Strange

Bye Bye Burgers, South L.A. to Ban Fast-Food

by Jarrett Martineau | December 13, 2007 at 10:55 am

776 views | 10 Recommendations | 3 comments

Fast-food is inherently linked to its price point, availability, and accessibility, so it will be interesting to see what the impact will be of removing its convenience, if South Los Angeles is succcessful in banning fast-food restaurants.

Will initial public resistance, as has happened with smoking bans, be replaced with enthuasistic support? Or will customers simply drive further afield to get their fix?

A city panel in South Los Angeles is taking action to fight the epidemic of obesity by moving to eliminate a leading cause. On Tuesday, the council’s Planning and Land Use Committee approved a proposal to ban fast food restaurants from the area. The bill will proceed to be considered by the full city council. There is of course controversy surrounding the proposal because it specifies ‘quick service’ as the target for the ban and not food types based on health criteria.

If this ban goes through, might it have the same ripple effect as the smoking ban or the transfat ban?

Despite concerns over its broad sweep, a city panel on Tuesday moved ahead with a plan to ban fast-food restaurants in South Los Angeles.

The proposal from Councilwoman Jan Perry was approved by the council's Planning and Land Use Committee even though two city officials said they believe more work on the ordinance is needed.

"We have a serious problem in my district with fast-food restaurants and the increasing level of obesity and diabetes," Perry told the panel.

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Jordan Yerman

flagged this story as Good Stuff

at 11:04 on December 13th, 2007

An interesting situation. I'm not a fan of fast food*, but the real problem here is not availability but personal responsibility: if we just ban everything that's unhealthy, we do our population no real favors-- folks have to make responsible decisions for themselves at some point, and few decisions are more important than what we put into our bodies.

(*I make an exception for In-n-Out Burger)

QuinTes

at 11:15 on December 13th, 2007

This photo belongs to my photostream located at http://flickr.com/photos/quintes

ojt

at 12:55 on December 13th, 2007

I"m not advocating fast food but I am sick and tired of the lefties in LA trying to rule the rule weird their own desires and acting like they are speaking on behalf of the world.