Never ask a question if you don't already know the answer
American Journal of Preventive Medicine, Volume 22, Issue 1, Pages 23-29
K.Morland
Abstract
Background: Although the relationship between diet and disease is well established, sustainable dietary changes that would affect risk for disease have been difficult to achieve. Whereas individual factors are traditional explanations for the inability of some people to change dietary habits, little research has investigated how the physical availability of healthy foods affects individuals’ diets. This study examines the distribution of food stores and food service places by neighborhood wealth and racial segregation.
Methods: Names and addresses of places to buy food in Mississippi, North Carolina, Maryland, and Minnesota were obtained from respective departments of health and agriculture. Addresses were geocoded to census tracts. Median house values were used to estimate neighborhood wealth, while the proportion of black residents was used to measure neighborhood racial segregation.
Results: Compared to the poorest neighborhoods, large numbers of supermarkets and gas stations with convenience stores are located in wealthier neighborhoods. There are 3 times fewer places to consume alcoholic beverages in the wealthiest compared to the poorest neighborhoods (prevalence ratio [PR]=0.3, 95% confidence interval [CI]=0.1–0.6). Regarding neighborhood segregation, there are 4 times more supermarkets located in white neighborhoods compared to black neighborhoods (PR=4.3, 95% CI=1.5–12.5).
Conclusions: Without access to supermarkets, which offer a wide variety of foods at lower prices, poor and minority communities may not have equal access to the variety of healthy food choices available to nonminority and wealthy communities.
Thursday, June 28, 2007
Inner city Dallas neighborhoods need grocery stores
I've said it before, but it seems no one is listening, at least not here in Dallas.
So, I'll keep saying it: inner city neighborhoods and communities need high-quality, retail grocery shopping opportunities.
We need nice, real, grocery stores--you know, supermarkets--like every other part of the city enjoys.
And, we need them now, not later! Sounds fairly mundane, doesn't it? Actually, to the people who put up with the current situation, it is not.
It is very clear to me that any community truly concerned about health improvement and public health outcome disparities will get busy building accessible, quality grocery markets in the low-income parts of town.
Want to cut into public health epidemics like obesity, hypertension, cardiovascular disease, diabetes? then make nutritious food products readily available to everyone.
Robert K. Ross, MD, President and CEO of The California Endowment, and Angela Glover Blackwell, Founder and CEO of PolicyLink, put it this way,
"There is an emerging consensus among researchers and practitioners that conditions in the communities where people live--from local economic opportunities, to social interactions with neighbors, to the physical environment, to services such as local stores where people can buy healthy food--all affect health" (Healthy Food, Healthy Communities: Improving Access and Opportunities Through Food Retailing, Fall 2005, page 1).
The current crisis evidenced by our nation's growing "grocery gap," or the widening access disparity between more economically viable communities and low-income neighborhoods when it comes to the availability of good grocery options, has been brewing since the 1960s.
With the advent of middle-class, largely "white flight" from older, central city neighborhoods, developers and city planners turned their attention and almost all of their resources to suburbs, leaving low-income families to struggle with transportation challenges and limited, convenient food purchasing options.
Here are a few of the most important facts that I gleaned from the report referenced above:
1) Poor families endure poor diets because they lack access to places that sell decent quality, nutritious foods at an affordable price.
2) Poor folks are forced to opt for food products at corner groceries where prices are high, selection is limited and ending in diets high in fat, sugar and calories.
3) Middle and upper income communities in Los Angeles County have 2.3 times as many supermarkets per capita as low-income communities; predominately white communities offer 3.2 times as many supermarkets as predominately black neighborhoods and 1.7 times as many as predominately Hispanic communities. Other regional and national studies confirm similar findings for other parts of the country.
4) Corner grocery stores that dot the inner city can be as much as 49% higher than supermarkets, while offering a poorer selection of food products--very little meat and fresh produce, mostly processed and canned foods.
5) African Americans living in proximity to at least one supermarket are more likely to meet suggested dietary guidelines for fruit and vegetable consumption and for fat intake than their peers who live in neighborhoods without supermarkets.
