West Louisville FoodPort gets $1 million grant

Follow the money---Mrs. Brown invites Prince Charles to stop at Seed Capital Ky on a special trip to Louisville. Then Seed Capital receives $1 million grant from the James Graham Brown Foundation a few weeks later....interesting......and awesome!


http://insiderlouisville.com/business/w ... oundation/

[Robin Garr]

If it happens, it will be awesome. I've had my doubts, mainly because I'm impressed with what individuals have done on the city's food scene, but local government efforts not so much. But if they can find the money and leadership, this could be an outstanding thing for the metro and for the West End.

Glad to see that this project is getting some money. I still really have some doubts about it succeeding however. Some of these doubts are based on what Robin mentioned about government/private developments locally. My other bigger doubt is because of the location. Locals in that area are not the ones that are going to be excited about visiting the market to buy food for several reasons mainly that it will not so foods they normally eat and secondly because the prices will probably be higher than what they are used to.

The Food Port needs to attract people from throughout the metro area to be successful. Being in the West end many people are not going to be enthusiastic about visiting it. In addition the location chosen is not easily accessible to people coming from outside the area. It's a really interesting concept but there are some major hurdles forward to overcome to be successful.

I've driven around the site. It is already clear. The area has its challenges, but accessibility is not one of them. The site is conveniently located a few blocks from the Watterson and Muhammad Ali exit. The highway is easily visible running just above the site. My skepticism softened the more I contemplated the vision. Don't sell this one too short.

Excuse me if I sound a bit strident here, but I have to react to the class- and race- based assumptions about who eats what, who deserves what, and whether good food shouldn't be closer to, well, us smarter, classier people in the eastern suburbs. Not everything is for the Haves, who Have expensive infrastructure run out to them, over-wide highways that cut through urban neighborhoods and downtown with ugly concrete (and more coming) so they can be comfortably sluiced in and out without getting to close to anything 'ugly' - except the roads they're on. The Hub - yes, I really want it to happen, and think it will - is 'for' people who have very little access to good, fresh food - and it is for small farmers and food entrepreneurs to create a set of symbiotic relationships and get more food produced and sold. And it is for the West End community, to give meaningful work and meaningful modeling and engagement in food. Can this happen? Of course it can. It is happening around the country. Here is one example:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/04/07/south-la-healthy-food_n_6992538.html?ir=Green&utm_source=SFFB

[Robin Garr]

Excuse me if I sound a bit strident here, but I have to react to the class- and race- based assumptions about who eats what, who deserves what, and whether good food shouldn't be closer to, well, us smarter, classier people in the eastern suburbs. ...

Looks like a really cool idea. But I have to question the article's suggestion that in the West End "few healthy food options exist there". There's four chain groceries and a whole bunch of smaller places meaning everyone is a four minute car ride, an eight minute bike ride, or a 20 minute max walk to a chain grocery with what looks to me like really cheap produce prices. That's more produce at a lower distance than is available where I live.

On edit: If you measure from all the way on S 47th St i.e. as far West as you can go without being in Indiana, it's a 17 min bus ride to Krogers (but I stand corrected a 48 min walk). So while this project may be really visionary and ultracool, it's probably not a wise idea to base your investment case on the West End being a food desert. Pricing is going to be key if they want locals to shop there vs existing chains. Obviously concerns are valid that East Enders won't venture into a relatively higher crime zone if it's not really better than Whole Foods.

Looks like a really cool idea. But I have to question the article's suggestion that in the West End "few healthy food options exist there". There's four chain groceries and a whole bunch of smaller places meaning everyone is a four minute car ride, an eight minute bike ride, or a 20 minute max walk to a chain grocery with what looks to me like really cheap produce prices. That's more produce at a lower distance than is available where I live.

On edit: If you measure from all the way on S 47th St i.e. as far West as you can go without being in Indiana, it's a 17 min bus ride to Krogers (but I stand corrected a 48 min walk). So while this project may be really visionary and ultracool, it's probably not a wise idea to base your investment case on the West End being a food desert. Pricing is going to be key if they want locals to shop there vs existing chains. Obviously concerns are valid that East Enders won't venture into a relatively higher crime zone if it's not really better than Whole Foods.

