One of the great things about living in NYC the ease of buying groceries. What is widely considered NYC’s best grocery store was about five blocks from me, and yet I didn’t usually go there because it was crowded and there was another supermarket only three blocks from me, not to mention a little grocery one avenue over. Or at least, this a great thing about living on the Upper West Side. In SoHo, Stefanie was not quite so close to a grocery store. And according to the Washington Post, grocery stores in the outer boroughs are disappearing.

While these areas are losing supermarkets, they still have numerous bodegas, small stores which sell basic staples but usually not fresh produce, impeding good nutrition especially in poorer neighborhoods. Washington DC has worked hard to encourage supermarkets in the city more recently, but I miss the little corner grocery stores. I have to walk farther to pick up some milk or a tomato, and it’s a longish walk to carry a bunch of bags, meaning I do more of my shopping in a big occasional trip to Trader Joe’s in the West End or Giant in Cleveland Park, to which I drive.

On last week’s Kojo Nnamdi show about public spaces, a caller brought up how buying groceries in bulk creates a less vibrant street life than when people pick up a few things on the way home as they do more often in New York or Europe. We’re always going to need the supermarkets and it’s great DC is focusing public policy on encouraging them, but I’d really like to have a corner store.

David Alpert created Greater Greater Washington in 2008 and was its executive director until 2020. He formerly worked in tech and has lived in the Boston, San Francisco Bay, and New York metro areas in addition to Washington, DC. He lives with his wife and two children in Dupont Circle.