4 ms·

> Towns live and die by grocery stores Do they? Or are things like food deserts transitive symptoms of deeper problems? E.g. that the surrounding area is poor

• daotoad 4y ago
  > no amount of legislation will change that Programs like SNAP, the earned income tax credit, subsidized child-care, and refundable tax credits for children have an immediate impact. Legislation could also provide a universal basic income. If that's too pink a set of approaches to reduce the impact of poverty for you, governments can also subsidize development of new housing and invest in infrastructure upgrades that draw folks with higher incomes into a community. This works best if you are in a metropolitan area. In rural communities, it's not uncommon to pour great sums of money into courting large employers, giving them land or tax free status for extended periods. Hell, if your goal is just to get a grocery store, pour on enough subsidies and someone will show up to collect that money.
  • dnissley 4y ago
    To clarify: "no amount of legislation of grocery stores / the grocery industry"
    • jessaustin 4y ago
      The point of TFA is that this is one of the many mergers that should be rejected by regulators.
• AmVess 4y ago
  Place where I used to live shut down the main bus line in the poorest part of town. The result was people couldn't easily go to the local (small) market which then closed. The result was going from a 10 minute bus ride to almost an hour one way. The old line had quite a few stops along the way, so residents with a few bags of groceries didn't have far to walk. The new route had one stop which was placed far from the residence area.