza as a gesture of good will, but residents erupted at what they saw as a veiled attempt to please them.

“Don’t hurt neighborhoods that have small businesses," Carmelina's and Vito's owner Damien DiPaola said. "That’s an ugly structure and you’re here to make money. You’re not here to give us a piazza and a monument.”

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The developer was asked if they'd consider rethinking Starbucks, but the answer was no.

"We really do believe this is the right fit for us from a tenancy perspective," the developer said.

There is an online petition against the Starbucks, with over a thousand signatures.

Cox Media Group