More on restaurant based revitalization: The town that food saved versus immigrants/ethnic cuisines?
To follow up on the previous post:
There is a similar book published earlier, The Town That Food Saved: How One Community Found Vitality in Local Food.
Both are very interesting and inspiring. Along with other books about redeveloping community food systems.
But reading the Boston Globe article, "‘Why would I go to Boston if I could get this here?’ Quincy’s diverse population is making for a thriving (and affordable) food scene.," I realized that at least if I am remembering correctly, these books didn't mention communities and community food systems revitalized by immigrants, and their cuisines--first restaurants opened for the diaspora, and were later sampled by non-ethnics who came coming back for more.
In the early 2000s, I do remember a Main Street program in Boston promoting its bakeries, which represented many food cultures, and obviously commercial district programs promote restaurant-based revitalization.
The PBS show No Passport Required, featuring Chef Marcus Samuelsson as host, does go to communities specifically focusing on one ethnic group and their cuisines--both in restaurants, cafes and other ways of delivering food, and in the home.
The tv show "Diners, Drive Ins, and Dives" often features ethnic restaurants, but not in a focused way.
Of course, separately I've written about how immigrants to declining cities (at the time) have sparked revitalization, including cuisine elements.
Culinary tourism as a phenomenon. Tourism is a key economic development element for most major cities in the era of post-industrialization. Before the pandemic, cities like Chicago and New York hosted many tens of millions of visitors annually.
And cities like DC, New York City, and even Providence, Rhode Island promoted food tourism quite heavily as part of tourism marketing campaigns ("The Future of Food Tourism Goes Beyond the Restaurant Experience," Skift).
Food is a key element of the visitor experience, especially because "we eat every day" and dishes can be quite memorable("Food, tourism, and culture: the keys to success of a global trend, TrekkSoft)
Culinary tourism benefits a city more than individual commercial districts. We should differentiate between "culinary tourism" for a city or region and "restaurant-based revitalization" at the scale of the commercial district.
It works for the city as a whole more than individual districts, except for large ethnic enclaves like a Koreatown, Little Italy, Chinatown, Mexicantown, etc. Because people tend to be in and out focused, not interested in lingering, not interested in retail shopping as part of their restaurant visit, unless they are residents.
Ethnic-focused restaurant development versus culinary tourism. Ironically, because of the Mormon Church practice of missions to other countries and parts of the United States, there is a wide diversity of food and immigrants here in Salt Lake. It's just the food generally sucks.
(Someone took us to their "favorite" restaurant, Ethiopian. It paled if it were to be compared against so many Ethiopian restaurants in DC. Same with Indian food, "Mexican food," etc.)
I joke that Parkway Deli in Silver Spring, certainly a top 10 deli in Maryland--I love it--would be the number one deli in Utah.
What the Globe article ultimately is about is ground up ethnic-based restaurant development focused on serving the area community, less so a tourist. But to work, you also need a decent critical mass of population too. Quincy, a small city outside Boston, has 100,000 residents, which is large enough to make a difference. Like the communities and cuisines represented in No Passport Required.
Labels: commercial district revitalization planning, ethnic communities, restaurants, urban design/placemaking, urban revitalization
posted by Richard Layman @ 3:30 AM&Permanent Link
2 Comments:
Getting hungry?
You might be underestimating taste? What continue to surprise me is how much better food is in the NY Metro area versus the rest of the county. Not just the expensive stuff either.
The SLC example is like Grand Rapids -- tons of ethnic food and most of it is terrible. Everything very bland. Again because of missionaries lots of immigrant food ways.
Tyler Cowen has been making this point for year -- since immigration is largely a suburban phenomenon the "Ethnic' food is better is suburbs than in cities. His views have changed as quality kicked in.
That said, I get far better asian food in Fairfax than anywhere in DC.
Most immigrants don't want to be culinary stars - they are cooking for other reasons. Constant problem in immigration as well. Hard to get a h1b as a chef.
I watch a lot of food shows on PBS Create as a lot of regular tv doesn't interest me.
It's a struggle though, sometimes I don't like to look at food, although I am on a new medication which has stimulated my appetite.
I don't follow Cowan, but no question that immigration is a 50/50 phenomenon where the suburbs have an edge because of cheaper properties. And how later waves of migration have bypassed cities entirely..
I used to be a snob about how only historic buildings could be good for revitalization. The reality is that buildings are envelopes. What goes on inside is what matters. This was first sparked by some interesting stores in strip centers in West Seattle and Phoenix.
Of course, I was aware of Asian strip centers in NoVA. That goes back to my first days in DC in 1987. But I didn't think about it.
Similarly, property owners in Takoma Crossroads-Langley Park aren't interested in investing in "improvements" because the buildings are already 100% occupied. The stores show old. But thrive because they serve a focused group of customers.
I do think the Purple Line will force some reproduction of space. They could have gotten ahead of that had they followed my suggested program, but that's for another day.
I miss the MegaMart at NH and U Boulevard. It's still somewhat better than the local Latino supermarket chain here (although the one chain is still decent).
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