The Outstater
Update: Municipal Grocery Stores
A CITY-RUN GROCERY STORE in a food “desert” — it seemed the perfect opportunity for our new mayor to demonstrate in microcosm how her economic-development vision could be realized. It was a pity the opportunity was missed.
The grocery, small enough for people to see the workings for themselves, Could have taught us all how government, properly motivated, can suspend the laws of economics, pushing aside capitalist greed to provide savings, convenience and above all social justice.
The 7,000-square-foot store, meant to serve undetermined central-city foot traffic, was inspired by the mayor’s account of a mother struggling with bags of groceries on a bus while her suburban counterparts parked Mercedes within a few yards of a Krogers. Hearing the compassion in her voice, the City Council had no trouble approving $3.4 million in combined city, state and federal funds.
But for some reason, which we will explore here, the vaunted grocery was left out of the mayor’s State of the City address last week. That was odd because she listed in exhaustive detail the dozens of other public-private partnerships the city has undertaken, big ones with inscrutable fiscal arrangements but similar promises to pay for themselves
Could it be that careful analysis — independent, of course — wouldn’t support the premises of our city grocery or, worse, wouldn’t support the entire economic-development strategy? What if the food desert was not a product of capitalist racism but rather the result of unchecked shoplifting and employee theft? What if removing supposed greed from the grocery equation would not magically open operating margins. What if employees on the third shift were afraid to walk to their cars?
Similar questions are discussed in a recent article in City Journal, “Why City-Run Grocery Stores Are a Bad Idea.” The author notes that an analysis of such projects has already been done — and we’re waiting for those results as well.
It turns out that Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson commissioned a feasibility study to examine the very question. “That study has not been made public, however, and Mayor Johnson has backed off his plan,” the magazine reported. That is so even though the state of Illinois established a “Grocery Initiative” to provide municipalities with up to $2.4 million to open grocery stores.
Finally, the supposed poverty of central-city residents must be addressed, the mayor having alluded to the brains of children there being damaged for lack of food. A dissenting city councilman challenged that contention by noting that America’s lowest income quintile can access with government benefits and programs the equivalent of $49,000 a year, and that does not take into account our city’s expansive network of churches and charities.
In any case, those living in our designated food desert will be able to walk to this store and “purchase” food with an Electronic Benefits Transfer (EBT) card, an electronic system that allows them to pay through the federal Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, sort of mainlining into the U.S.Treasury.
In summary, if the mayor wants more grocery stores or anything else constructive in the central city she might consider lending her support to reconnecting the Clinton administration’s work requirements with welfare benefits — that and expand public safety efforts beyond her “Citizens Academy,” a pet budget item meant to familiarize residents with why laws and police are important. — tcl
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