Fresh Food in Walkable Communities

Food is a necessity of life. With the rise of suburbia, grocery stores have become far flung and have required its customers to use vehicles to access and transport its goods. A Seattle planner, Mark Hinshaw, believes that trend is reversing and soon food outlets will become the attraction in denser, more walkable communities. As people begin to scale back their use of gasoline and return to urban centers, they will increasingly begin to settle near and demand the businesses that provide essentials within convenient walking distance.

One of the results of this shift is that consumers will only be able to buy what they can carry home. Since they won’t have petrol-powered autos to assist them in lugging more than four bags at a time, grocery store patrons will make more frequent trips to the grocery store by foot to keep their food reserves stocked. This makes buying and eating more fresh foods easier. Instead of accumulating large amounts of non-perishable food items at a time, people may be more inclined to opt for fresh produce, which they can replenish at their next stop at the grocery store a few days later. (Perhaps this could also cut down on the use of food preservatives.)

To read more about Hinshaw’s take on how planning around food outlets will lead to more walkable communities, read this article by Neal Peirce.

Related posts:

1. Vibrant Street Food Culture Plays A Role In Healthy Communities
2. Fighting on Behalf of Fresh Foods in the Delridge Neighborhood
3. New York’s $1 Billion Proposal for Fresh Foods

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