Let’s Build a Market

By Kyle Wise

Introduction• My project was inspired by the Gateway Casper Project. The Gateway

Casper Project has asked community members for their input into changes they would like to see to Casper's infrastructure. I have chosen an area that I have wanted to see improvements to for many years and where I strongly believe a grocery store should be built. Ethically, I believe we should provide poorer communities with easier access to fresh food. Aesthetically, I believe my proposed area deserves the most attention as good portion of buildings are condemned or in the process of being condemned. Economically, I believe it could have a positive impact on other downtown businesses.

The ‘Proposed’ Site

My project is an effort to influence the city of Casper to create a Grocery store for the poorer members of our community. Originally I suggested a large area for a full gentrification project, but the City conveyed to me just how unrealistic it would be to get the project approved. After collecting the all the data using a Trimble Juno I created this map to pinpoint a possible location in the proposed area. All of my data is in our local UTM coordinate system.

The ‘Proposed’ Location

• This site has been considered for demolition because of health concerns, as have many buildings in the area.

• I’m proposing that we begin here but not stop here.

• It’s kind of personal (anecdote anyone?)

Can You Spot the Trend?

• The trend is to strategically place markets within areas where people have higher incomes.

• Many cities have taken note of this trend and initiatives have been proposed to counteract it.

• Health concerns are more prevalent in these areas because of the lack of healthy food.

• This is a national problem and even effects small communities like our own.

Methods For Finding Trends

• I scoured multiple realtor websites and found the average prices of homes. Then I averaged the price of homes within the different neighborhoods to finalize my data.

• I assigned my findings to the attribute table on which I built this gradient map.

• Tools and Data: Gradient symbology based on income, Buffers to help visualize distance.

Does Distance Matter?

• As you can see, my proposed site sits equally between the next two closest grocery stores and center in the lower income areas.

• The people living in the lower income areas travel on average 334 miles a year to get groceries.

• My proposed Grocery store would cut their trip down to 67 miles a year. That’s huge a number!

• Imagine if they could use all that gas money on healthy food for their children!

Methods For Finding Distance

• I mapped out all the vector data (grocery stores and roads) with a Trimble Juno. I created this Euclidean map using the allocation tool to showcase distances from a source.

• The grocery stores are the source and each colored circle represents an 1,100 meter diameter.

• Tools and Data: Euclidean allocation tool, 800 meter Buffer for comparison.

Is My Site Suitable?

• Now we understand that we need a centralized grocery store because of economic and distance factors.

• The criteria: The store must be 2,000 meters from homes that cost $275,000 or more. It must also be 1,600 meters from the next closest grocery store.

Methods Finding Suitability

• I created this weighted site suitability analysis to back up my findings and show the areas, based on a specific criteria, that would be best suited for a future grocery store.

• The criteria was 1,600 meters from another grocery store and 2,000 meters from homes valued at $275,000 or more.

• Tools and Data: Reclassify tool for creating comparison data, Feature to Raster for creating a ‘raster’ from ‘vector data’, Raster calculator.

Conclusions and Contradictions• More so than anything, this has taught me how powerful a map can be at

drawing conclusions. When I began this project I didn’t see any analysis or comparisons, but as I built, the story I wanted to tell unfolded itself organically. I became more concerned and invested in the problem the more I researched.

• Contradiction: Studies show that when markets are built in low-income areas, we don’t necessarily see a trend in healthier lifestyles. In some studies it was the opposite. Yes, people have more money to spend on groceries but their lack of education when it comes to eating healthy, trumps the convenience of the market itself. Unfortunately, this problem can’t be solved with a map.