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Is the food desert gone?

In 2006, the Mari Gallagher Research and Consulting Group identified parts of the Near West Side, West Town and East Garfield Park as a “food desert” — where choices for eating were confined largely to unhealthy fast food.

Gallagher’s research showed such deserts nearly exclusively damage African-American neighborhoods on the South and West Sides, causing deleterious effects on community health.

“In a typical African-American block, the nearest grocery store is roughly twice as distant as the nearest fast food restaurant,” the 2006 report notes.

A 2008 update to the ’06 report listed Madison and Western as a priority site for grocery development. A store there would help more than 13,800 people in 107 blocks, including more than 9,500 African-Americans.

Gallagher, head of the research firm that bears her name, said development of the Pete’s is just the first — and important step — toward improving community health outcomes.

“You provide healthy food. People still have to choose it,” she said.

Local organizations and Pete’s need to collaborate on food education campaigns, according to Gallagher.

But there is an immediate impact of building a grocery store in a food desert. When a Food4Less opened in a food desert in Englewood, for example, food access improved for some 307 blocks for nearly 40,000 African-Americans, according to Gallagher’s research. Something similar could happen on the Near West Side.

“We see this as a very positive step,” Gallagher said of the Pete’s announcement.

Further retail development could be sparked by Pete’s moving in, she went on to say.

Another researcher who has studied food and grocery store access is Chicago State University’s Daniel Block.

Block said the Pete’s move fit within his understanding that grocers move into “border districts” between gentrifying and non-gentrifying neighborhoods. Another example of this phenomenon, according to Block is the Jewel-Osco at Roosevelt and Ashland, just north of Pilsen and west of the remaining ABLA public housing development.

“I’ve been sort of surprised that location hasn’t been already filled, given the amount of gentrification that has happened,” Block said of the Madison and Western site.

While he hasn’t studied Pete’s prices directly, the store fits into a category of shops that generally offers cheaper prices than Jewel-Osco or Dominick’s for produce and slightly more for packaged items.

While Food4Less has a smaller selection, they also have the lowest prices, according to Block.

“It would make sense that longtime residents with a little lower income would want Food4Less. But a lot of people we talked to in Englewood also shopped at Pete’s,” he said, referring to a research project undertaken in that South Side neighborhood.

Shoppers, he said, go to different stores for different items.

Marie Reichardt remembers when the commercial strips along Western Avenue and Madison Street offered everything from meat markets to movie theatres. A family could shop very locally.

“We had our needs met right there in that area,” she said.

A resident of East Garfield Park for more than 70 years, Reichardt said those options withered following the riots sparked by the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in 1968. After retailers fled, her family patronized stores in the wholesale packing district further east, near Halsted Street. For bread and canned goods, she traveled to grocery stores further west or down to Roosevelt Road.

With the announcement that Pete’s Fresh Market has been chosen to build near her neighborhood, however, Reichardt once again hopes to be getting her groceries close to home.

“Pete’s coming back to the area will make more people feel happy,” she said. “They won’t have to run all over the city to find a place to shop. You’ve got your meat, your vegetables. You’ve got all of that.”

Construction of a Pete’s on the vacant, city-owned parcel at the southeast corner of Madison and Western would mark a sea-change for the Near West Side, an area that’s been without a full-service grocery store for years, thus earning parts of the neighborhood the label of “food desert.”

Department of Community Development Commissioner Mary Bonome told residents at meeting last week that Pete’s offered the best package out of 12 criteria — from financing options and proposed construction timeline to local hiring plans — established by the city.

The Chicago-based firm plans to build a 50,000-square-foot store, with a typical spread of produce, meats and fish, deli and bakery. Additional possibilities will be available in another 10,000 square feet of retail space. Pete’s hopes to break ground next summer and open in June 2011. An estimated 150 full-time jobs will be available at the store.

Cost of the project is expected to total $18 million. The firm has already put down a good-faith deposit of $650,000 and the company will finance the project itself, instead of partnering with West Haven Phoenix LLC, which the Community Development Commission designated in June 2004 as the developer of the land.

Earnest Gates, one of the co-managers of the West Haven Phoenix and executive director of the Near West Side Community Development Corporation, did not return calls seeking comment and declined to speak to a reporter at a recent public meeting.

Beside Pete’s, Food4Less and Jewel-Osco expressed interest in building stores at Madison and Western.

Selection of the store has generated an intense level of neighborhood interest over the years, from the days when Aldi’s was floated for the site to lobbying efforts carried out earlier this year.

The Neighbors’ Development Network, a group made up largely of Near West Side homeowners, collected around 1,100 signatures earlier this year backing a Pete’s, for example.

Ald. Robert Fioretti (2nd) referenced another petition drive, this one gathering 2,000 signatures calling for a Food4Less. No individual or organization has taken public credit for the latter drive, and Fioretti has been unable to identify its organizers.

The alderman acknowledged lobbying about the store was not confined to constituents. His colleagues on the city council and representatives from the United Food and Commercial Worker’s union weighed in too.

“There were a lot of people from all different sources and all different aldermen,” Fioretti said. “There were people for all of them, whether it was Jewel-Osco, Food4Less or Pete’s.”

Selection of Pete’s was greeted by applause at a meeting last week. Many attendees registered their approval of the decision.

“It takes a step up in terms of the quality of services coming to the community,” said Mike Cunningham, active in the Homeowners of Westtown group. “It gives us an opportunity to continue to grow.”

But opinions are not unanimously in favor of Pete’s. Carolyn Cole preferred Food4Less, because of its low prices and bulk purchasing options.

“You have to accept what you’re going to get,” she said.

Martha Maratre also cited prices at Food4Less to explain her support of the chain. A resident of the Oakley and Jackson area, Maratre does much of her shopping at the Walgreens on the northeast corner of Madison and Western. To her, Pete’s is a solid second choice, however.

“I think it’s good. We need could use the fruit and vegetables. And the prices are good at Pete’s,” she said.

For residents like Reichardt, the longtime East Garfield dweller, however, the news signals a broader shift.

“To me, it will feel like, to be honest with you, that what was taken from us is now coming back,” she said.

Contact: mmaidenberg@chicagojournal.com

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