House Hunting
So we’ve spent the past few days in Austin searching for a place to live. There is a part of me that would love to live in the quirky, educated, central part of the city - the parts that inspire the “Keep Austin Weird” bumper stickers. You know the ones connected to public transportation and near co-op’s and farmer’s markets. But homes in those areas are just a few hundred thousand outside our price range. Frustrating that living within our means and within our ideals are hard to do concurrently.
But as we’ve looked in the pockets of town we can afford - generally the low-income, ethnically diverse areas (a plus in many ways) - I’ve noticed a pattern. Surrounding these neighborhoods are convenience stores and fast food places. No real grocery store, no access to healthy food choices. In fact the closest access to any groceries whatsoever is a Wal-Mart some miles away. It’s a pattern I saw in Chicago as well. The poorer a neighborhood, the harder it was to find healthy food options. If one doesn’t have a car and gas money the choices stocking the aisles at the local 7-eleven are what’s for dinner. And people wonder about the links between poverty, nutrition, and school/work performance…
I just find it frustrating and am pissed off at the latent injustices in our socioeconomic system. And stressed at how much more difficult house hunting is when not just economics and aesthetics but personal values are involved. Knowing that where we live reflect who we are and what we value - and that many of those values will have to be compromised - makes it all that more complicated.
Decisions, decisions…
Julie Clawson
August 18th, 2008 at 5:14 pm
Knowing that where we live reflect who we are and what we value
I sympathize with your dilemma, but I have to disagree with you here, Julie.
I’ve lived in all sorts of places - trailer parks, quiet suburbs, high rise apartment buildings in the heart of a city, 100 year-old farmhouses in the middle of nowhere.
Sometimes, yes, where you live is a reflection of who you are and what you value. But sometimes it’s just a place to sleep at night, or the best option for a certain stage in life.
It’s kind of like work. Some people work in jobs that are also their vocation - my mom’s position as the nurse for a local jail, for example. Some people have a day job that pays the bills and hobbies or interests that are their real vocation.
“I just find it frustrating and am pissed off at the latent injustices in our socioeconomic system.”
But I definitely agree with you here. It’s much easier to stay healthy when one has the time and money to live in a neighborhood that offers choices to make healthy eating or exercise less of a struggle.
August 18th, 2008 at 5:33 pm
I liked your “typo” — ethically challenged. I’ve lived in those places, too.
August 18th, 2008 at 7:35 pm
Julie- your observation about food choices is one of my soapboxes from Alabama. I discovered years ago that if I go to a grocery store in areas of town where there are more people on welfare and more minorities (who are actually majority here so the term is a total misnomer) i can’t buy lean meat, whole grain pasta, skinless chicken or such things, but I could buy fat back in gigantic slabs (they put it right where the other stores might have the lobsters).
In those areas of town where there is a disproportionate percentage of people with high blood pressure you can’t find unsalted canned vegetables. But I go to the wealthier neighborhoods and there are all sorts of healthy options. Even in the same grocery chain there can be a huge difference in inventory. This makes me crazy.
August 18th, 2008 at 9:15 pm
hey julie
have ya’ll looked at mueller ? http://www.ci.austin.tx.us/mueller/
we’d love to have ya’ll over for dinner some time in the next few weeks
August 18th, 2008 at 9:30 pm
Rick - sorry about the typo, that does change the meaning… I’ll change that. my brain is not on functioning mode these days…
bob - we are looking all over. Mueller is a bit out of our range, but we’ve looked near there. We’d love to connect with you soon.
lydia - I totally understand about the “place to sleep” thing. but I feel that we do have some choice in the matter here. We will go for comfortable, good schools, and cookie cutter or slightly dangerous and inner-city or somewhere in between…???
August 19th, 2008 at 9:44 am
Julie- I am envying that you are moving to Austin, even if it isn’t in one of the “weirder” parts. If I remember right, you may not have access to the health food stores, but you will most likely be down the block from a stellar real Mexican restaurant. Yum…
Please, for the love of all that is good in the world, don’t go suburban. Ryan & I are still slapping ourselves for living in Cedar Park for all those years instead of in the heart of Austin. Start a commune and a garden if you must.
August 19th, 2008 at 12:02 pm
I wonder, would a store that sold the more expensive healthy food be able to survive in most low income neighborhoods? I know there are some people in those neighborhoods who would make the economic sacrifice necessary to patronize such a store, but are there enough of them for the store to be able to make a profit?
City eating, where only the wealthy can afford to eat healthily. Sounds like fodder for a Wendell Berry essay.
August 19th, 2008 at 4:01 pm
Probably not Karl, which then raises all sorts of questions about why junk food is so much less expensive than healthy food. Hint: it has a lot to do with government agri-business subsidies for the big cash crops (corn, soy beans, etc.) that most of our processed foods are made out of (whether directly or indirectly).
August 21st, 2008 at 8:27 am
Would doing away with those subsidies lower the price of healthy food for low income inner city residents?
August 21st, 2008 at 9:02 pm
No, but transferring the subsidies from junk food ingredients to healthy food instead would.
August 22nd, 2008 at 1:06 am
And in a truly free market… prices would merely be a reflection of supply and demand. Hopefully you will be a small force to increase the demand for veggies in the area, willing to pay the high price for them. Suppliers will respond to the incentive for high profit by boosting supply, and the price will come down. Vegetables only come if people want them.
Much of the problem in impoverished neighborhoods, is that people don’t know how to cook. Cooking with vegetables, even organic ones, is still less expensive than a lot of the junk (subsidized though it may be) food that people choose. The corn and soy subsidies make some things cheaper to produce than they should be, but they are still wildly overpriced for what they are in terms of nutrition.
In many cities, due to various urban renewal efforts, the so called “inner city” has actually gone very upscale, with poorer people leaving in droves to older (run down) suburban areas where housing is less expensive. Somewhat of a reverse of the white flight phenomenon. Is this the case in Austin? I certainly don’t see the categories of “inner city” and “suburban” the way I used to.
August 23rd, 2008 at 6:51 am
Welcome back to Austin! Have you checked out Central Austin Cohousing? I noticed that they have reopened membership for their new community.
House hunting in Austin made us nuts. I look forward to meeting you.
Peace,
Lisa