Transit Access
4 articles
Renters vs. Owners: Housing Tenure and Grocery Access
Renter-dominated tracts have better grocery access: shorter distances (0.58 vs. 0.94 mi), lower food desert rates (8.4% vs. 18.2%). But this reflects urban geography, not housing policy—and renters have higher vulnerability despite better access.
Who Gets Left Behind: Transit Access and Race in California
Majority-minority tracts have shorter distances to grocery stores (0.72 vs. 0.85 miles) but higher mobility desert rates (13.2% vs. 11.1%). Stores are closer, but transit access to reach them is worse. This disparity persists after controlling for income and density.
Better Access, Higher Vulnerability: What 9,033 California Tracts Reveal
The USDA's food desert framework assumes that distance to grocery stores is a primary barrier to food access.[1] Federal policy has directed resources toward bringing stores closer to underserved communities, from the Healthy Food Financing Initiative to state-level incentive programs.[2] Our earlier analysis of 7 Bay Area and major metro counties suggested this framing may be backwards: the most vulnerable communities already had closer stores, not farther ones. But that finding was limited to
Mobility Deserts: When Grocery Stores Are Close on Paper But Unreachable Without a Car
Federal food access policy assumes proximity equals access. But in California, 1 in 8 neighborhoods face a hidden barrier: stores are within a mile, but poor transit makes them practically unreachable.