Planning for Healthy Food Outside

Planning for Healthy Food Outside

Presented by:

Lauren Dunning, JD, MPHLos Angeles County Department of Public Health

Alfonso Morales, PhD University of Wisconsin – Madison

1. Alfonso – Historical Considerations and Frame

2. Lauren – Legal and Policy Considerations

3. Alfonso – Research and Policy Implications

4. Lauren – Examples from Farmers’ Markets and Healthy Mobile Vending

5. Alfonso and Lauren – Concluding Thoughts

Roadmap

Brief Historical Considerations

Maxwell Street, 1932

Earlier SystemsOf Exchange

EconomicUpheavals

And Regulatory

Changes

LegitimizedMarketplacesLegitimized

Marketplaces

LegitimizedMarketplaces

ModernRetail

Changed Occupational

Categories

LegitimizedMarketplaces

Malls

LegitimizedMarketplacesSecondary

Retail

LegitimizedMarketplaces

TertiaryRetail

LegitimizedMarketplaces

OnlineMarkets

LegitimizedMarketplacesMarketplaces

De-LegitimizedOngoing PracticesAnd Struggles for

Legitimation

Re-emergentConcerns with

Health, EmploymentEtc.

Economic formsPolitically (re)legitimized

In Summary: 150 Years of Markets

MoreUpheavals

And Changes

Contemporary Vendors and Vending

Commerce

• Enhancing Downtowns • Employment and Job Training• Business Incubation• Human Capital, Gross/Net

Receipts, and Multiplier• Promoting Local, Sustainable

Agriculture• Local Business • Business Partnerships• Public Investment• Tourism

Cosmopolitanism

• Social Encounters– ‘Heads Up’ versus ‘Heads Down’

• Diversity and Density• Recreation/Multi-use• Community Relations/Human Scale• Public Safety• Involved Youth • Services

Health and Environmental Benefits

• Food access and cost• Increase physical activity• Health/nutritional education• Psychological well-being• Connecting rural and urban

Government Intervention for Health

• Procurement and use of public resources • Incentives• Regulation

Legal and Policy Considerations

• State– State Food Codes

• Local – Zoning– Licensing

Legal and Policy Considerations

Regulation of Use

Research Findings

• Should Government Allocate Vending Space?– Contingent on how many vendors are allowed– Means of allocation include lottery, auction, first come, rotation,

networks – important to communicate goals for vendors

• Should Goods/Merchandise be Restricted?– Contingent on public goals

• How Might Merchants Contribute to the Public?– Permits– Taxation– Insurance…etc.

Many Organizational Options

Political Benefits

• Revitalizing Public Spaces– Federal government program

• Mitigating risks– Public safety– public characters

• Public services– Civic engagement– Program participation

Arnstein, Sherry R. "A Ladder of Citizen Participation," JAIP, Vol. 35, No. 4, July 1969, pp. 216-224.

Accessed at: http://lithgow-schmidt.dk/sherry-arnstein/ladder-of-citizen-participation.html#download[coloration added]

Foster Commerce and Cosmopolitanism

• EXPERIMENT – Take lessons from other places

• Vendors fulfill Purposes from Various Perspectives

• Management and Internal Relationships– Stability and Flexibility can be won in many different ways

• Governance and External Relationships– How do vendors and street food articulate with other elements of

planning practice? Transportation, sidewalks, the food system, economic development…etc. What relationships are implied?

– What do sensible regulations look like?

Example: Farmers’ Markets

Private Property Public Property Streets

LA City XCode

XCode (parks)

X

LA County XCodeEBT

X X

San Francisco XCodeEBT

XCodeEBT

XEBT

Example: Healthy mobile vending Streets Sidewalks Public Property Private Property

New York Green Carts

Kansas City Parks incentive

Boston Healthy option Healthy option Healthy option

Philadelphia Healthy carts

San Francisco RFP

Policy Ideas• “When you cannot measure your knowledge is meager and

unsatisfactory.” Lord Kelvin – Enumerate markets/vendors – Census data – NAICS (category 454390), etc.

• Vendors (and marketplaces) create dynamic places that:– Provide a mix of experiences, diversions and commercial options that appeal

to multi-cultural and multi-generational patrons;– Provide visceral and visual experiences across time and season; that– Bridge the goals of state and society.

• Micro loans and Business advice when desired– Allow businesses/vendors to remain small, but harness the income for credit– Seek out local/regional supply chain opportunities

• Collaborate across agency, jurisdiction and organizational type – e.g. Business Schools, Business Improvement Districts, CBOs, Kitchen Incubators and Food Trucks, etc.

Contact Information• Lauren Dunning: ldunning@ph.lacounty.gov, 213-738-6107

• Alfonso Morales