ABSTRACT

This paper examines the historical evolution of uneven neighborhood food environments in tri-County Detroit, Michigan from 1970 to 2010. It demonstrates how broader economic conditions and business decisions not germane to the region interacted with a landscape marked by economic polarization and racial segregation to create an uneven food environment where Black neighborhoods disproportionately bore the brunt of restrictive food access. It also contextualizes capital-centric accounts of retail decentralization by showing how underlying inequities in the region limited how Detroit’s Black community could respond to store closures in their neighborhoods as well as their ability to relocate closer to suburban stores. This work raises questions about policies that heavily subsidize national and regional supermarket chains to relocate to urban centers as well as policies that solely focus on supply factors rather than the broader inequities remaking the region.

摘要

本文研究了 1970 年至 2010 年密歇根州底特律三县不均衡的社区食物环境的历史演变。它展示了与该地区无关的更广泛的经济条件和商业决策如何与以经济两极分化和种族隔离为标志的景观相互作用，从而创造一个不平衡的食物环境，黑人社区不成比例地首当其冲地受到限制性食物获取的影响。它还通过展示该地区潜在的不平等如何限制了底特律的黑人社区如何应对其社区的商店关闭以及他们搬迁到更靠近郊区商店的能力，从而将以资本为中心的零售去中心化账户背景化。