PrintBy Glenn Mueller
Senior Writer/Editor
Big Brother is watching you! And if you happen to live in Southern Los Angeles, he is also keeping a close eye on the restaurants in your neighborhood.
The City Council in Los Angeles unanimously voted to place a halt on the development of new fast food restaurants in areas of Southern and Southeast Los Angeles. The moratorium would affect a 32-square-mile region of the city with about 500,000 residents.
Many of the residents of South Los Angeles don’t own cars, so they have limited access to fresh, healthy food. The ruling is intended to help attract healthier restaurants to this part of the city and give city planners enough time to analyze the current development trends.
According to statistics from the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health, a full 30 percent of adults currently living in South Los Angeles are obese — as compared to just over 19 percent for the metropolitan area of the city and about 14 percent for the Westside. Furthermore, 73 percent of the restaurants currently in South Los Angeles are fast-food eateries — as compared to only 42 percent of the restaurants in West Los Angeles. South L.A. also has fewer grocery stores than the rest of the city, according to the Los Angeles Times.
For the purposes of this piece of legislation, council members have defined fast-food restaurants as “those that do not offer table service and provide a limited menu of pre-prepared or quickly heated food in disposable wrapping.” Casual dining restaurants such as Subway and El Pollo Loco are exempt from the moratorium. The legislation also wouldn’t affect fast-food restaurants currently open in South L.A., though it would make it difficult for them to expand or remodel during the coming year.
But the moratorium isn’t official yet. The mayor still has to sign it into law, and it is expected there will be legal opposition from the California Restaurant Association. Representatives from the fast-food chains say they are being unfairly targeted. Plus, they argue, today’s fast-food restaurants do offer plenty of healthy items on their menus.
Whatever happens, it is likely that this piece of legislation could set a precedent.
So do you think it’s fair for the government to ban fast food? Share your opinion by commenting below.
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