Obama Once Needed 'to Take a Subway or a Bus Just to Find a Fresh Piece of Fruit’

I see this topic is striking nerves !!

By the Way;

Why did Obama only have to Take a Subway or a Bus only once to Find a Fresh Piece of Fruit ?

reply to post by xuenchen



The speech didn't say only once

“He knows what it’s like to walk the streets of some of our cities’ poorest neighborhoods because he’s lived there,” Donovan said. “What it’s like to take a subway or a bus just to find a fresh piece of fruit in a grocery store.”

aw the poor soul!!

I once had to walk about 5 miles into town, collecting cans along the way for the money to buy what little I needed!!!

politics is really getting to be such a joke!!!

Driving through Philadelphia I have seen ONE real grocery store of real size. I've often wondered how people there get their groceries. That being said ... I highly doubt Obama was a hard up city dude that needed to do that. Hawaii and where he grow up in Indonesia aren't exactly 'innercity USA'.

I live in an inner city, it is hard to come by fresh fruit in most of these areas. You can find corner stores (most dont sell fruit), Chinese food stores, and of course the mcdonalds etc. You would have to take public transportation most of the time to get to the supermarket to get fresh fruits and vegetables, that should not be the case. I mean realistically the people who live in these neighborhoods could do something about it, but most of these areas dont have strong community cohesion outside of the block. Also, taking public transportation to go food shopping is a pain, not just because you have to take transportation, but you know it could be crowded, carrying a lot of bags on the bus is definitively a challenge, that limits what you can carry with you and how long you expect it to last. Long story short there should be more local places to buy more fresh fruits and vegetables in urban areas. Most of the crap available in the neighborhood is really unhealthy.

One question to ask is...Why are there no fruit stands or fresh markets in poor, inner city neighborhoods?

Was there enough sales to justify having a stand open? Are there enough customers to make a fresh market workable and profitable?

Generally, retailers will sell what people want. That is why McDonalds sells fries and is FORCED by PR and coerced to sell apple wedges.

Having been in retail for 26 years and grocery for 23 years, I have seen chains open stores in low income neighborhoods. I have also seen these same chains a couple of years later close these stores and have trouble selling the location. WHY?

Low profits, high shop lift rates, high crime, high turn over in staff, not able to find qualified staff locally, high over head.

This is the free market at work. I do know there are many urban areas where fruit stands and fresh markets work and are plentiful...

What are the differences? Income, education, and what people want due to cultural and societal influences. I suppose it is borderline profiling, but if fresh apples and oranges are sitting on the rack and rotting and potato chips, smokes, and beer are flying off the shelf...what retail items will you expand on and which will you cut?

Originally posted by xuenchen
By the Way;

Why did Obama only have to Take a Subway or a Bus only once to Find a Fresh Piece of Fruit ?

A trick question? O ye of little Faith.... Obama only had to go once because after first finding it, the Messiah needed only to spread his arms and more appeared upon his plate as needed. Indeed... We're lucky he deemed us fit for his leadership. Just ask him, I'm sure he'll tell you all about it if given half a chance.

This must have been when Obama was a student at Colombia. Big Deal. Tough life in the Ivy League. I'm sure there was plenty of Fresh Fruit on Campus in the dining halls.

As for the other comments regarding Obama living amongst the poor. That's BS. The only poor he lived with were his poor fellow Ivy League classmates. He did however work the poor during his days as a community organizer.

Back to the fruit problem in the inner city. Supply and demand. Here in Cleveland the inner city dwellers don't have many choices for supermarkets beyond the occasional Dave's Supermarket. On the west side of the city we have the world famous West Side Market that is stocked to the gills with fresh food, meat and produce. Yes, you may have to drive or take the bus to get there. Guess what? I live in the suburbs and I still have to drive to get to the grocery store. If I didn't drive, I would have to take the bus or walk 3 miles to get there. Sad day for me?? NO!!!! For those who live out in the country, they have much further to travel. So, they stock up, grow their own and can for the winter. No bus or subway service out there. But that comes with the choice of living there.

It's called everyday living and in my grandparents generation, (the days before massive fridge/freezers), my grandma would go to the market about every other day to buy fresh food and the milk man delivered milk to an insulated box on her front porch a couple of times a week.

If the urban markets can't support profitable grocery stores on every corner what's next? Govt. owned foood banks on these corners? Paid for with tax payer dollars??

Make do with what you have people.

Just because most inner city stores do not sell fruits and vegetables does not mean there is no demand for it. Some neighborhoods do have those type of stands around. The problem in part is that its not made available therefore not an option. Clearly living in the city means no land so how would someone farm? Some areas have converted vacant lots into community gardens for that puropse but generally speaking its not an option. Also going back and forth to the market all the time requires time. Time that people may not have to use. Taking public transportation will make any trip way longer than it would be by car.

If there was a market for it some entrepreneur would have jumped on the opportunity. But there is not, so let's spend $400 million to make it happen? No wonder the National debt has skyrocketed under Obama.

I'm surprised at the number of comments, before someone even mentioned a garden

Are those obsolete now? What about fruit trees?

We have some smaller towns up here, where almost every house has a garden, some of them take up the entire back yard. It might not help with all food, but at least there's some fresh vegies and/or fruit.
And our growing season is short. Much of the US, has warmer weather, thus a longer season, making for a better variety of foods.

Originally posted by acmpnsfal
Just because most inner city stores do not sell fruits and vegetables does not mean there is no demand for it. Some neighborhoods do have those type of stands around. The problem in part is that its not made available therefore not an option. Clearly living in the city means no land so how would someone farm? Some areas have converted vacant lots into community gardens for that puropse but generally speaking its not an option. Also going back and forth to the market all the time requires time. Time that people may not have to use. Taking public transportation will make any trip way longer than it would be by car.

