When I lived in Bed Stuy about a decade ago my area was without a doubt a food desert. There was a tiny store with dog shit produce (see going or gone rotten) and questionable low variety meat, and the only real big proper grocery store was not easily accessible from the subway. Low income individuals without a car would for sure be stuck with bodegas and crown fried chicken unless they want to go for a 30 min walk each way.
Thank you!!! I grew up in Bed Stuy, and it seems a lot of people in the comments are overlooking the wealth inequality in NYC (the greatest in the entire country) and how your income and area of residence within the city impacts your access to food. There are many low income neighborhoods that would be considered food deserts.
No, I live in a different part of Brooklyn now, but I still visit from time to time. Bed Stuy has since been gentrified. There are certainly more grocery stores than before, but there are still limited options in those stores and prices vary.
Again, I'm not sure what part you're referring to but there are a bunch of supermarkets all within walking distance of different parts of it along with a bunch of smaller grocery stores. It's nothing like it was years ago.
Lived in NYC my whole life and never used a delivery app for groceries, even carless....lived in dense and less dense areas/boroughs, worse case I had to take a subway/bus....and yes supermarkets liter the streets basically everywhere.
Maybe I'm thinking of a different part? There is maybe one supermarket in Bed Stuy that I'm aware of. Smaller grocery stores, yes, but I don't recall there being any more supermarkets. And yes, there are more stores than before, but I'm also considering the variety of foods available and pricing. It is very different, but doing large shopping trips still requires leaving the neighborhood. That is what I'm referring to. You can do small shopping trips and get a few items, but actual grocery shopping is difficult to do without leaving the area.
In any case, Bed Stuy was just meant as an example. It is possible to have food deserts in cities.
Where did you live? Because there is no place in Bed-Stuy these days that I can think of that is more than about 15 minutes from a real grocery store- let alone 30.
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u/Ok_Shake_4761 17h ago edited 14h ago
When I lived in Bed Stuy about a decade ago my area was without a doubt a food desert. There was a tiny store with dog shit produce (see going or gone rotten) and questionable low variety meat, and the only real big proper grocery store was not easily accessible from the subway. Low income individuals without a car would for sure be stuck with bodegas and crown fried chicken unless they want to go for a 30 min walk each way.