DAVID GONZALEZ ESSAY
NEW YORK - A continuing decline in the number of neighborhood supermarkets has made it harder for millions of New Yorkers to find fresh and affordable food within walking distance of their homes, according to a recent city study. The dearth of nearby supermarkets is most severe in minority and poor neighborhoods already beset by obesity, diabetes and heart disease.
According to the food workers union, only 550 decently sized supermarkets - each occupying at least 3,000 square meters - remain in the city.
In one corner of southeast Queens, four supermarkets have closed in the last two years. Over a similar period in East Harlem, six small supermarkets have closed, and two more are on the brink, local officials said.
The supermarket closings - not confined to poor neighborhoods - result from rising rents and slim profit margins, among other causes. The lack of easily available fresh food has prompted city and state officials to address the public health implications.
“Many people in low-income neighborhoods are spending their food budget at discount stores or pharmacies where there is no fresh produce, said Amanda Burden, the city’s planning director. “In our study, a significant percentage of them reported that in the day before our survey, they had not eaten fresh fruit or vegetables.
Not one. That really is a health crisis in the city.
A recent study by the Department of City Planning found that there is enough need in the city to support another 100 groceries or supermarkets. To spur supermarket growth, officials could consider using city-owned property or economic incentives, or relaxing requirements to make it easier to set up stores in areas zoned for manufacturing, Ms. Burden said.
“We have to determine why the stores are closing and what the barriers are, Ms. Burden said. “Stimulating the investment of supermarket owners in these communities is essential to the future of the city.
Jimmy Proscia, the co-manager of a Key Food in Flushing, in the borough of Queens, says the business has gotten a lot harder in the 33 years since he started. Competitors, he said, cut costs by hiring nonunion workers. Big-box stores buy in bulk and further eat into his sales. Some days it looks like everybody is in the food business.
“You got gas stations now selling milk for $2.99, he said. “Go to the drug store and they’re selling what we have. It’s ridiculous.
In St. Albans, Queens, several empty supermarkets line the streets. Every day, Desiree Gaylord walks past a shuttered Associated store on Farmers Boulevard and on to her elderly mother’s house.
“Before I go to work, I call to see what she needs, Ms. Gaylord said. “I’ll buy it somewhere else and bring it to her. I don’t know why they closed that store. It was an asset, especially for the elderly. Now I see them on the bus with the shopping carts.
Executives at Pick Quick Foods, which owns a Key Food store in a shopping plaza in the borough of the Bronx, fear their landlord wants to push them out. They say that Vornado Realty Trust, which bought the shopping plaza for $165 million last year, wants to double their rent .
At stake are more than 100 jobs, many of them filled by local residents “What does this job mean to me? said James Hutcherson, 46, the store’s frozen foods manager. “I got a house and a daughter in college. That’s what I got out of this place.
Whatever plans the company has for the site are bound to face opposition from the local community board . Enrique Vega, the chairman of Community Board 9 in the Bronx, said the board would not allow anything but a supermarket on the site.
“They are in deep trouble if they think they are going to put another type of store there, Mr. Vega said.
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