analyzing the neighborhood food environment – blog 4

Food Security In Olde Towne East

Blog Post 4

1. Westerville does feature a lot of traffic lights and stop signs throughout the city. Residents can feel safe knowing the city government takes pride in the rules of the road. Westerville is very vehicle heavy, whether that means personal vehicles or city buses. Residents that do not have their own vehicles are able to take the city bus to whatever location needed. There are plenty of sidewalks throughout Westerville. Safety-wise, there is the Westerville Fire Station 112 and a police department as well.
2. Families mostly have access to food from local grocery stores. Whether means Walmart, Kroger, or Rasin Rack Natural Food Market. Residents also have the choice of growing their own food in their backyard.
3. I believe that residents would consider Westerville as food secure, there is plenty of grocery store for residents to choose from. If able to, residents that prefer a different grocery store department are able to drive out some ways of Westerville to find what they need.
4. Westerville is a food swap, as stated before there are plenty of different grocery stores that sell a variety of healthy food. The listed grocery stores do sell a number of unhealthy foods as well. Residents have to make the choice to eat healthily or not. Residents can also grow their own vegetables if they would like to.
5. I would promote grocery stores to offer more healthy food choices that aren’t considered expensive. Organic can be very expensive depending on the product. I would love to see Westerville promote a healthy lifestyle. Whether that means creating bike stations or longer walking paths.

Kimberly Court Apartments located on the East side of Columbus is widely known around the city of Columbus. The neighborhood is surrounded  by numerous components as we discussed in class. Walking throughout Kimberly Court, I’ve noticed countless elements regarding the environment. To elaborate, on the corner of Kimberly park and refugee, there are several corner  stores. These stores serve inadequate junk foods lacking nutritious values. There are street lights available that serve the public that automatically turn on during the sun set. The traffic is widely busy throughout the mornings when residents are going to work. In addition, to the afternoon with the results of downtown traffic from highway Intersection 71 towards the east side of town. Additionally, the COTA bus transit functions as a means of public transportation throughout seven days a week and twenty-four hours.

Families in the neighborhood could access food from various outlets. There’s a vast majority of fast food in the Kimberly court area. In addition to a White Hall rd and refugee Kroger rd. Kroger that is about 10 miles away from the neighborhood. Furthermore, there is a local food pantry that donates fresh produce to the nearby areas every weekend.

I believe that neighborhoods would considerate the area to be semi food secure. Keep in mind that there are a lot of factors that come into play. With several corner stores populating the area, meaning individuals have access to bad ineffective sources of nutrition. In the same manner, this is a hard knock for children as nutrition is a primary factor of growth and development. Although there are limited grocery stores around the area. 

The neighborhood is not a food swamp because there are local areas of food and a food pantry during the weekends. 

I believe there are so many factors that could be done to improve. For example, applying rules and regulations and enforcing policies towards the matter of food security. In addition government sectors should imply changes such as adding local efficient convenient stores such as cvs or Walgreens in nearby areas. 

Above is a map showing Kimberly and surrounding areas.

In this blog post I focus on an area in Ohio. Lorain, Ohio is an area that I am very familiar with and it is close to where I live. 

The neighbourhood’s food environment: sidewalks, lighting, traffic, transportation and safety. 

• The sidewalks in such areas are safe and provided for the pedestrians especially in the residential neighborhoods. Lighting is provided through stores, homes, sidewalks, on main streets, as well as small streets. There are bus stops for transportation, as well as other services like ubers. On the other hand, there are not as many transportation systems as other big city would have as it is a small city. Furthemore, the traffic of the city is not bad. It is a mostly quiet city and that helps eliminate pollution and traffic. As any city, safety is a big concern. There are many incidents that occur and deaths throughout the city. The police department is very understanding and helps in situations of need. 

Access to Healthy Foods 

•  Families in the neighborhood have great access to healthy foods such as walmart. Walmart is pretty known across the US to provide families with healthy foods and other needs. There is also a Starbucks and other restaurants, although they are fast food places, there is still food access besides Walmart

Food Security 

• I believe that the residents would not  consider this area to be “food insecure”. There is a great amount of grocery stores and fast food restaurants around. As we can see on the map below, we can see the residential areas surrounding  these stores. the grocery is placed in an area that is easy to be reached by residents. It also includes other stores in the area that makes the trips easier and quicker.

