Do you have a child? A pet? Litter and canned food are heavy, and so are bags of kibble, especially for big breeds. Kids, especially toddlers, still eat but are generally useless for carrying heavy loads for long distances.
Are you blessed with good health and a strong body?
I mean, good for you and all, but not everyone shares your particular circumstances.
That sounds amazingly convenient. 
Well, the Korea markets obviously didn’t come back, but one of Rebuild L.A.'s accomplishments was to bring in over 30 medium sized markets with produce, etc., in its first two years (my girlfriend used to work at one)–they just weren’t started by the Korean who’d gotten burned out. In the last 10 or so years some chains have come in, too, like the the Food 4 Less on Jefferson, the Ralph’s on Vemont, etc.–I’d hardly say the area is limited to USDA surplus.
The real issue is that if you don’t have a car, taking the bus one mile isn’t much different than five. A lot of your time and energy is already taken up by just getting to work and back.
Wait - how close are you to the Metro station? I only ask because Shaw is two metro stops from Columbia Heights (for non-DC-ers, about five-seven minutes travel time), and there’s a Giant right there. Also a Target, which I believe sells fresh produce.
I’m not doubting that you live in a food desert - the USDA definition is the USDA definition, and if your experience is that real food really is hard to buy, then I believe you. And I’ve never lived in Shaw, nor spent much time hanging out there. (Though I do enjoy Big Bear Cafe, in Bloomingdale :D). But I would have expected that the Columbia Heights Giant would have gone a long way towards fixing this.
DC Councilman Marion Barry recently got himself into a bit of hot water by launching into a tirade on this point, going on about the “dirty shops” run by Asian owner in Anacostia, and the poor-quality food they sell. The point wasn’t a bad one; Barry’s anger at the food desert in his ward is appropriate. But good Ford, the man has a knack for turning reasonable policy points into racist gibberish.
Those definitions don’t fit the conditions on the ground.
One of the food deserts closest to me is in a neighboring county that is rural and extremely agricultural. In fact, if memory serves, just about every family grows at least some of their own food, and what they don’t raise themselves, they get from some other farmer. There’s really no reason for them to go to a supermarket on a regular basis, except to get things they can’t raise or make themselves.
I just wanted to chime in and say that’s some cruel shit right there, naming the lack of easily accessible food after a sweet after-meal treat. Common people, get some compa-
What?
One ess?
Oh…
L.A. learned a lot from the '92 riots, and those kinds of tensions have diminished. Korean merchants figured out better ways to interact with the surrounding community and clients, and, most importantly, after several calls for redirection, the LAPD started to act more constructively:
[QUOTE=Mint Press News]
"We see a lot of positive signs in the results of this survey,” said Fernando Guerra, director of the center and professor of political science and Chicana/o studies at LMU. “Angelenos are getting along better with each other, expressing confidence in their police department and feeling safer in their neighborhoods. There are some negative results, but much of that can be attributed to the overall direction of the national economy.”
[/quote]
I’m about a 10 minute walk to metro. For me, the chaos element of when the train will come (espcially for Sunday shopping) and the trouble of carrying bags up and down all kinds of esculators makes it not really worth it to take the metro- walking is almost as fast, and more under my control. When I come home and need stuff for dinner, if the question is between paying an extra $3.00 for the Ragu at the corner store or paying $3.00 in metro fares and spending between 40 minutes and hour underground, the corner store wins even though its selection is limited and healthy food is going to be at a premium. I end up eating a lot of Amy’s frozen entrees and telling myself they are healthy.
Of course, with better time management I could probably come up with something more workable. But I’ve been working full time, carrying more than a full load at grad school, and I commute up to Bethesda, which takes 45 mins to an hour each day. It’s simply not possible. In any case, it’s not a huge problem for me. I can afford the nicer corner store and can get groceries delivered- I’m not suffering, I’m just mildy inconvienced. But I can see how it could be a real problems for others.
The takeaway here, I think, isn’t that getting food in a food desert is impossible. It’s that it involves trade offs (usually time and effort expended) that makes other options with serious problems (overpriced corner stores with poor selection of fresh foods) attractive despite their signifigant drawbacks.
I’m pretty sure Albion would qualify.
Hmmm… no supermarkets in SE (or at least while I was there) and no markets in Shaw. Wonder if there’s any connection… anything in Shaw that would give a clue?
:sarcastic smiley if we had one:
I checked with my son who lives on Chicago’s North Side. His area is too affluent to fit the USDA definition, but he says the nearest fresh produce and meat is a 20-minute walk, and that store is expensive.
My son is 26 years old, healthy and walks everywhere anyway, but take a 75-year old woman with arthritis, during the winter, on a limited income and I can see the problems.
I looked at the USDA map and found the two food deserts I expected to find in Houston. Huge one around the University of Houston and Texas Southern University in 3rd ward. Closest large supermarkets are the Kroger in Eastwood, the Fiesta at Wheeler and San Jacinto, and the HEB at Scott and OST. Not that bad a walk for young folks, but a long hard walk for old people. Urban Harvest has a farmer’s market at their headquarters, but that’s also in Eastwood and even farther than Kroger. 3rd Ward mostly has small grocery stores without much selection of fresh produce and meat.
These areas have fairly good bus service and will have light rail service in about a year.
The other urban food desert is a part of 5th Ward, the wasteland featured in so many Geto Boys videos. That was a long time ago. Black folks are rare there now. I think the current population in 5th trucks veggies in, but the prices may be a little high.
I think that we’ve slipped somewhat from the point of the original post.
As I understand it, it’s not that it’s impossible to get to a grocery store, but that McDonalds is more convenient. If there’s a fast food joint a quarter mile away and a market a mile away, most will feed their families fast food. This is bad both nutritionally and monetarily.