(The Center Square) – With another major grocery store in Seattle set to close later this month, the issue of food and medicine deserts is a growing concern for some Emerald City residents. Seattle’s two mayoral candidates have different approaches to taking on the problem.
Food deserts are neighborhoods with limited access to affordable, nutritious food. Medicine deserts are areas lacking sufficient healthcare providers or pharmacies.
The two mayoral candidates’ urgency to address food and medicine deserts in Seattle comes on the heels of the closure of the Fred Meyer grocery store in the Lake City neighborhood later this month.
On Wednesday, Mayor Bruce Harrell proposed legislation to ban anti-competitive covenants that prevent new grocery stores and pharmacies from opening in former locations, a measure aimed at addressing these disparities.
Harrell’s proposal would make “restrictive covenants” illegal. These agreements – put on a property’s deed or lease – block efforts to bring new grocery stores and pharmacies into existing spaces that could easily accommodate them.
According to a news release from Harrell’s office, there have been at least two covenants restricting a property’s future use as a grocery store on properties within Seattle. These covenants limited the square footage of any future grocery store at that location for as long as 50 years.
“When a company closes a grocery store or pharmacy, they can add a restrictive covenant into a property’s deed or lease that blocks a new grocery or pharmacy from locating at the same place,” Harrell explained in the news release. “They do this to block competitors, and these actions harm neighborhoods and contribute to grocery and pharmacy deserts.”
Harrell’s challenger in next month’s general election, Katie Wilson – a progressive activist and former executive director of the Transit Riders union – favors a more interventionist approach.
She has floated ideas such as public option grocery stores and grocery-oriented development zones known as GODZ.
The Center Square reached out to Wilson to learn more on her plans to address food deserts, but she did not provide comment at the time of this publication due to her preparations for Friday’s mayoral debate.
Wilson previously spoke on the Fred Meyer closure announcement in Lake City, saying it will be a tough fight against major grocery corporations in preventing food deserts.
“We’ve decided that we will not accept food deserts as the inevitable cost of doing business [and] we will not allow giant grocery corporations to stomp all over our neighborhoods,” Wilson said.
Wilson has proposed a vacancy tax to incentivize property owners to rent their properties for residential or commercial use. According to Wilson’s campaign website, revenue from the tax would also go toward small business and homeownership support.
If a vacancy tax is ultimately passed, it would come at a time when a good chunk of the city’s downtown buildings becoming vacant. The Downtown Seattle Association’s 2024 report found that the city’s total office vacancy rate for the downtown area was 21.5% at the end of last year.
Harrell’s proposed legislation includes an emergency clause, which means it would take effect immediately upon being signed into law. The city council is expected to vote on the legislation later this month.
