Race, Poverty, and Food Vulnerability in Atlanta, 1980
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FOOD DESERTED: RACE, POVERTY, AND FOOD VULNERABILITY IN ATLANTA, 1980 - 2010 A Dissertation Presented to The Academic Faculty by Gloria Ross In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Doctor of Philosophy in the School of History, Technology and Society. Georgia Institute of Technology December 2014 Copyright © 2014 by Gloria Ross FOOD DESERTED: RACE, POVERTY, AND FOOD VULNERABILITY IN ATLANTA, 1980 - 2010 Approved by: Dr. William Winders, Advisor Dr. Nik Heynen School of History, Technology and School of Geography Society University of Georgia Georgia Institute of Technology Dr. Jenny Smith Dr. Jerry Shannon School of History, Technology and School of Geography Society University of Georgia Georgia Institute of Technology Dr. Daniel Amsterdam School of History, Technology and Society Georgia Institute of Technology Date Approved: October 24, 2014 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I am grateful to my supervisor, Bill Winders, whose guidance and encouragement supported this project from concept to completion. I am also grateful to my dissertation committee including Jenny Smith, Nik Heynen, Wenda Bauchspies, Daniel Amsterdam, and Jerry Shannon for their input and encouragement. I would also like to acknowledge the support from my family and friends, who shared this journey with me and encouraged me to do my best work. iv TABLE OF CONTENTS Page ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS iv LIST OF TABLES vii LIST OF FIGURES viii SUMMARY ix CHAPTER 1 Introduction 1 Background: Defining Food Deserts 3 Statement of the Problem: Gaps in Food Desert Literature 6 Rationale for Study 9 Theoretical Framework 10 Research Questions 11 Methods 12 Outline of Dissertation 16 Definition of Terms 19 2 Theoretical Framework 21 Background 24 Food desert literature and related critiques 24 Food Vulnerability, Market Actors, and Supermarkets 30 Supermarkets and their Consumers 37 Racial Segregation and the Concentration of Poverty 40 Gentrification, Redevelopment and Food Access 48 Conclusion 61 Food deserted: Expanding the Food Desert Concept 61 3 Mixed Methods Approach to Studying Food Deserts 64 Mixed Methods Research Design 65 Part 1: Quantitative 72 Data 72 Definitions 73 Methods and Procedures 75 Analysis 78 Part 2: Qualitative 80 Data 80 v Methods, Procedures and Analysis 83 Limitations 86 4 The Spatial Patterns and Demographic Characteristics of Atlanta’s Food Deserts, 1980 - 2010 89 Introduction 89 Atlanta’s Demographic Profile, 1980 - 2010 91 Data and Methods 101 Findings 105 Conclusion 131 5 Case Studies 136 Background and Context 138 Data and Methods 149 Findings 154 Analysis 162 Conclusion 187 6 Conclusion 195 APPENDIX A: Supermarket Locations 213 APPENDIX B: Chi-Squared Computations for Code Counts 216 REFERENCES 219 vi LIST OF TABLES Table 1 Welch Two Sample t-test ................................................................................... 114 Table 2 Number and percentage of food desert tracts in dataset ..................................... 115 Table 3 Characteristics of food desert tracts compared to non-food desert tracts ........... 119 Table 4 Changes over time for food desert tracts and non-food desert tracts ................. 122 Table 5 Mean and standard deviation of independent variables ..................................... 123 Table 6 Pearson Correlation Table for Low-income Census Tracts, 1980 (statistically significant coefficients with p < .05 are in bold). ............................................................ 124 Table 7 Pearson Correlation Table for Low-income Census Tracts, 2010 (statistically significant coefficients with p < .05 are in bold). ............................................................ 124 Table 8 Logistic Regression Results for 1980 only tracts and 2010 only tracts ............. 127 Table 9 Logistic Regression Results for 1980 and 2010 tracts combined ...................... 128 Table 10 Demographic and economic characteristics of the Old Fourth Ward and Pittsburgh in 1980 and 2010 ............................................................................................ 140 Table 11 Supermarket and grocery chain locations in Case Study Sites in 1981 and 2010 ......................................................................................................................................... 147 Table 12: Redevelopment Plans ...................................................................................... 151 Table 13: Theoretically based coding scheme ................................................................. 152 Table 14: Code Count for Pittsburgh and Old Fourth Ward Redevelopment Plans, 1980 – 2009. ................................................................................................................................ 