I lived in Detroit for years, and while it isn’t exactly a food desert, it’s hardly an oasis. The city does boast a few grocery stores, most of them owned by one of two families. You won’t find big chain grocery stores or big box stores inside city limits.

If you want to go to a Trader Joe’s or even to a really nice grocery store that isn’t focused on health, you have to drive outside the city limits. There just isn’t any other choice.

I often did that, but I never thought about the consequences of crossing 8 Mile or driving Downriver. But Detroit is an overwhelmingly Black city, and my Black neighbors thought about it all the time. Pretty much any Black person in Detroit can tell you that leaving the city greatly elevates your odds of being stopped for driving while Black.

So plenty of Detroit residents just feel more comfortable staying in Detroit. Which means their food shopping options are limited to those two networks of grocery stores that frankly aren’t all that wonderful.

I don’t know why other types of grocery stores don’t open. Real estate is almost literally dirt cheap in Detroit, and property is super available.

It’s not like people wouldn’t shop. Whenever anything nice opens in Detroit, customers flood in.

So why does the city remain a partial food desert? I don’t know, but the problem is real.