Is a food desert a 20 minute drive or a 5 minute drive?

The January 4 edition of “The Telegraph” reports that the Ripple Glass bin is gone and not likely to be back at Red Bridge Shopping Center. Owen Buckley, president of Lane 4 which is the property manager for the shopping center, seems to be discouraging its return. Even though it says Ripple Glass, apparently there are those who think it’s simply a dumping site for things they don’t want. The purple bins are the best way to recycle glass since the recycling center at Red Bridge and 71 highway won’t take drinking glasses, but Buckley has an understandable point.

Interestingly, he went on to say that there are two other Ripple bins “within five minutes of the Red Bridge site” one of which is the Price Chopper at 103rd and State Line. That quote reminded us of a previous blog, No Food Desert Here, about the fact that the shopping center was losing its grocery store, but there was no need to worry because the Mayor was involved and would move some taxes around to see that the area got a new grocery store.

Anyway, in that blog where the area was being labeled a food desert, we included a report from KCTV5 which stated, “South KC Alliance President John Sharp said that nobody wants to live in a neighborhood where they have to make a 20-minute drive to get basic needs for their household.” That is a true statement and doesn’t actually say that the folks in the Red Bridge area would need to do that, but we did find the contrast with Own Buckley’s statement interesting.