Examining the changes between the 2011 and 2013 Knoxville, TN Food Desert maps. The neighborhoods with public housing projects and no supermarkets have "recovered" faster than the yuppieville downtown and market square areas.
In the video, the viewer is taken on a driving tour of Beaumont, Western Heights, Mechanicsville, and other areas that were on the 2011 food desert map, but disappeared when the Knoxville Knox-County Food Policy Council published the 2013 map in September of that year.
However, downtown areas like Market Square, the Old City, and Gay Street are shown on the 2013 map as food deserts. Note: Both the 2011 and 2013 maps are presented as "the 20 food deserts." Apparently neither of the researchers used the map function to show more levels of "food deserts." When one does that, almost all of the city and county are painted as food deserts of some level.
If food deserts actually exist, why can't both the USDA and the local bureaucrats make an accurate map of them? They get paid serious money to put out garbage like this! The White House and Congress are throwing serious money at this "problem" too, but how do they decide to throw it if expensive condo nesters are displayed as being in more distress than people in housing projects?
Oddly, the green marked food deserts are exactly where Kroger or Aldi would love to locate. The areas that were wiped away from the map might not be as attractive to them, even with $400 million in incentives. Maybe that is not odd at all.
Ⓐ Steve Ⓐ
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