“Food Swamp” or “Food Desert” 

• Neighborhood appears to be a “food swamp”. Although there is only  one main grocery store, Walmart, it is still big enough to serve the needs of the residents. Walmart does not only serve as a grocery store. It includes hygiene products, fast food options, electronics, school supplies, clothes, etc. It has other fast food restaurants in there as well such as Subway, and walmart foods. There is also a “Home Depot” in that area more known as a “plaza” that includes home products. The residents should be secure in the aspect of food as well as other needs. 

Improving the food-ways of the neighbourhood. 

• I believe that there are good sources of food in the neighborhoods. I also believe that there is always a place for progress. In this case, providing more grocery stories would be beneficial. Furthermore providing an organic supermarket can be very helpful. It can help the families who are vegan or have a specific diet in which only organic foods are used. I further think that providing the city with more transportation is necessary. Although it is a small city, many people do not have access to transportation. By providing these services it would be more efficient for the residents. Planners can conduct meetings with people from the government that include families who can speak about their needs. Therefore a better change can be achieved for a better city. 

   (A map that I drew according to my studies. It shows the plaza that I have been studying including Walmart and the other places surrounding it).

Sources:

Google maps.

I picked Chacy Acres neighborhood in the Worthington area in Columbus, Ohio (specifically Galena Road). The roads are worn and cracked. Sidewalks are nowhere to be seen within the neighborhood. Street lamps are far and few between. There is no other visible mode of transportation besides car use and school buses. Traffic is however very fast and minimal. Crime is not terribly high according to neighborhood review site Niche, however it could definitely be better relatively to other places in Central Ohio.

Residents would not consider it to be a food insecure neighborhood since there are multiple groceries within the periphery of the neighborhood. For instance, there was a Fresh Thyme Market and a Kroger’s that are both less than a 5 minute drive away from the neighborhood. These groceries are where families can access healthy foods. It’s clearly neither a food desert nor a food swamp. There is an abundance of groceries, with it outnumbering the fast food restaurants and the handful of convenience stores within the area. I think this neighborhood is very well-off and does not require any improvements to their food-ways.

Blog Post 4: Analyzing the Neighborhood

This blog study will cover one of the most infamous impoverished neighborhoods in Columbus, Linden.  North and South Linden combined averages a crime rate that’s about 120% over the national average.  The level of poverty can be inferred by the visible food deserts and the unmaintained sidewalks, as well as the vast number of empty lots.  The traffic in this neighborhood along its main street, Cleveland Ave, has moderate to high traffic, with low lighting that’s only prominent in commercial areas.

The only prominent source of healthy food come from grocery stores.  There aren’t many grocery stores in Linden besides Save A Lot and many small local food marts.  None of these options have any efficient healthy options inside of them as they sell mostly foods that are cheap and high in calories.  The only healthy foods in Linden are found in the produce section of Save A Lot, which aren’t the best quality of foods than a healthy grocery store such as Whole Foods Market, and take a lot of time and culinary experience to produce meals.  There are a few local healthy restaurants, however they aren’t as commercial and convenient as a Taco Bell or McDonalds to be recognized.  Because of this lack of commercial grocery stores as well as a lack of healthy food options, this neighborhood of Columbus is food insecure.

Linden can be considered both a food desert and a food swamp in certain aspects.  Because Linden has Save A Lot with a produce section, there is access to nutritious food, however that access is very lackluster and thin. Linden is very prominent in fast food chains, which allows it to be called a food swamp in many aspects, however this creates a problem in the overall health aspect of the foods available.

This issue can be fixed with action upon a combination of issues surrounding health education, economic development, and access to nutritious food.  Simply adding a Whole Foods Market into the commercial food areas won’t solve this issue.  In that scenario, the Whole Foods Market wouldn’t get much business because the primary target market, the impoverished community, doesn’t know much about eating healthy, nor would they be ready to make such a huge change to their diet.  The consumers most likely don’t have the good health education as a result of their low land values, which leads to low school funding.  Families who grow up in these environments don’t know where healthy foods are, or how exactly to eat healthy, so they develop a generational habit of eating unhealthy foods.  This creates difficulty in families in this area to shop at the market, which could put the market out of business, making this environment to put the market less favorable than a suburban or wealthier neighborhood.  With improved economic development of the neighborhood of Linden, the schools would be better funded, which would begin a long term spark that would allow students to be interested eating healthier.  This would make areas like Linden more economically favorable to install a healthy food store without it being such the economic risk that it is now.