The City of Detroit...
...It is now a food desert to everyone living on the outside as the last big-named grocery store, Farmer Jack, left the city limits in 2007. At first glance, the words “food desert” suggest an area of land where there is simply no food to be found. The USDA says that food deserts are places in the country that lack healthy foods like fruits and veggies in general, being in part due to not having enough stores in the first place.
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And let’s begin with just that, grocery stores in Detroit to begin with. Noah Stephens, a native from Detroit, took it upon himself to photograph 111 grocery stores to show the rest of the world that just because there wasn’t a big name-brand store across the street, doesn’t mean that the people of Detroit have no stores from which to buy food. Of the eight interviewees showcased in “The Food Desert” only one had complained about the difficulty of getting their hands on fresh produce. Places like the famous Eastern Market, found about a mile northeast of downtown Detroit, Parkway foods, and E & L Supermercado run to supply its customer’s with fresh, healthy produce. But just because there are some 111 grocery stores around doesn’t mean that healthy food is available all the time.
The fact of the matter is such: there are stores to buy food from in Detroit. So why is it that Detroit was still labeled as an alleged “food desert”?
The fact of the matter is such: there are stores to buy food from in Detroit. So why is it that Detroit was still labeled as an alleged “food desert”?
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Others have concluded that it is a “lack of transportation” that makes it extremely difficult for the remaining people of Detroit to even get to one of these said stores. Detroit is a city that spans over 142.9 squared miles; it is a city that can fit the entirety of Boston and San Francisco within it, and still have room left over. Each of those cities is home to more than 3-million people (1); however, Detroit has fewer than 700,000, which is less than half of its population in the 1950’s (2).
The University of Michigan’s Transportation Research Institute conducted a survey of households in the U.S. that own a vehicle, finding that of Detroit’s population, 26.2% are without a car. Since 2007, this had a 5% increase, the highest out of all thirty cities on the list. This puts them eighth on said list, and it’s important to point out that the places with higher percentages like Chicago and New York City listed above Detroit have a very reliable transportation system to get them around, in comparison. Chicago alone is able to reliably transport 515.3 million riders annually, and 1.64 million in a single week day(3).
In the mid-1940’s, Detroit’s public transit consisted of street rail cars, buses, commuter rails—the works. Annually, they all made up the 490 million in ridership. With 1,849,568 people and over 142 square miles to cover, a new “balanced system of highways and mass transit”(4) was badly needed in the city, as demanded by the Detroit Metropolitan Area Transportation Study. After the decrease in population (and money) between the 1960s and ‘70s, several organizations in Detroit had tried to make up for this now failing public transit system. For instance, in 1967, $600 million was ready to be given to Michigan in hopes for a new rail system; yet without the support of people locally nor politically, the plan fell through.
This didn't stop the Southeast Michigan Transportation Authority (SEMTA), who had taken over most the commuter services of Detroit. They continued to make these transit plans, only to have them continuously shut down because of the lack of support, and moreover: the lack of money. When more money was denied to help an approved regional transit plan in 1979, SEMTA then began to diminish public transit service everywhere, and let go of many employees as a result. Here you can read through a timeline of the "Transit History of the Detroit Region," as committees relentlessly tried to fix Detroit's transit problem; however most of the entires on the timeline end with "cancelled" and "failed."
Michael Sivak, who was behind the study on Michigan’s Transportation previously mentioned, states that there are a number of other reasons as to why the people of any city might not own a car, ranging from problems with income and affordability, to how the seasons treat the streets. Taking a closer look into his reasoning finds that a large portion of those still living in Detroit is trying to make it on more or less a mere $25,000 (5). Insurance rates were averaging nearly $5,000 at the time, not to mention the need to pay for gas and other expenses as well. One man, James Robertson, had become known as the “Walking Man,” for his 21-mile route to and from work every day, after his car gave out in the '80s, according to the NBC video above. To the "Walking Man," finding a job was hard enough as it is, and letting it go just because he couldn't get there by the usual transportation wasn't going to stop him from making his 2-10pm shift.
It should be clearly understandable by now the hardship and struggle faced by Detroiters everyday. Those who are fortunate enough to get their hands on fresh produce are part of the 1% lucky enough to have the means by which to acquire said food, but the harsh reality stands as is: Detroit is a food desert because a lot of its inhabitants can’t even make it to the grocery store in the first place.
This problem isn’t just that some people who live in Detroit can’t get some leafy greens for dinner—there is a bigger problem at hand. Obesity in Detroit is 31.2%, ranking as the 16th highest rate for overweight adults in the United States (6). Not to take into account the large percentage of Detroiters who fall below the poverty line, but 40% of other residents can barely afford basic living expenses.
In other words, they’re barely making enough to get by, and any kind of financial disturbance will have no problem in slinging them back below that poverty line. And as if I need to list any more problems, people are growing farther and farther away from each other as neighbors leave the city.
So why is urban farming a solution? How is a plot of land, some seeds, and a pair garden shears going to benefit the people of Detroit in a way that is going to create a lasting impact, not just some fresh veggies for tonight’s dinner?
In other words, they’re barely making enough to get by, and any kind of financial disturbance will have no problem in slinging them back below that poverty line. And as if I need to list any more problems, people are growing farther and farther away from each other as neighbors leave the city.
So why is urban farming a solution? How is a plot of land, some seeds, and a pair garden shears going to benefit the people of Detroit in a way that is going to create a lasting impact, not just some fresh veggies for tonight’s dinner?
WORKS CITED:
1. http://blog.thedetroithub.com/2010/08/12/comparing-detroit-to-other-cities-look-at-the-map/
2.http://blog.thedetroithub.com/2010/08/12/comparing-detroit-to-other-cities-look-at-the-map/
3. http://www.transitchicago.com/about/facts.aspx
4. http://legislature.mi.gov/documents/2009-2010/CommitteeDocuments/House/Intergovernmental%20and%20Regional%20Affairs/Testimony/Committee13-3-31-2009.pdf
5.http://www.nationalgeographic.com/taking-back-detroit/see-detroit.html
6.http://stateofobesity.org/states/mi/
1. http://blog.thedetroithub.com/2010/08/12/comparing-detroit-to-other-cities-look-at-the-map/
2.http://blog.thedetroithub.com/2010/08/12/comparing-detroit-to-other-cities-look-at-the-map/
3. http://www.transitchicago.com/about/facts.aspx
4. http://legislature.mi.gov/documents/2009-2010/CommitteeDocuments/House/Intergovernmental%20and%20Regional%20Affairs/Testimony/Committee13-3-31-2009.pdf
5.http://www.nationalgeographic.com/taking-back-detroit/see-detroit.html
6.http://stateofobesity.org/states/mi/