I am afraid of downtown Long Beach becoming a food desert.
The fear is hardly unfounded. With a second Target opening across the street from Cal State Long Beach (a grand total of 2.1 miles away from its counterpart on Bellflower Boulevard and Stearns Street) and the closure of multiple low-cost grocery stores in downtown Long Beach such as Fresh and Easy and Wal-Mart, it’s clear that accessible food is becoming scarce in Long Beach.
But it’s not all of Long Beach.
Poverty affects different districts in Long Beach. Coincidentally, the area surrounding Cal State Long Beach happens to be one of the wealthiest, most diverse areas within the city itself. According to City Data, a website dedicated to gathering data on cities in the United States, southbound districts in Long Beach have poverty rates below 5 percent. As you travel down 7th Street, though, the rate of poverty gets higher and higher.
Poverty rates peak at 60 percent in downtown Long Beach, according to City Data.
So what can happen when some of the few accessible grocery stores in an area with high rates of poverty close their doors permanently? In theory, people in poverty cannot access healthy, quality food for themselves. After that, it’s an uphill struggle.
Not only is there a lack of affordable grocery stores, but fast-food eateries such as McDonald’s or Jack in the Box boast engorged meals at low prices. The general health of the population declines, meanwhile, the corporate bourgeoisie bloats further.
So that begs the question: why isn’t a Target opening up in downtown Long Beach?
The lack of accessible food in downtown Long Beach isn’t right. There is no care for accessibility. Despite Wal-Mart’s controversial reputation regarding worker’s rights and treatment, the super store’s closure is an issue that needs to be addressed. When there are a only four large grocery stores in downtown Long Beach (including El Super, Superior and Vons), it’s not a matter of going out to a store that’s farther away and shopping there.
For many, reliable transportation is a luxury. Accessibility to organic, grass-raised food is a privilege. Expendable time, maybe above all things, is a privilege.
If you live in poverty, you can’t exercise many of those privileges because you’ve never had them. There’s no time when there’s work to be done, there’s no transportation when there’s no money, and there’s no healthy food when there’s no transportation or money.
That is what I fear in downtown Long Beach.
For many of us, Long Beach is our home. But very seldom are we open to the struggles or disparity of others in our city.
Alternatives such as community gardens, recurring farmers’ markets and other venues for healthy and affordable food offer a substantial break from the corporate knot all of us find ourselves tied in. These alternatives should not be forgotten, but remembered and exercised to their fullest extent.
Food deserts can be dodged, but we can’t expect changes to occur unless we adjust our own perception and begin to look at the city as our own.