Gotham's Supermarket Shortage: A Public Health Crisis?
The city’s recent building boom has had at least one noticeable deleterious effect on a cross-section of New Yorkers, but especially poorer ones: It’s played a large role in supermarkets closing as owners sell out developers, according to an article published a few weeks ago in the Washington Post. (The story zooms in on a…
The city’s recent building boom has had at least one noticeable deleterious effect on a cross-section of New Yorkers, but especially poorer ones: It’s played a large role in supermarkets closing as owners sell out developers, according to an article published a few weeks ago in the Washington Post. (The story zooms in on a Fort Greene woman who now has to drive in order to get to a supermarket after her local mart was sold off to a developer.) There are now one-third fewer supermarkets in the five boroughs than there were six years ago, says retail consulting company F&D Reports. The Bloomberg administration thinks fewer people having access to fresh produce is a public health crisis, and it’s pushing legislation like the Green Cart law to get more fruit-and-vegetable stands into low-income neighborhoods. There’s also a statewide supermarket commission in the works that will try to come up with new ways to lure groceries to underserved communities. A similar strategy has apparently already been tried in Philadelphia, where a nonprofit organization called Food Trust helped attract 32 new supermarkets. The supermarket shortage, of course, also affects residents of new luxury condos. “How are you going to have million-dollar condos if there’s no place to buy bok choy?” Alicia Glen, the managing director of the Goldman Sachs Urban Investment Group.
Groceries Grow Elusive For Many in New York City [Washington Post]
Yes, We Have No Bananas: More Fruit Stands for Brooklyn [Brownstoner]
Photo by janelbot.
@10:30:
…”10:23, it may come as a surprise to you, but if you only have time to shop once a week, and you have any size family, hopping on the subway or the bus is not all that easy.”
What shouldn’t surprise you is that it isn’t that easy… because you moved there!
If you want amenities right around the corner, pony up the bucks to move to a place that has them!
Sounds to me like you ought to move to the suburbs.
And anyone who is comparing New York City to the rest of the country needs to open THEIR eyes… many of us DO live like we’re in a third world country. Face it, New York City IS like a third world country.
I see pictures of poor people in third world countries riding nicer bicycles than what you see here, because anything nicer would be stolen.
…and why do you think our milk has a different freshness date?
And Grab for Cheese….Blue Apron Foods for specialty foods…Ace Supermarket on 7th and Berkeley. The list goes on and one.
It’s the reason I never quite get it when people rag on the Slope. It has services. Tons of them.
10:50…the key food on 5th is one of the nicer grocery stores i have been in, in nyc outside of whole foods, etc.
and they just completely renovated the one on 7th about 3 months ago with more organic selections, better produce and self check-out with state of the art technology.
you are not well-informed.
and keyfood and natural land on flatbush.
and pathmark at atlantic mall.
Anyone describing Key Food or C-Town as good grocery stores really needs to get out more.
Compared to any modern supermarket in the rest of the country, they’re like shopping in Soviet-era Bulgaria.
Oh and Dag’…nevermind.
Oh and Dag’…nevermind.
10:32: Some CSAs do have shares available in the winter too, although the variety is not as extensive as in the summer. There are plenty of root veggies, cabbage, tatsoi, kale, potatoes and onions, apples etc in the farm share box. It’s still a good value for under $20 a week. 🙂
Oh and the Park Slope Food Co-op.
How could I forget…