Good point. If you check out the USDA's mapping tool, the areas of West Louisville designated "food deserts" are almost entirely west of the Shawnee (I-264). I'm not sure there are any portions of those food deserts that will be closer to the Food Port than they are to the Broadway or 35th Street Kroger stores. If there are, it's a few small blocks at most.

Several outside media have written about this endeavor. I find the piece by citylab to have done a good job of putting context to this project. There are several others worth reading found by a simple google news search. All said, this project has blockbuster potential:

http://www.citylab.com/design/2015/03/w ... nd/387697/

The point is not just adding to the West End food chain. It is also bring the food grower/maker closer to the consumer. Using local resources, teaching about the food chain, learning to use food for the best nutritional value. opportunities for small and even urban farmers to have a market, for children and adults to learn where their food comes from. There is so much more that will go on there beyond having a farmer's market. I look forward to it!

Looks like a really cool idea. But I have to question the article's suggestion that in the West End "few healthy food options exist there". There's four chain groceries and a whole bunch of smaller places meaning everyone is a four minute car ride, an eight minute bike ride, or a 20 minute max walk to a chain grocery with what looks to me like really cheap produce prices. That's more produce at a lower distance than is available where I live.

On edit: If you measure from all the way on S 47th St i.e. as far West as you can go without being in Indiana, it's a 17 min bus ride to Krogers (but I stand corrected a 48 min walk). So while this project may be really visionary and ultracool, it's probably not a wise idea to base your investment case on the West End being a food desert. Pricing is going to be key if they want locals to shop there vs existing chains. Obviously concerns are valid that East Enders won't venture into a relatively higher crime zone if it's not really better than Whole Foods.

I live in the West End, in the food desert west of I-264. Noting the distances to walk to Kroger is valid, but lacks some context. Expecting people to walk to Kroger and then carry home those groceries to feed their entire family for a week at a time is unrealistic. The TARC is great, but you still have to get your groceries from the nearest bus stop to your home in addition to getting them on the bus in the first place. It's really not as easy as it seems when you sit down and google things. The reality of life here is not a pretty computer algorithm.

Additionally, I challenge you to come down to our Krogers and shop sometime. Then we can discuss the cheap prices and the corresponding quality. When you first walk into the Kroger at 26th and Broadway, you encounter boxed items, prepackaged things, and a very small amount of produce that can only loosely be called fresh. I usually can't find shallots, forget about things like artichokes, and the items I do find are wrinkled with soft spots from poor treatment. The Kroger itself is well kept and the staff friendly. But there is a lack of available, good produce in our area, and I welcome the chance to be able to get farmer's market quality food within five minutes of my house. As it is, I have to drive 15 minutes to reach a store with produce worth purchasing (for note: Kroger on 2nd St. by UofL, where I am a student; ValuMarket on B'town Rd; Kroger on B'town Rd). I have shopped at both the Broadway and Bank Street Krogers, and found the situation to be very similar.

Kat I won't be stopping by soon since I'm 4000 miles away from the 502. Look I'm cynical enough to appreciate that the apples may not be as shiny in the store as they are in the internet ads. But I'm not sure that not getting decent artichokes is the same thing as "having few healthy food options". Options are there, and the Food Port's pricing will have to be in line or locals will stick to those other options.

As for logistics... well... schlepping the groceries from public transit to home is pretty much a weekly reality for a couple hundred million Europeans. If you don't have a car, you end up making twice as many trips. That's just the way it is. If I lived out there without a car I'd just get a bike with a big basket. That's the way I do it here. That's the way everybody in Brooklyn was doing it when we visited recently. If you don't like the traffic there's a bunch of alleys running all the way through the West End so you wouldn't have to dodge cars. And you burn calories to boot.

Update: FoodPort project scrapped because anchor tenant pulled out.

http://www.wave3.com/story/32784295/west-louisville-food-port-project-scrapped

Update: FoodPort project scrapped because anchor tenant pulled out.

http://www.wave3.com/story/32784295/west-louisville-food-port-project-scrapped

Let's be honest here, the project was scrapped because of community uproar about white folks trying to come into black communities and "colonize them." I'm sure it's all good though, those guys must have something way better planned for their community that we just don't know about yet.

Who are "those guys"? Who are "we"?

Nevermind. The coding is clear.