Third World In A First World
"The third world within the first world." Rochester NY is not a 3rd world country. There are not people walking around with AK47's forcing people to work, there is not a vast majority starving and living in the streets. So why do people of Rochester think they can be compared?
The absence of a supermarket caused a major uprising in the city of Rochester just a few years ago. Stating that it was an injustice that all the surrounding areas had a supermarket and the people who lived in the city had to travel to buy food.
Now this is a major inconvenience, however it is not a tragedy of third world scale. There are many factors that need to be considered that were not discussed in the lecture. First, no information was shown on the economic resources in the area. For Wegmans or Tops to pass up an opportunity to open a store which would be profitable is outrageous, there are 3 Wegmans within 10 minutes of RIT each of which must be profitable for the supermarket to stay open. So with so many stores in the area, why not have a store in the city? This is a question that was not answered directly, however indirectly it was stated that the City of Rochester was to subsidize the entrance of a supermarket into the city. This tells that opening a supermarket would not have been profitable, and the only way they would consider is if the city paid for the stores losses.
Second, the presenters tried to make it a racist argument; however I am sure that not all of the people living in the city are of color. Although the area may be predominantly of color it would be foolish to think the city would discriminate with all of the colored leaders present in the community.
It is my belief that the city of Rochester should not be responsible for subsidizing a supermarket in a neighborhood where they know it will no be profitable. Myself as a taxpayer would like to see my money going toward education and a permanent fix rather than using dollar bill...
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