Do the Urban Cores have a Convenience Problem

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I feel like these days it's too hard to live in the cities. The cost of living is just way too high for what you get. Then everywhere you go there are these lines of people. Then the food it's all like MREs, no fresh food. Like most families have left these areas.

I mean wouldn't be easier to pick strawberries than to live in the city.

The amount of employment available in urban areas doesn't even compare to rural areas. Many cities are an economic engine for employment and attract people that need jobs.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I feel like these days it's too hard to live in the cities. The cost of living is just way too high for what you get. Then everywhere you go there are these lines of people. Then the food it's all like MREs, no fresh food. Like most families have left these areas.

I mean wouldn't be easier to pick strawberries than to live in the city.

The amount of employment available in urban areas doesn't even compare to rural areas. Many cities are an economic engine for employment and attract people that need jobs.

But they can't afford strawberries. Maybe if we moved some illegals down in the housing prices would go down and you could use the excess saving to buy strawberries.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I see what you mean. The prices are literally insane and the number of people at anything worth attending is very off putting. You have to buy tickets or reservations so far in advance that it takes the joy out of many weekends. You are right about the lines but that’s everywhere these days.

I think this is the hidden cost of having 8.2 billion humans on the planet. I was amazed to learn that there were less than 1 million people on planet earth when the USA was founded.

O'Henry wrote the four million about New York in 1906.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I see what you mean. The prices are literally insane and the number of people at anything worth attending is very off putting. You have to buy tickets or reservations so far in advance that it takes the joy out of many weekends. You are right about the lines but that’s everywhere these days.

I think this is the hidden cost of having 8.2 billion humans on the planet. I was amazed to learn that there were less than 1 million people on planet earth when the USA was founded.

O'Henry wrote the four million about New York in 1906.

There were around 1 billion humans on earth in 1800. The "1 million" number is orders of magnitude off.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:One complaint is that not all urban dwellers have easy access to supermarkets and instead have to rely on nearby convenients.

That's where I'm annoyed and frustrated. Japan for example has amazing convenience stores like Lawson or their 7-11s which offer a whole range of pre-made food items that are good, cheap, and fresh-made for convenience.

Why can't we manage to do that here in the US? That's where I'd agree with the OP. A lot of American food is mass-produced, mass-market slop with low-quality ingredients, packed full of preservatives and made to ship across the country and sit on shelves for far too long, as if we're still living in the 1940s with ration cards.

I would absolutely love it for Japanese 7-11 to take over American convenience stores and put their model in place here.

In NYC there are bodegas on every block and many fruit cart vendors all over the city. It’s just other cities, esp. DC, that lacks small convenient markets.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I feel like these days it's too hard to live in the cities. The cost of living is just way too high for what you get. Then everywhere you go there are these lines of people. Then the food it's all like MREs, no fresh food. Like most families have left these areas.

I mean wouldn't be easier to pick strawberries than to live in the city.

Urban cost of living is a huge issue that isn't getting enough play. Its the sort of thing that will get fringe candidates a foothold in politics as we've seen to the north. Its what's driving disastrous suburban sprawl and migration to the sun belt. Anyone not in the top 25%+ economically gets to choose from living somewhere they can afford, but which sucks, or living somewhere nice that they can't afford.

That's a huge pool of untapped angry people that could lead to some less than ideal outcomes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I feel like these days it's too hard to live in the cities. The cost of living is just way too high for what you get. Then everywhere you go there are these lines of people. Then the food it's all like MREs, no fresh food. Like most families have left these areas.

I mean wouldn't be easier to pick strawberries than to live in the city.

Urban cost of living is a huge issue that isn't getting enough play. Its the sort of thing that will get fringe candidates a foothold in politics as we've seen to the north. Its what's driving disastrous suburban sprawl and migration to the sun belt. Anyone not in the top 25%+ economically gets to choose from living somewhere they can afford, but which sucks, or living somewhere nice that they can't afford.

That's a huge pool of untapped angry people that could lead to some less than ideal outcomes.