I just read your post more thoroughly. Sad that more empty lots cannot be converted to community gardens. I'm assuming government regulations? It should be made a priority to make sure everyone can have healthy food.

And in other news...about 21,000 children die every day across the world. Poverty, hunger & preventable diseases are the culprit.

But deee-amn, that Mister Obama understands what it's like to have to put forth some slight effort to get easy food. I'mma gonna vote for him!

First world problems... [shakes head]

Obama was addressing a problem most politicians pretend doesn't exist or sweep under the rug.

This is a problem that highlights one of America's weaknesses - urban sprawl and inner city decay. City centers are left with no grocery stores or those that don't carry fruits, vegetables, some won't even carry meat. You're left with discount marts that sell hamburger helper, pop-tarts, and junk food. Bus lines from the inner city out to the suburbs where the grocery stores are either don't exist or would take hours to ride.

In 2008 several cities launched initiatives to combat this serious problem (such as Philly's "Fresh Food Financing"), even New York is attempting to fill the need for green grocers with a sidewalk pushcart program to sell fruits and vegetables (and yes, it's gotten that bad in NYC).

Maybe some of the trolls who rant about Obama should actually leave their ivory towers in white suburbia and go see what it's like in the poorer parts of town, then maybe they can work with us to fix the problems instead of being part of the problem.

reply to post by Blackmarketeer


I volunteer at my local foodbank and I work downtown. I see what's happening everyday. Perhaps they should ease up on regulations. My god they are shutting down people who give out sandwiches to the homeless for Gods sake because they don't have permits or meet health code rules.

reply to post by jibeho


threads like this are why stories like in the OP are produced...let the mindless debate the non-imprtant lol...

we all have been on sites like this too long now... we (generalized word usage) came to these sites in the past for "alternative media", to stay away from the capitalism/consumerism and the MSM spin on things...

in the past few weeks i have seen threads on:

-the new movie Promethius and how its the elites religion (that was a promotion, gaining hype for the film)
-secuirty camera footage of MIB in a hotel lol...some investigation agency is stating that its an ongoing investigation...(this is a promotion MIB3, gaining hype for the film)
-Obama had to ride a subway once...hahahahaha
- apperantly there is a cola cnspiracy because a fatty couldnt control their diet? omg haha

i think a lot of us have inadvertently allowed our minds to be seeded by those entities we origionally left to migrate over to these venues of "alternative media"

i guess it is a conspracy, but an obviously bad one...just like we have 2 political parties...we now have 2 forms of the same media lol

1 sounds better to some...1 sounds better to the others...but its the same brain limitting dog and pony show


still no real news, nor real answers...alternative media exposes things that the MSM doesnt? or presents the same stories but wth a different perspective? sounds like a good show puppet mastering to me lol...and we were all fooled

I love this part

“And [Obama] knows what it’s like to be judged not on your merits or your talent but because of where you come from, what your name is or even what you look like,” Donovan said.

One could suggest that this is how he actually became president of the united states. First and foremost however....This is exactly how he landed his position as President of Harvard Law Review. Donovan, just described affirmative action. A plan in which Obama took full advantage of while at Harvard. He learned all about it during his early Chicago years between Columbia and Harvard.
cnsnews.com...

Furthermore Michelle's so called "food desert" could just be another empty talking point generated by the Obama handlers.

Michelle's Myth

But two new studies have found something unexpected. Such neighborhoods not only have more fast food restaurants and convenience stores than more affluent ones, but more grocery stores, supermarkets and full-service restaurants, too. And there is no relationship between the type of food being sold in a neighborhood and obesity among its children and adolescents.

Within a couple of miles of almost any urban neighborhood, “you can get basically any type of food,” said Roland Sturm of the RAND Corporation, lead author of one of the studies. “Maybe we should call it a food swamp rather than a desert,” he said.

Some experts say these new findings raise questions about the effectiveness of efforts to combat the obesity epidemic simply by improving access to healthy foods. Despite campaigns to get Americans to exercise more and eat healthier foods, obesity rates have not budged over the past decade, according to recently released federal data.

“It is always easy to advocate for more grocery stores,” said Kelly D. Brownell, director of Yale University’s Rudd Center for Food Policy and Obesity, who was not involved in the studies. “But if you are looking for what you hope will change obesity, healthy food access is probably just wishful thinking.”

www.nytimes.com...

Just more bunk from the mystical Unicorn bunch....

[snip] ...or meet health code rules

From what you said - if they don't meet health code rules then they should be shut down. Giving out botulism is not helping anyone. There are plenty of volunteer organizations involved in food drives and distribution to the poor, but that is not the issue here - it's the simple fact that Americans have created an economic model that favors urban sprawl and abandonment of inner cities. Most social democrats have proposed legislation to reverse this trend and encourage growth in older, inner-ring suburbs and inner cities. My last project along this line was to work with our cities land bank to aggregate lots to allow a larger grocer to move in, with tax abatements. We've attracted several "Dave's Supermarkets" (a mid-sized grocer), with prospects for a large chain supermarket. They're baby steps but at least a step in the right direction.

I don't see how any president addressing this issue can be vilified over it, except to say that most people are willfully ignorant about the plight of the inner city.

There is a reason they are food deserts.

Can't find a grocery store to find fruit?

It's cheaper to live and eat outside of cities than in them now think hard why that is

real estate prices
government rules and regulations
license fees

and a myraid of other reasons so Obama cares right when it's been his ideology and policies and that of his party that just make it so hard for people to find an apple.

Blah.

Hey want to show that you care lower gas prices lower property taxes and stop telling people if they can have a garden or not and by the way some people won't take too kindly to garden becauuse it involves work and a lot of it.

People would rather just cry about how its not a foot away from them.