Reply to Why is there a shortage of grocery stores and fresh food options in Wards 7 and 8?

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Didn't Safeway and Giant at one point have stores in those wards? I think the reason they left was because of theft. Hard to justify a store if more money walks out the doors than goes in the cash register.

Now a seasonal produce stand, I have no clue why there are none. Seems like some local farmer could set up a stand to sell their fruit and veggies. I guess the DC government would want their share, that's probably why there are none.[/quote]

Yes, loss prevention. Stores cannot be forced to operate as charities..I always thought DC could do FAR more, like offering to open police substations in their entry ways, and other safety minded "partnerships" to encourage these stores to open. Instead, DC got very demandy with WalMart about employment and other perks the city wanted when they were thinking of locating in Washington. If it's simply market driven, no one will open in a demandy city in areas with rampant and tolerated theft. It's also very difficult to apprehend and prosecute for shoplifting, especially in our current world.[/quote]

It’s fascinating to see a city grandfather in subsidized housing, like what’s happening at Res 13, to counter gentrification and ensure poverty can persist in a desirable neighborhood, so as not to “displace” local residents. As if the area should be preserved in amber for only certain protected classes of people. Most people have to move, but not some.

Anyway, it’s also fascinating to see people struggle to grasp that poor people straight up make bad decisions because they’re poor. They don’t want a damn Whole Foods. They can’t afford that sht. [b]Generally, nor do they possess the wherewithal to understand how to eat mostly vegetables and less unhealthy processed sht.[/b] Stores have tried to make a go of it and sell healthy food around Anacostia and Benming and Langton carver and the only way that food takes off is if the area is sufficiently gentrified. Except it’s evil to gentrify, so it’s easier to look for a billion nonsense reasons why there are “food deserts”. It’s because of theft and bad choices. We need to just let areas change. We need to let the market work as it should even if people are priced out. No one has a right to be anywhere forever and it’s annoying to hear people complain about the sadness of poverty and being pushed out and blah blah. Let people move where they can afford to live and maybe that will encourage them to work harder and so forth. Instead of trying to grandfather in the same families to live in projects with subsidized rent for 50 years. I know this place is populated heavily by well intentioned housewives, but I live and grew up in the inner city in DC. It’s way better with gentrification.[/quote]

Ahh the typical poor people are stupid and lazy. Got it. [/quote]

Not the immigrant poor – just the cycle of poverty poor. But then again, most immigrant poor live in the cheaper suburbs and are busting their butt at three jobs and their kids go on  to college in ome kind of stem or immediate job producing field.

— neighbor of these immigrants and listener to their stories[/quote]

In our society we are obsessive about not blaming the "victim" for anything, but that won't help us address the US's problem with urban poverty and poor nutrition.

Societies all over the world have developed diets that have allowed people to survive and eat well on very limited budgets, but much of this knowledge has been lost in US inner cities.  That is why so many immigrant families eat so much better on equally limited budgets.

Just one example, we have had a series of au pairs to care for our kids.  One of the first was from Brazil.  We told her that we would buy whatever food she wanted, just add it to our grocery list.

Dried beans
Rice
Frozen tilapia 
Frozen chicken
Sausage 
Various greens, various vegetables.

Every meal she made for our kids was some combination of rice, beans, a little meat, and some vegetable/greens.  (and it was what she ate herself)

She was able to feed herself and our kids for a few dollars a day, and it was nutritious healthy food.  [/quote]

We just need to hire au pairs for everyone. Problem solved.[/quote]

What does it say about your argument that you are limited to playing dumb?

The point is obvious, with a little effort and a little knowledge it is easy to feed a family healthy nutritious food.  I have lived in the third world and see what real poverty looks like.  Skinny kids in rags collecting trash on the street to bring home (or sell) as fuel.

US urban poverty is a totally different type of problem.  People are paying more money to eat worse out of ignorance.

Go on Walmart.com and try pricing it out yourself. 8lbs dried pinto beans, $6.  10lbs rice, $4.60.  10lbs frozen chicken breast, $22.50.  12oz Frozen Kale, $1.  12oz Frozen collard greens, $1.  20oz frozen pepper and onion blend, $2.33.  3lb bag onions, $3.

22.50+6+4.6+1+1+2.33+3= $40.43

You could easily feed a family of 4 for a week on this.  It wouldn't be gourmet but it would be healthy.

[/quote]

If you have someone dedicated to meal preparation.

You are welcome to start requiring the poors to prepare meals at home. I am not sure how you will enforce this, but with a sufficiently large police force, anything is possible.[/quote]

Dedicated to meal preparation?   Out of curiosity, how long do you think it takes to make rice, beans, some vegetables and a few chicken breasts?

[/quote]

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