155 vii LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1 Typology of Mixed-Methods Design .................................................................. 77 Figure 2 Mixed-methods study design…………………………………………………..79 Figure 3 Population Density, 1980 .................................................................................... 95 Figure 4 Population Density, 2010 .................................................................................... 96 Figure 5 Percent Black by Census Tract, 1980 ................................................................. 97 Figure 6 Percent Black by Census Tract, 2010 ................................................................. 98 Figure 7 Low-income census tracts, 1980 ......................................................................... 99 Figure 8 Low-income census tracts, 2010 ....................................................................... 100 Figure 9 Spatial Mean and Spatial Distribution of Supermarket Locations .................... 108 Figure 10 Cluster analysis of supermarkets, 1980 ........................................................... 109 Figure 11 Cluster analysis of supermarkets, 2010 ........................................................... 110 Figure 12 Food deserts in Atlanta, 1981 ......................................................................... 111 Figure 13 Food deserts in Atlanta, 2010 ......................................................................... 112 Figure 14 Supermarket locations in Atlanta, 1981 and 2010 .................................... 113 Figure 15 Histogram of median household income .................................................... 116 Figure 16 Histogram of percent poverty ..................................................................... 117 Figure 17 Histogram of percent unemployed ............................................................. 117 Figure 18 Pittsburgh and the Old Fourth Ward in relation to the City of Atlanta ........... 143 Figure 19 Case study neighborhoods and food deserts in Atlanta, 1981 ........................ 144 Figure 20 Case study neighborhoods and food deserts in Atlanta, 2010 ........................ 145 Figure 21 Supermarket locations and case study neighborhoods .................................... 146 Figure 23 Redevelopment plans code co-occurrence. ................................................ 161 Figure 24 Supermarket Locations in Atlanta, 1980 and 2010 ......................................... 166 Figure 25: The former Rio Mall ...................................................................................... 178 viii SUMMARY The concept of food deserts, as a measure of low-income neighborhoods with limited access to affordable and healthy produce, can be helpful as a tool to quantify and compare food vulnerabilities, as many recent studies have demonstrated. However, the term masks the role that systems of racism and capitalism have played in producing food vulnerabilities. To explore this gap in the literature, this dissertation addresses two central research questions. The first central research question asks, what are the influential demographic and spatial patterns that have shaped supermarket access in low-income neighborhoods across Atlanta from 1980 to 2010? This study addresses this question using geo-spatial and quantitative analytical methods. The second research question asks, how have the movement of capital, the influence of urban political regimes, and community-based organizations shaped food environments in historically black neighborhoods in Atlanta from 1980 to 2010? These relationships are explored through a qualitative analysis of community redevelopment plans for two case study neighborhoods. The study reveals several findings. First, race, poverty, and population density spatially overlap with shifts in Atlanta’s supermarket locations. Atlanta has a clear racial and income dividing line that splits the city into higher-income and majority white neighborhoods to the north and low-income/poor and majority black neighborhoods to the south, which has intensified over the thirty-year study period. Second, racial segregation and the concentration of poverty reinforce the vulnerability experienced by low-income neighborhoods, and produces limited access to supermarkets and other neighborhood retail outlets. Third, even though neighborhood redevelopment plans contained resident’s concerns about limited supermarket access, the plans’ visions ix often required both the public sector and private investment. Fourth, the concept of food deserts is too limited. Instead, a new conceptual understanding is needed to identify processes and structures that have produced whole communities of people that have been food deserted. x CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION Supermarkets are far more than places to purchase food; they