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Searching for fresh produce in the Sixth Suffolk
By cubiclegirl on Mon, 02/15/2010 - 9:09am
My (first! and totally amateur!) video project on the challenges around finding fresh produce in Boston's Sixth Suffolk. (And trying to explain why I keep ending up in the McD's drive-thru... mmmmmm Big Mac....) The Sixth Suffolk is currently represented by Rep. Willie Mae Allen and comprises the bulk of Mattapan, parts of North Dorchester and Roslindale. There are approximately 39,000 people living in the district. There are 2 supermarkets. Only one has a decent produce selection. Read more.
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Comments
I am sorry but if you take
I am sorry but if you take any chunk of 39,000 people in an urban area in Boston and you are going to find a similar situation. In the wealthy communities they even have much higher prices which is worse for poor families in those areas then those living near the corner stores. Most large super markets with big produce sections are away from mass transit because it is too expensive to put a Stop and Shop on top of a subway.
not true
I live near Wash Sq in brookline and there is a S&S, TJ's and WFs within walking distance. Each directly adjacent to the B, C or D lines.
Re: thats not true...
I was just about to say the same thing.
How many supermarkets does
How many supermarkets does she think should be in the district? Stop&Shop just opened with significant community involvement. The reason there's no major supermarket on Blue Hill ave is that the eastern part of the district is that it's home to poor people, and supermarkets are not charities.
Just another grad school "activist" looking for something to do.
As I recall, there was
As I recall, there was significant trepidation in the industry about siting a supermarket in the South End/Roxbury region for just those reasons. Then Stop & Shop built in the South Bay. The store quickly became one of their highest performing locations, so much so that they had to move and expand into a Super Stop & Shop.
South Bay is not Blue Hill
South Bay is not Blue Hill ave., and Mattapan has not been gentrified like the South End has.
I shop there a lot. The
I shop there a lot. The customers are not hipsters.
A similar store on Blue Hill Ave would draw much the same demographic.
Wait what?
Poor people don't buy groceries?
major supermarket on Blue Hill Avenue
This doesn't count?
Yeah it counts as one of the
Yeah it counts as one of the two supermarkets he already mentioned. Duh...
no, dumbass
the Stop and Shop of the video is on American Legion Highway in Roslindale...Ron linked to the Stop and Shop at Grove Hall.
Grad school 'activists' have
Grad school 'activists' have nothing to do with who gets the property bids in Boston. Menino can't get the same kickbacks from a supermarket that he gets from the 50 fried chicken, and fast food franchise establishments that have setup on Blue Hill Ave. Less people in the "home to poor people" neighborhoods are likely to complain or especially affect voting. At this point a 'fast food culture' has been successfully peddled to the local low income community.
The majority of Boston geographically IS a rundown, ghetto, hell hole (Rosi, Hyde Park, Eastie, Charlestown, Dorchester, Roxbury, Mattapan, parts of JP, Chinatown etc...). The public schools in _every_ neighborhood are the worst they've ever been. The Boston Police and EMS have never been managed so poorly and despite Menino's constant reshuffling of the districts (to message his percentages) people are getting shot and stabbed like crazy in this city. Boston Common has become one of the most dangerous places on the East Coast. The Boston Fire department was left is such a state of disrepair that it will soon reach a point of no return. The roads and public works seem to never have the right formula. Menino continues to sell property to his friends for sweetheart deals and likewise with public construction contracts - like the JP Ice Skating rink that cost tax payers $800,000!!!!!! for a face lift?!?! ...it looks just like it did 5 years ago.
This city has huge problems, quality food for the low income neighborhoods being one of them, but the root is still Mayor Menino and unfortunately we are stuck with him and his influence for many many years to come.
Run Down?
All of Dorchester is run down? Really? How about this, All people named Zingbaby are pinheads, since we're into blanket name calling. Parts of JP? What part is not run down, Moss Hill, West of Centre, or just where you live? I take great umbrage with your classification of most of the city as a ghetto.
