If you were re-routed through West Oakland via West Grand Avenue soon after the collapse of the MacArthur Maze you may have seen posters stating “Welcome Thru West Oakland” and “Enjoy Our 53 Liquor Stores”. This witty street humor took advantage of the heightened traffic along West Grand Ave to point out a critical […]

The Land Use and Health Project, a project of the Public Health Law Program at the Public Health Institute released an article in their Spring 2007 Healthy Planning Newsletter about an announcement made by the British mega-chain supermarket Tesco that the company plans to open 100-150 stores, up to 3,000 square feet each, in the […]

Food Deserts in Chicago. Chicago Tribute, July 2006.The issue of access to healthy foods and limited food retail locations in low-income communities seems to be gaining some interest among larger mainstream media corporations. I was in an interview recently with a reporter from People Magazine, which is not a media outlet you would normally associate […]

Many West Oakland residents went to Eugene’s Market at the Jack London Gateway Shopping Center over the weekend to do their food shopping and instead found a posted letter from the shopping center management saying they were as surprised as everyone else that the store had closed, and that they’re looking for a new grocery […]

I’d like to share a story with you that I and my co-founders stumbled on to many years ago when we were first starting People’s Grocery that really inspired us when we found out about it. The irony is that we had already chosen the name People Grocery before we knew of this. The following […]

Low-income communities are often ignored or overlooked by politicians, developers and corporations as attractive opportunities for business and the development of markets. One reason for this is that there is a lack of information and data about these communities that can show just how much economic or market opportunity exists within them. The research and […]