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Should a 7-Eleven convenience store be allowed to open across PCC or is the war on Slurpees acceptable?

College President Mark Rocha is making plans to speak to the Pasadena Planning Commission to oppose a proposal of opening a 7-Eleven convenience store across from the PCC campus on Colorado Boulevard.

“I don’t see how this is a good thing,” said Rocha. “This will have a huge impact on college safety and traffic.”

The selling of alcohol across from PCC is one of Rocha’s issues, as if it will be the only place around campus students can get alcohol. There are many others within walking distance such as Luigi Ortega’s and Lucky Baldwin’s. If students felt the need to consume alcohol around campus they would be doing so already.

This would be the only convenience store that isn’t a gas station with in miles of PCC, let alone the only convenience store that allows purchases with EBT cards. The stores and restaurants on campus do not accept EBT cards. Students who use their EBT cards for food everyday are forced to take multiple buses between classes to receive nutrition needed to keep up in class.

Students of PCC are indeed suffering and the president’s opposition to allow the opening of the store when it could be beneficial to all students, especially those on public assistance, to be able to easily purchase food to eat.

The store would be the only convenience store within miles from PCC that accepts EBT cards because the nearest 7-Elevens are all the way down Rosemead Boulevard or Lake Avenue.

People might argue that restaurants such as Jack in the Box and El Pollo Loco accept EBT cards but one would have to be linked to the Los Angeles County Restaurant Hot Meals Program and most people on EBT are not linked to that program. To qualify one would have to have no access to a stove such as the homeless or disabled.

You can also use EBT cards at the 99 cents store where you can buy a loaf of bread, a bag of salami and a bag of cheese, but that isn’t convenient for students. 7-Eleven has sandwiches already prepared and ready for students to take and eat wherever they please.  Also 7-Eleven has facilities available to heat up any cold meals one might purchase.

The fact that it’s a “convenience” store being opened across the street is reason enough to allow it to open.

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