Food desert develops in Hartford

You'd have to travel more than two thousand miles to reach the nearest desert. As for the closest food desert, one has developed right in the middle of Connecticut's capital city.
A food desert is an area where people do not have ready access to affordable and nutritious meals.
That pretty much describes the situation in the Asylum Hill neighborhood in the shadow of downtown Hartford's gleaming insurance and government buildings.
A fire early this week gutted the Sigourney Market -- not just a store -- but a food oasis in Asylum Hill. Its loss has left residents without a place to get groceries within walking distance. It's a poor neighborhood, says one
longtime resident - who frets that the area does not get much service. Another resident says she'll have to pay for a ride or take a bus just to get what's needed to make dinner.
But -- there is a ray of hope.
Sixty five year old Luis Rodriguez could only watch in grief as the market he's owned for 30 years was reduced to ashes. He's determined, he says, to rebuild.