You know you live in the ghetto when...
someone steals the actual garage door (the one meant for cars) off the abandoned house next door in broad daylight on a weekend. We came home from church around 11:15 and it (and the garage door opener) were gone by 2. I'm sure it had some value for scrap metal, and the opener could be pawned. But seriously--stealing something that big? That takes some planning. Even the local neighborhood association thought this was a new one.
Of course the house is abandoned because its caught up in a scam that was part of the larger mortgage crisis, which itself is having its strongest toll on our much poorer than average area. But that's the big picture.
Of course we'll know that local food has truly arrived when Wal-Mart starts offering it, but 
One issue that's really caught my attention as I've begun my graduate studies is the local food movement. The idea here is that we should invest more in locally based economies--promoting more ethical relationships between people and the environment, and forming a base for sustainable economic development rather than the "race to the bottom" promoted by globalization/export based economies. In the food world, this has gotten somewhat silly at times, with challenges to "eat local" in which consumers limit themselves to food produced with x number of miles of their homes. I'm sorry, but I live in Minnesota. The idea of carrots and potatoes all winter doesn't quite appeal.