What’s your favorite food? Hot dogs? Pizza? A good old-fashioned hamburger with the works? Maybe you’ve got a hankerin’ for some type of hero or sandwich accompanied by a bag of potato chips.
Back in the old days, when
Canarsie’s demographics consisted of mostly Italian and Jewish residents, we
had a handful of diners, pizzerias and delicatessens, which served all kinds of
foods to whet your appetite.
Where did all these
restaurants go?
Perhaps they’ve migrated or met
the same fate as a Key Food Supermarket in Clinton Hill, which officials
recently announced will be demolished so that an eight-story condo could be put
in its place. What stirred up even more controversy, aside from residents
having nowhere to food shop during construction, was the idea that the
supermarket was closing due to “gentrification.” One politician even said she
hoped the new grocery store, if built within commercial space on the first
floor, would be “accessible to communities of color” and that “white people
don’t eat the way we do.”
Is this offensive statement an
accurate observation about what’s important to black/Hispanic communities that
was taken as a racial slur? Or is she stating, on another level, what a lot of
people think: that eateries and dining options change when demographics do?
Take this into consideration
– certain Key Food stores carry different groceries and have diverse
specialties in different communities. Visit the Key Food near Gerritsen Beach
and compare it to the one we have in Canarsie. Someone in that corporation is indicating
that residents in Canarsie don’t need an elaborate bakery or gourmet food
section. Why? Don’t the variety of people in our community want a healthy selection of different delicacies?
If you’re going to tear down
a supermarket and rebuild one that accommodates, say, black people, what does that mean? No “white people’s food”? The
way I see it, people of different cultures – not just races – do eat different. I’m sure a supermarket
in Coney Island, which has a large population of Russians, has different
specialties than a grocery store in Borough Park.
However, it’s disappointing
that a lot of minority communities lack quality restaurants and a variety of
supermarkets in their neighborhoods. Who’s to blame for this? I call this
social and racial challenge the “demographic diet.” Think about well-to-do
communities that are built up – such as Park Slope and Williamsburg, where
they’ve got hundreds of shops and restaurants to choose from. What – minority
communities don’t like to eat? Are some of those gourmet eateries and cafes too
“expensive” for the class of residents living in low-income communities?
Are we on a diet? Don’t Canarsiens need more places to eat and more
variety when it comes to where we shop? If our local Key Foods and other small
supermarkets were torn down for multiple-family dwellings, I’m sure someone out
there would play the race card – that they’re taking away our supermarket
because we’re a “minority community.” Let’s get real! In a way, they’ve put us
on a demographic diet by closing hundreds of places that once provided a
mélange of foods!
However, the Flatbush-Ditmas
Park community recently celebrated the reopening of a Key Food that reportedly
offers “healthier options”…as opposed to strictly “unhealthy” foods they’ve
been selling to this community? According to News12, the new supermarket has
more produce and dairy sections. What did the supermarket offer residents
before – fat and lard-laced groceries?
A lot of politicians are
trying to change how food businesses operate and what they offer residents. But
what does that do for certain communities like Canarsie, where our selection of
eateries is constantly diminishing? If you’re hungry for the answer, so am
I…after all, we’re on an unwanted demographic diet that forces us to go to
other neighborhoods for a good meal!
Want even more in-your-face insight? Check out my Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/DLikeItIs. Feedback is
welcome!
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