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How food trucks and farmers markets can spell doom for affordable housing

13 points by rustoo 5y ago

poormystic 5y ago
Aww Rossdavidh... There's no blame here, is there? It's just observation. It's probably true that in an area with good ethnic food the best vendors will set up in better premises, and isn't that what's going on? There are many "clobbering machines" pounding at the lives of the poor, this is merely another. It is not a definite Evil nor a definite Good that some entrepreneur, reading and advising themselves from the essay, will probably become rich.
mixmastamyk 5y ago
"Just look at the City Heights neighborhood in San Diego, where home prices have risen 58% over the past three years." Hmm, what about the refusal to build enough housing? What about the trillions of dollars whipped up by the Fed? I realize those are boring reasons, but food trucks register at most as a symptom rather than cause.
- klyrs 5y ago
  "Can spell doom" sounds like a statement of correlation, not causation, to me. Much like rats fleeing the ship. It's important to not conflate correlation with causation... but getting one's knickers in a twist about reported correlation isn't useful.
rossdavidh 5y ago
So, the arrival of portolets may be strongly correlated with construction crews that clear away trees and lay foundations. But, you know, it doesn't cause them. The causality works the other way. I have lived in southeast Austin, Texas, for 20 years now. It is currently in the early stages of gentrification. The arrival of better food options is driven by things like, are the people who live here willing to pay more for fresh food, organic food, or non-chain food? If they are not, then you get different food options than if they are. It doesn't mean the food options (food trucks and farmers markets, in this case) were driving the change. The change is driven by the fact that the other areas in town are already gentrified, and this is the last one left that's this close to town. Blaming the people trying to run a small business or make money as an urban farmer, is comically ill-informed.
- deleted 5y ago
  [deleted]

13 points by rustoo 5y ago

Aww Rossdavidh... There's no blame here, is there? It's just observation. It's probably true that in an area with good ethnic food the best vendors will set up in better premises, and isn't that what's going on? There are many "clobbering machines" pounding at the lives of the poor, this is merely another. It is not a definite Evil nor a definite Good that some entrepreneur, reading and advising themselves from the essay, will probably become rich.

mixmastamyk 5y ago

"Just look at the City Heights neighborhood in San Diego, where home prices have risen 58% over the past three years." Hmm, what about the refusal to build enough housing? What about the trillions of dollars whipped up by the Fed? I realize those are boring reasons, but food trucks register at most as a symptom rather than cause.

klyrs 5y ago
"Can spell doom" sounds like a statement of correlation, not causation, to me. Much like rats fleeing the ship. It's important to not conflate correlation with causation... but getting one's knickers in a twist about reported correlation isn't useful.

rossdavidh 5y ago

So, the arrival of portolets may be strongly correlated with construction crews that clear away trees and lay foundations. But, you know, it doesn't cause them. The causality works the other way. I have lived in southeast Austin, Texas, for 20 years now. It is currently in the early stages of gentrification. The arrival of better food options is driven by things like, are the people who live here willing to pay more for fresh food, organic food, or non-chain food? If they are not, then you get different food options than if they are. It doesn't mean the food options (food trucks and farmers markets, in this case) were driving the change. The change is driven by the fact that the other areas in town are already gentrified, and this is the last one left that's this close to town. Blaming the people trying to run a small business or make money as an urban farmer, is comically ill-informed.

deleted 5y ago
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