a friend of mine in Harlem told me about a conversation he had with a bodega/small grocery store owner. He said when he opens a store in a low income neighborhood, he jacks up his prices 25% or more. He gets away with it because people will buy it. My friend seemed to think this was an education issue -- just teach people to shop around and pay attention to prices, and realize shopping at Fairway + cab fare is still cheaper than the bodega and bodega owners would have to act more competitively. I think education would help, but I also wonder about people who are too busy working too many hours too often to take a block of time to go to the grocery store, and instead just pop in to the nearest spot that has food...

IMHO the better question is why some neighborhoods are losing the affordable food choices they already have had? While the post focuses on the impact on poorer neighborhoods, often minority population, where the choices have been limited for almost forever, but I would not equate yuppie-style healthy food stores with healthy affordable food.

And I must remind MWG that those who support the gentrification under the guise of inclusionary zoning and/or CBA's are really doing harm to the people they claim to fight for. When you get the overdevelopment, the affordable neighborhood supermarkets (real supermarkets, not a delis) are often forced out. What's left are two polar extremes ... the deli's and newer expensive gentrified markets that are out-of-reach of the average middle-income pocketbook.

Been in a Food Emporium lately? Check their prices?

Joel Rivera can whine all he wants. All the overdevelopment that he and others support won't get rid of the extremes at either end, and will probably preclude real affordable markets.

Last year when I was doing some research on supermarket locations, I came across a city (I forget which) that helps Bodegas buy refrigerators and the power to run them in exchange for them carrying fresh fruit and vegetables. Do you know if NYC is looking into programs like this?

Good question.

I've been to 125th street. In fact I live in the Upper East Side, but my favorite SuperMarket is the Fairway which is where 125th, 132nd, and 12th Avenues come together in West Harlem. They seem to get a pretty racially integrated bunch of customers there. Some of their stuff is much less expensive there than at Dagostinos or Food Emporium. There is also a big Pathmark on East 125th street. There is a McDonald's on the corner of broadway, and some very informal restaurants on just South of there that cater to the Columbia crowd.

There is a Fried Chicken place on 125th between Park and Lex, but there are also KFC restaurants at 61st and Lex, Rockefeller Center, right near Madison Square Garden, and on 3rd near 88th street (and many other places).

I also like the Farmer's markets. Union Square is probably the biggest in the city, but there are markets uptown on West 97th, 116th, 144th, and 175th depending on the day of the week.

But still, I will grant your point that food is more available in the more affluent neighborhoods. I probably even spend less money feeding my family (per person/per day) than financially challenged people spend. (Because I can buy large quantities of food at Fairway and cook it at home for a fraction of the cost (per meal) of prepared food at a Bodega.) I remember getting angry realizing that homeless people getting vouchers from the city allowing them to spend more on food than I do were unable to feed their kids in any reasonable way. I am sympathetic to your point, but this is the kind of thing that makes us progressives look bad. How can I, living on a block with restaurants that will charge $200 for dinner for my wife and I got to Harlem, and tell two consenting adults that I want to prevent one from opening a business and selling sandwiches to the other? That makes us look like we're against freedom.

I agree with Morris Pearl that the Rivera bill is not the best way to go about bringing healthier food to the hood -- it smacks of elitism to limit people's food choices when the REAL goal is MORE choices, more options for healthy food. Shutting down a fried chicken place (or using zoning to prevent a new one from opening) doesn't automatically make fresh oranges and broccoli available. Encouraging bodegas to stock produce, on the other hand, actually gets you to the desired results.

I used to live in Harlem and the Pathmark up there had vile produce. Their apples tasted like Chlorine. No wonder low-income people aren't getting enough produce.

I used to try to walk to the Fairway and was dodging cars left and right passing over the highway. It was not pedestrian friendly.
The lack of healthy food choices in poorer neighborhoods is a documented fact. As someone who has lived in poor neighborhoods for years I can attest to having to leave my neighborhood to buy healthy food.

Tanya, I believe that Rep. Velasquez in NYC has proposed a plan like the one you describe.

Scott you are dead on right about why even I - an educated consumer - spend too much on groceries. I don't like spending my weekends running errands. I don't have time to cook (though I am a great cook thank you)

I work late on weekdays so the only place that open where I can buy groceries that is on my way home is a local fancy corner grocery that's very pricey (but good quality). This is all my own fault and I don't ask you to be sorry for me because I could hypothetically spend my weekends being bored in a line and then sweating over a stove. Or I could give up trying to go to the gym afterwork.

BUT I have tons of sympathy for low income parents dealing with the situation described.

I imagine if I worked multiple jobs, had kids and lived in a neighborhood that wasn't "hip" that I would be stuck getting ripped off with no functional alternative, because shopping around takes time and takes schedule flexibility. Farmers markets have hours that even I can't keep track of.

My Dad is the king of shopping around for groceries, we joke that its his hobby. But then he doesn't hold two jobs and have young children to take care of and he has a car.

Bodega's are open late. ATMs are open late. Getting money from an ATM costs you more money because they charge a service fee but it can be done at any hour. Getting food at a bodega costs more but can be done at any hour.

I do agree that zoning fast food joints out of neighborhoods is problematic, at best. But let's not forget that zoning is not only used to create balance in neighborhoods, it is also used to reflect our values, which is why you don't see strip joints on every corner. I wish I could say the same thing about liquor stores in my own north Crown Heights neighborhood.

As far as food is concerned, Harlem is tricky because of its changing demographics. Now that whites and middle class folks are moving in, more options are available, affordable or not. But a Central Harlem woman who I recently interviewed for an article on food access ticked off seven McDonalds within walking distance of her apartment and then described ed the train/bus commute she had to take and the bags she had to lug across town just to go grocery shopping at Fairway and the nearest Whole Foods. She won't even step foot anymore in the Pathmark, a so-called "affordable neighborhood supermarket", because as "grassrootsy" mentioned, the produce is scary.

A recent study conducted by the University of Michigan, found that, Predominantly minority and racially mixed neighborhoods had more than twice as many grocery stores as predominantly White neighborhoods and half as many supermarkets. Low-income neighborhoods had 4 times as many grocery stores as the wealthiest neighborhoods and half as many supermarkets. In general, poorer areas and non-White areas also tended to have fewer fruit and vegetable markets, bakeries, specialty stores, and natural food stores. Liquor stores were more common in poorer than in richer areas.

Surprise, surprise.

Credit Rivera with at least raising the issue about what food choices are available to low-income neighborhoods of color. While jobs and buildings are profoundly important, conversations around community health and development need to go further.

Let's also not forget that fast food providers located in low-income communities have also been found to charge more for the same products because their clients have so few other options.

1st consenting "adults" smoke crack, does that mean its right? the point to this whole discussion are two fold. 1-branding and 2-habitual behavior. until there is a viable alternative with a trusted name folx are going to continue to go to thier local bodega and fast food joints, because that is what they know. moving outside of that box takes time and energy that many people apparently are not will to put in.