6) New grocery supermarkets contribute to the overall economic health of neighborhoods and very often serve as catalysts and anchors for further community renewal.
7) Traditional market analysis typically undervalue inner city neighborhoods and their economic potential. National data cuts against inner city economic and retail development, whereas more careful local market analysis tends to "prove up" the viability of urban markets.
8) A classic mistake of much market analysis is to focus on average household income rather than total area income. In countless cases, total area income is shocking to researchers who dig more deeply into the community they are analyzing.
9) Low-income, inner city neighborhoods actually present major advantages to retail developers who will take the time to learn. These include density of purchasing power, limited competition, and an available labor force.
10) Most of the time we fail to recognize the "double bottom line" inherent in community-business partnerships. It is very possible to achieve a healthy financial return on investment and realize sustainable and substantial community benefit.
More on grocery stores coming soon. . .
Merideth Spaulding of Bronzeville chooses fresh produce at the Hyde Park Treasure Island. Despite the store opening, black neighborhoods lag in grocers. Photo by Jason Reblando.
An ‘Island’ In The Desert, But Grocery Rate Still Lags
The news:Specialty grocery store Treasure Island opened its newest store on Chicago’s South Side, helping to fill the need for grocers in minority neighborhoods after the closings of Dominick’s and the Hyde Park Co-Op.
A Chicago Reporter analysis shows that grocery stores and other types of stores that sell groceries are more often found in Chicago’s white and Latino communities than in the city’s black communities. Of the stores found in black communities, more than 54 percent of them were liquor stores compared with 27 percent of stores in white communities and 26 percent of stores in Latino communities.Note: The Chicago Reporter analyzed the locations of more than 930 packaged goods license holders on file with the City of Chicago. In addition, using the City of Chicago’s online business license look-up feature, the Reporter identified another 250 grocery stores by searching for businesses including the words “grocery," “supermarket" or “finer foods" in their titles. In addition, the Reporter identified “major grocers" by searching for Aldi, Costco, Dominick’s, Jewel, Target, Trader Joe’s, Treasure Island and Whole Foods locations. All stores including the word “liquor" in their titles were considered liquor stores. Other stores selling groceries include local or regional grocers, neighborhood grocers, drug stores and convenience stores.
Source: Chicago Department of Business Affairs and Licensing, analyzed by The Chicago Reporter. Behind the news:
An analysis by The Chicago Reporter found that the rate of grocery stores in white neighborhoods was 4.63 per 10,000 residents, compared with 3.24 in black and 4.24 in Latino neighborhoods. The Reporter analyzed 1,181 stores and Chicago businesses that hold current packaged-goods licenses, such as Aldi, Dominick’s, Jewel, Target and local mom-and-pop grocers, provided by the city’s Department of Business Affairs and Licensing.
Thirty-five percent of those licenses were given to liquor stores. The rate of liquor stores selling food in black and Latino neighborhoods was 1.76 and 1.12 respectively, compared with 1.24 in white neighborhoods. Many of these stores, roughly 58 percent, were located in neighborhoods with median incomes below Chicago’s median income, like Auburn Gresham, Austin and Logan Square.
In 2006, the Mari Gallagher Research and Consulting Group produced a report showing areas where few or no grocery stores were located, called “food deserts." “It’s hard because you eat everyday," said Gallagher. “You can decide to not take a vacation [or] not to go to Blockbuster. But people need to eat."
Frances Spencer, assistant commissioner of the city’s Department of Planning and Development, said she recognizes a need for additional grocery stores as a result of Gallagher’s work. Spencer heads Retail Chicago, an outreach program to attract retail and service providers to underserved areas. Spencer helped organize the city’s second annual grocery store expo in 2007 at Navy Pier. Executives from independent and chain grocery stores were able to look at properties available for construction in various neighborhoods.
By Kimbriell Kelly
Chicago Reporter
(December 29, 2005) During this holiday shopping season, residents of Chicago?s black communities are likely to spend nearly two-thirds of their money outside of their neighborhoods, far more than those living in Latino, mixed or white areas, a Chicago Reporter analysis of consumer market information shows.
