WRT the Chinese grocery store - we are so conditioned by our environment that we think private, for profit entities are the only ones who can solve any problem.
The lack of a grocery (or general) store is a problem in many locales throughout the world, and a tried and true approach is a cooperative. The community agrees to fund the inventory and then hires management to keep it running or has rotating volunteer staffing.
In DC’s case, they could propose a tax break or grants for non-profit cooperatives to help deal with the cost of the lease.
I think there are actually a handful of small towns that have done this. Typically, though, they're much smaller rural groceries and not full supermarkets. I guess I'd question how well a government could copy that level of grocery retailing, but that's a good point and I'm not against it!
DC resident checking in. Chinatown is really chinablock. It hardly supported its own retail ecosystem when there were more traditional residents in the area. It sounds like their beef isn’t as much with the store as with the Safeway being overpriced.
One could probably find a way to do a fancy Asian grocery down there today — but I doubt it would serve the folks in Wah Luck effectively. Real estate is too expensive down there for affordable daikon radishes.
"so we're maybe two years from a childcare crisis."
As a father of a 2 year old and 1 year old, it feels like we already have one. We got on the list for daycare around 25 weeks of pregnancy. Our second child only got in because they were a sibling. There already aren't enough slots for kids, and we're already paying tens of thousands of dollars per year
My dad, born 1962 right at the tail end of the baby boom, drove by his elementary school 15 years ago and was surprised that the supposedly temporary portables he had had class in were still there. I was born in 1993 and shared the experience of going to schools that were over their intended capacity. College admissions, of course, was highly competitive. My daughter, born 2023, might be part of a smaller cohort and it's hard for me to imagine what that will be like.
My father’s front door was on route 11 in Scranton PA for about 20 years. As I drove from Houston to Scranton to visit him, the interstates I drove paralleled route 11 for most of the distance— New Orleans to Scranton.
Take a gander at the business classified listings for retail grocers in Houston in 1900. Grocers used to be well distributed. It's possible that every neighborhood had at least one.
WRT the Chinese grocery store - we are so conditioned by our environment that we think private, for profit entities are the only ones who can solve any problem.
The lack of a grocery (or general) store is a problem in many locales throughout the world, and a tried and true approach is a cooperative. The community agrees to fund the inventory and then hires management to keep it running or has rotating volunteer staffing.
In DC’s case, they could propose a tax break or grants for non-profit cooperatives to help deal with the cost of the lease.
I think there are actually a handful of small towns that have done this. Typically, though, they're much smaller rural groceries and not full supermarkets. I guess I'd question how well a government could copy that level of grocery retailing, but that's a good point and I'm not against it!
Berkeley used to have a bunch of them. Full supermarkets. We have been so conditioned to non-creativity!
DC resident checking in. Chinatown is really chinablock. It hardly supported its own retail ecosystem when there were more traditional residents in the area. It sounds like their beef isn’t as much with the store as with the Safeway being overpriced.
One could probably find a way to do a fancy Asian grocery down there today — but I doubt it would serve the folks in Wah Luck effectively. Real estate is too expensive down there for affordable daikon radishes.
"so we're maybe two years from a childcare crisis."
As a father of a 2 year old and 1 year old, it feels like we already have one. We got on the list for daycare around 25 weeks of pregnancy. Our second child only got in because they were a sibling. There already aren't enough slots for kids, and we're already paying tens of thousands of dollars per year
My dad, born 1962 right at the tail end of the baby boom, drove by his elementary school 15 years ago and was surprised that the supposedly temporary portables he had had class in were still there. I was born in 1993 and shared the experience of going to schools that were over their intended capacity. College admissions, of course, was highly competitive. My daughter, born 2023, might be part of a smaller cohort and it's hard for me to imagine what that will be like.
Could you please explain the US Route 11 sign on your logo?
I just liked it, and Route 11 was the first real long overnight road trip I took during my career as a writer!
My father’s front door was on route 11 in Scranton PA for about 20 years. As I drove from Houston to Scranton to visit him, the interstates I drove paralleled route 11 for most of the distance— New Orleans to Scranton.
Take a gander at the business classified listings for retail grocers in Houston in 1900. Grocers used to be well distributed. It's possible that every neighborhood had at least one.
https://cdm17006.contentdm.oclc.org/digital/collection/citydir/id/5092/rec/21