"Why Grocery Stores Are Avoiding Black Neighborhoods"

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Have any CAF members been to a supermarket that did/does not sell fresh produce?

 
I’ve heard of this issue before, and about kids having to get their dinner from a convenience store. It’s sad.
 
Ok - what American consumer lives near a grocery store – close enough to walk?
Hardly anyone, I bet. They’re usually all in a big unwalkable suburban sprawl hell.
The problem is lack of cars/ lack of public transportation.
 
In my city, in the predominantly African American side of town, some major grocery store chains tried opening stores for a time but shut them down after awhile due to not being able to make a profit due to rampant theft, or at least that’s what they claimed.

The main stores that remain are ‘Dollar General’ and a few smaller Mom and Pop stores.

In order to help provide fresh produce to area residents, civic-minded entrepreneurs circulate some food trucks around different neighborhoods in food deserts on specified days of the week selling fresh produce at reasonable prices. The city ensures there is no price gouging.

It’s not ideal by any means but offers fresh produce to areas that otherwise wouldn’t have it and takes the food closer to those who need it.
 
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Tommy999 said:
In my city, in the predominantly African American side of town, some major grocery store chains tried opening stores for a time but shut them down after awhile due to not being able to make a profit due to rampant theft, ot at least that’s what they claimed.
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Same here. My city is 50% white and 50% black. Not a single grocery store within city limits. We’re classified as a food desert.
 
This will not be a popular response, but, truth is often unpleasant.
Where I grew up, the few stores in certain areas were robbed “enough” (whatever that means) that they had to close. They intended to help the communities they started in, just barely making enough profit to continue business. The robberies, by people in those areas caused the stores to close. They killed off their own help. Two of those buildings were still empty when I left. (The third was burned to the ground by vandals) It is not surprising to me that others don’t want to have the same failure.
Pray for us all.
Dominus vobiscum
 
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Personally, I think we should bring back the concept of the Victory Garden. Everyone should have a small manageable garden for fresh produce. It doesn’t have to be pretty to be productive either. My neighbors are always trading vegetables 😀
 
blackforest said:
The crime rate-vs.-food access debate is a chicken-and-egg one
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Understood. It didn’t quite go that way where I lived. I witnessed the slow degradation of my neighborhood while it happened from beginning, to the point where I left. (Been 21years ago now, no idea how it is).
“Regular” middle-class. Increase in petty crime, then more serious. More crime, graffiti, and repeat. Area turns into a depressing excuse for human habitation. Good people leave, many who stay either can’t get out, lose hope, or just stop caring. The spiral continues.
Dominus vobiscum
I’ll post more tomorrow, exhaustion is demanding rest after another 6day week.
 
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Yea, that’s what my link describes, but more of a community garden concept to replace areas of urban blight, weeds, empty lots, etc.

I’m all for the Victory Garden concept. America does need to get over its squeamishness toward self-sufficiency, a phenomenon that started with the advent of processed foods. If you grow flowering plants in the front yard, neighbors are OK with it . . . . so long as they don’t produce any edible produce. It’s OK to own something that barks or purrs or uses your flower beds as a litter box, but it’s not OK to own anything that clucks and lays eggs. We’re weird that way.
 
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Something ironic, perhaps hypocritical in the video is that for years, the Left has decried Walmart. Even as a progressive Catholic, I could never get fully on board with the anti-Walmart movement. They have some unethical practices, absolutely, but nothing a lot of other chain stores don’t have. The difference, (I’m convinced), is that Walmart is just an easy target because it’s not a store where elitist liberals shop.

It’s just interesting that ten years ago, progressive elites were demanding the closure of Walmart branches; in this video, they’re complaining about them. 🤔
 
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Those HOAs need to lighten up. A little fresh yardbird stew never hurt anyone. 😀
 
Many years ago my father and two partners owned and operated a wholesale meat business in the South Bronx which sold live chickens, rabbits, and other goodies. The neighborhood in the South Bronx was largely Hispanic, not Black nor White. The store was robbed several times, often through the roof, to the point where my father got a permit for a gun and also acquired a viciously trained German shepherd in the back room for protection. This was in the 1970’s and the business remained open no matter what. Since then, the South Bronx has cleaned up its act significantly; at the time, it could hardly have been worse. So I realize where you’re coming from because my family experienced the same thing. The terrible thing about this is that most people–Hispanic, Black, White, Asian, whatever–who live in these high-crime neighborhoods are themselves decent, law-abiding, employed people, who also suffer from the criminal behavior of these young thugs.
 
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Well…I have to admit that I live about a mile away from a major supermarket and the streets to get to It are mostly safely walkable suburban streets with sidewalks.

But we chose to live here based on quality of life characteristics like that.
 
Yes, I don’t think anyone chooses to live in a crime-infested neighborhood. However, some people are stuck in such neighborhoods.

I too am within walking distance of a major supermarket and it is not a suburban area. But Trump is trying to instill fear in us that if Biden is elected there will be no more safe neighborhoods in the suburbs or anywhere else. This was Nixon’s tactic in 1968, and it worked.

And former Mayor Rudy Giuliani (who, like Bloomberg, was a good mayor) is propagating the lie that New York City under progressive leftist Mayor de Blasio is now an unsafe city. I live here and can tell you first-hand that this is nonsense. Despite my misgivings about de Blasio on several issues, safety is not being compromised here despite defunding of police. And, by the way, Biden does NOT support defunding in any way, shape, or form: that is another lie.
 
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meltzerboy2 said:
is propagating the lie that New York City under progressive leftist Mayor de Blasio is now an unsafe city. I live here and can tell you first-hand that this is nonsense.
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–There is nowhere that is “safe.” Everything is relative: Some cities are generally safer than others, and some areas of most cities are safer than others. Unfortunately NYC has had problems lately because the mayor is perceived as not having the backs of police. IMHO DeBlasio has been weak; ineffectual; and tends to favor rioters vs. police. The fact that his own daughter was arrested in one such incident doesn’t help.

And crime is in fact skyrocketing in NYC:

 
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