The Next Engine: Beyond Campaign Thinking

Smart Mobs ran a great piece recently on urban food deserts—vast areas in urban environments where food is virtually non-existent or at the very least difficult to find. This interested me greatly as I have long held the opinion that no one will move back to downtown Detroit—despite huge expenditures on trendy lofts and entertainment venues—until the basics of life (food) are easily available.

There are only a few grocery stores left in Detroit, leaving the residents to either purchase limited foods from convenience stores at double the price of a supermarket, or drive to the northern suburbs to purchase groceries. As many residents are dependent on mass transit, this makes shopping tricky (how many bags can one carry on the bus?).

Here are some of the findings: “The researchers assessed people’s access to shops by foot and public transport. Geographic mapping techniques were used to map and analyze grocery store locations. Residents of several areas of the city had limited access to one of the city’s 28 supermarkets. Those people living in food deserts paid almost double the price as their supermarket shopping counterparts for supplies from small local convenience stores. Historical analysis showed that inner city areas were not always food deserts even though the city population has doubled in the 50 years. Whereas in 1961 over 75% of the population of the urban core had easy access to a supermarket, fewer than 20% of core residents have access today.”