While we are on it, how many people shop by the geography of their state rep district? Can a Sixth Suffolkonian go to the new Price Rite in Hyde Park? Go to the Shaw's in Lower Mills? or do we have Pre ANC South African pass laws all of a sudden in Mattapan?
This entire thread is retahded as we were once allowed to say.
All people named Zingbaby are
I can not imagine that Zingbaby is all that popular of a name. A google search shows Deviantart and Cheezeburger as places where it is used most often. There is a good chance all those people are this poster. That said your statement is not all that much of a blanket statement. I am not sure if it is true or not but it would not be a big blanket.
As long as I live..
I don't think I'll ever forget that night in '94. I was in the Pit Stop Barbecue when a nondescript blue Crown Vic pulled into the parking lot. Behind the wheel was Bob Faherty and he had two of his gang unit guys in the back. Even more surprising was the fact that ole Mumbles himself was riding shotgun.With a shotgun.
They all got out, but the Mayor was the only one brandishing his firearm. They pushed past the line of hungry black people and scared white people and Hizzoner stepped behind the counter and whacked the counterman with the butt of the shotgun. "Whath up with you, Jimmy, you don't wanna contribute to a better Bothton?", Mumbles asked menacingly. "No, no, Mr. Mayor, I'll pay" the counterman screamed, "I just didn't have it last time the boys came in! Please don't hit me again"
Thomas Michael stepped back, stuck his finger in a pot of BBQ sauce, licked his finger and almost in a whisper he said "Thath's good, Jimmy..real good". One of the gang cops collected the cash and as the Mayah was on his way out, we made eye contact and I still have nightmares to this day as he looked me in the eyes and said, "Try the pulled pork..it's the betht in the thity!".
I heard from a cop I know that after he got elected for a second term he stopped making collections himself.
Is this true / not true?
Why has nobody commented on this incendiary post?
Because
It is obviously a bullcrap fictionalization, and derivative of genre at that.
because we all speak fluent sarcasm
seriously, that post was pretty funny.
Brand-new supermarket just opened yesterday
The Price Rite on River Street. Don't know how the public transit is to it from Mattapan Square, but it's not all that far away.
That Stop & Shop is a mile away from the district
Ron Newman, that Stop & Shop is a mile away from the northern edge of Sixth Suffolk as the blogger draws its lines. That being said she missed out a clot of stores on Blue Hill between Talbot and Wales from her annotated map.
True
but if you look at the thread, you'll see that I was responding to 'NotWhitey' who said "The reason there's no major supermarket on Blue Hill ave ..." Subsequent commenters took NotWhitey's incorrect statement as fact.
Looks like you're right...
Missed a couple of markets up there according to what I can find through Google. I'm not as familiar with that edge of the district, but looks like I should do another loop.
It's tough when you have to drag up yr own context
Point taken, Ron Newman. Isn't it sure tough to find True Meaning when one has to search out one's own context up from the backwash of a thread? But, then why should internet discourse be any different from real life?
JonasPrang.blogspot.com
Answering this question with a question..
Why does the Shaw's on Mt. Auburn St., Cambridge have self checkout and the Shaw's in Central Sq., Eastie does not?
Maybe
...people in Eastie know how to deal with people face-to-face, while the people in Cambridge don't? ;o)
And sort of on that topic only not
Why is it that the few times I go to the post office and only have cash, there are 289374892374892378 people in line to use the counter and no one in line to use the automagical postal thingy? And then most of the people in front of me pay with a card and are using a mailing service that could be done at the automatic thingy?
I often make a special trip
I often make a special trip to Roslindale Square to get groceries. There is a halal butcher, a great Leabanese grocer with tons of great produce, the meat market next to Jeffreys (sp?), a place to get fish, a special (expensive but good) cheese shop, and lots of good bakeries at all "price points". At least Roslindale Square is no kind of food desert. Oh, and there is that grocery store in the square too.
Whit