In Chicago, the rate of major retailers per 10,000 residents is nearly three times higher in white areas than in black areas, according to the analysis. Some black neighborhoods are home to far fewer retailers than white neighborhoods even when their incomes are similar.
This means blacks in Chicago are likely to spend more time, money and energy than whites when they buy gifts, groceries, clothes, tools and other items at stores located far from their homes. It also means black neighborhoods lose out on billions of dollars in consumer spending each year that could help revitalize those areas. Furthermore, Chicago could be losing millions of dollars in sales tax revenue as many drive to south suburban Calumet City, Lansing and Evergreen Park, among others, to do their shopping.
The Reporter mapped nearly 900 Chicago addresses of companies that Stores listed as the top-selling retailers in seven categories: supermarket, apparel, department store, home improvement, drug store, restaurant, and value retailer, such as Target. Stores, a monthly magazine of the National Retail Federation, the world?s largest retail trade association, ranked the retail companies by their 2004 sales revenues.
The Reporter also examined consumer expenditures and retail sales figures for each of Chicago?s 77 community areas. The data were provided by MetroEdge, a market research firm, for the city?s department of planning. The Reporter defined black and white communities as being at least two-thirds black or white. Asian and Latino neighborhoods were at least 50 percent Asian or Latino. The Reporter found:
* Residents of black communities spend an estimated 64 percent of their consumer dollars, more than $5.3 billion a year, outside of their neighborhoods.
* Among neighborhoods with median household earnings between $40,000 and $50,000 per capita, white areas have 47 percent more major retailers than black areas.
* White neighborhoods have nearly eight times more apparel retailers than black neighborhoods.
* There are three times more major retailers in communities with a median income greater than $50,000 per capita than those where the median is less than $30,000.
Retail consultants said major retailers tend to herd where others have gone. That?s led to a dearth of retail options on the South and West sides. When a major retailer does consider those areas, however, they?re confronted with other issues that prevent them from opening stores there, such as their overall unfamiliarity with the neighborhoods and perceptions about crime, the consultants said.
?The perceptions are usually worse than the reality,? said John C. Melaniphy III, formerly of Melaniphy and Associates, a North Side consulting firm providing site selection and market assistance. ?It?s going to take time, but there is going to be more business.?
One question:
Where in these studies does it say that Blacks getting the DS are as successful as Whites getting the DS in terms of EWL%?
I'm just curious. It may be in the face of what you've posted, but I couldn't pick it out.
And one more thing...you state in your post that you hope that one day there is no need for a "BAF." I don't really understand your point. I don't get exactly what the problem is with black people wanting to talk to each other. It's the same as when women hang out together because they are women and have things in common. Or artists hang out together. Or dog lovers. Or whatever. People who have common interests congregate
Blackness is not and SHOULD not be "irrelevant." It's part of what makes up a person. It's okay to acknowledge it, it's just not okay to make a generalized value judgement about a person (i.e. single mom, irresponsible, fried chicken...the whole nine) based on it. But it should not be diminished just because it makes some people uncomfortable.
For example, I had a friend in law school (yeah, I'm a lawyer too) who, when asked to describe what someone looked like, would never ever say what race they were. She avoided it in a way that was noticeable. Each time I had to ask, "black, white, asian???" I finally asked her why she was so hesitant to state what someone's race was, and she said that she just felt it was somehow wrong to call someone "black," or to describe them by race. I asked her what was so wrong with "black" or "asian" or "white" that it should offend or be considered a bad thing when describing someone.
I don't get this whole "ignore the differences" thing. Like the differences are so bad we should just forget about them. I prefer the idea of embracing the differences and valuing them for the different perspective they bring.
But hey that's just me.
En-t-way, that's my public service announcemnet for the day.
I'm talking about the chip-on-the-shoulder aspect that I see from certain posters on this board (not by any means most). And LOOKING for racist intent is the kind of thing I'm talking about. The single mom point was raised by another poster, and applies to ALL races; the fried chicken comment was because KFC is "health food" for DSers.
And no, the studies don't show that the blacks are as successful at the DS -- the point is that many blacks likely need a more malabsorptive procedure to be successful.