Stupid "Return to Office" policies have made it a lot worse, putting even more pressure on housing costs, for absolutely no good reason. Since return to office there has been no measurable boost in productivity or productivity. A University of Pittsburgh study showed no improvement in financial performance or firm value after RTO after RTO mandates. https://business.pitt.edu/return-to-office-mandates-dont-improve-employee-or-company-performance and Forbes had an article showing a decrease in morale, lower retention, and no improvement to engagement. https://www.forbes.com/sites/carolinecastrillon/2024/10/06/impact-of-return-to-office-mandates-on-productivity

RTO needs to go away and we should let people work in communities that are affordable and livable. That would solve a lot of things.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I feel like these days it's too hard to live in the cities. The cost of living is just way too high for what you get. Then everywhere you go there are these lines of people. Then the food it's all like MREs, no fresh food. Like most families have left these areas.

I mean wouldn't be easier to pick strawberries than to live in the city.

Have you sat in suburban traffic trying to get to the supermarket recently? I prefer urban areas. And we have plenty of markets with fresh food.

No but I've stood in line at many rural farmers markets. You don't know what fresh is. The DC area is known to have the least quality food, mostly canned food from overseas. Foreigners that come to this are look down on us because they think American food are frozen food microwave franchises like McDonalds and Starbucks.

They don't even wash dishes in DC, must be too hard. You have to eat out off of paper and drink out of plastic bottles.

....what???

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:One complaint is that not all urban dwellers have easy access to supermarkets and instead have to rely on nearby convenients.

That's where I'm annoyed and frustrated. Japan for example has amazing convenience stores like Lawson or their 7-11s which offer a whole range of pre-made food items that are good, cheap, and fresh-made for convenience.

Why can't we manage to do that here in the US? That's where I'd agree with the OP. A lot of American food is mass-produced, mass-market slop with low-quality ingredients, packed full of preservatives and made to ship across the country and sit on shelves for far too long, as if we're still living in the 1940s with ration cards.

I would absolutely love it for Japanese 7-11 to take over American convenience stores and put their model in place here.

The food desert issue has been improving for years, though still not perfect, obviously.

[Anonymous]

Maybe the government could distribute cheese at intersections for the voters for lawlessness and hatred of capitalism.

[Anonymous]

Do we really think Anacostia is buying fresh kale and seasonal asparagus?

Grocery stores in difficult neighborhoods were wiped out because of theft and no one buying fresh food anyway.

The food desert exists because there's no demand for fresh, nutritious food that requires some cooking and preparation. It's a cultural problem in some communities. Not an access problem. A fast food junk food culture doesn't disappear just because you can buy broccoli on the next block.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I see what you mean. The prices are literally insane and the number of people at anything worth attending is very off putting. You have to buy tickets or reservations so far in advance that it takes the joy out of many weekends. You are right about the lines but that’s everywhere these days.

I think this is the hidden cost of having 8.2 billion humans on the planet. I was amazed to learn that there were less than 1 million people on planet earth when the USA was founded.

O'Henry wrote the four million about New York in 1906.

There were around 1 billion humans on earth in 1800. The "1 million" number is orders of magnitude off.

Geez it was an obvious typo. Should have been 1 billion but mistyped as million.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Do we really think Anacostia is buying fresh kale and seasonal asparagus?

Grocery stores in difficult neighborhoods were wiped out because of theft and no one buying fresh food anyway.

The food desert exists because there's no demand for fresh, nutritious food that requires some cooking and preparation. It's a cultural problem in some communities. Not an access problem. A fast food junk food culture doesn't disappear just because you can buy broccoli on the next block.

You know, they do have full grocery stores and farmers markets in Anacostia. When people make statements like this without having actually been to a neighborhood or Ward, it is just ignorance at play. Does that mean everyone living in wards 7 and 8 are eating well? No, of course not, but that doesn't mean there isn't access to fresh foods there. Are people living an Appalachia eating fresh foods? Probably not, all they have are Dollar General and fast food places.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Do we really think Anacostia is buying fresh kale and seasonal asparagus?

Grocery stores in difficult neighborhoods were wiped out because of theft and no one buying fresh food anyway.

The food desert exists because there's no demand for fresh, nutritious food that requires some cooking and preparation. It's a cultural problem in some communities. Not an access problem. A fast food junk food culture doesn't disappear just because you can buy broccoli on the next block.

You know, they do have full grocery stores and farmers markets in Anacostia. When people make statements like this without having actually been to a neighborhood or Ward, it is just ignorance at play. Does that mean everyone living in wards 7 and 8 are eating well? No, of course not, but that doesn't mean there isn't access to fresh foods there. Are people living an Appalachia eating fresh foods? Probably not, all they have are Dollar General and fast food places.

Ignorance is a generous way to describe it