Los Angeles looney...errr politician seeks to ban Fast Food

[Drtooth]

In respeonse to this thread I found a similarly stupid story about Fast Food Boycotts and Bans....

Source

Exiling the Happy Meal
Los Angeles Lawmakers Want to Escalate
The War on Obesity (And Fast Food)
By SARAH MCBRIDE
July 22, 2008; Page A14

Despite its health-crazy reputation, parts of Los Angeles are plagued by obesity rates that rival any city in America. Now, the city may join a growing roster of local governments aiming to put their residents on diets by cracking down on the fast-food industry.


In an effort to fight obesity, Los Angeles is proposing to ban fast food restaurants in one neighborhood, tapping into a tougher attitude toward fast food.
Jan Perry, a Los Angeles city-council member, is spearheading legislation that would ban new fast-food restaurants like McDonald's and KFC from opening in a 32-square-mile chunk of the city, including her district. The targeted area is already home to some 400 fast-food restaurants, she says, possibly contributing to high obesity rates there -- 30% of adults, compared with about 21% in the rest of the city. Nationally, 25.6% of adults are obese, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

While some cities have bans on new fast-food establishments, they typically are for aesthetic reasons or to protect local businesses. Ms. Perry's initiative seems to be a rare instance in which a major city brings health issues into restaurant zoning. The fast-food ban would last a year, although Ms. Perry hopes to make it permanent. On Tuesday, a committee will make a recommendation on the measure before sending it on to the full city council for a vote.

With the ordinance, Los Angeles is tapping into a tougher attitude toward fast food that is emerging at city halls around the country. Cities have begun banning ingredients, regulating menu information and now dictating whether restaurants are healthy enough to open in their communities. Advocates say the measures are crucial in the fight against obesity, diabetes and other diseases and health conditions. Foes say the rules go too far, violating important freedoms.

The restaurant industry says the measures place too much blame at its door.

"We have a fundamental problem with government stepping in and treating restaurants as if they are engaged in activity that is at the root of the obesity epidemic," says Jot Condie, president of the California Restaurant Association. He blames the epidemic on a web of factors, including sedentary lifestyles and lack of nutrition education.

While most local legislation applies to chain restaurants, typically defined as restaurants with more than 10 or 15 branches in the area or state, the ordinance in Los Angeles specifically targets fast food. It defines fast food as having characteristics including "a limited menu" and "food served in disposable wrapping or containers."

In New York City, a law kicked in earlier this year requiring fast-food restaurants to post calorie counts on the main menu right above the counter. San Francisco plans to implement a similar regulation later this year. In both cities, the restaurant industry is suing to try to block the calorie-disclosure rules; in New York, appeals-court judges allowed the city to proceed with the program while they consider the case.

The calorie-posting rules come on the heels of a ban on coronary-clogging artificial transfats, or fats with added hydrogen, in New York City restaurants. Many chains have already removed transfats from their kitchens. Now, copycat legislation is popping up around the country. A ban in Boston goes into effect in September; in Baltimore, a ban takes effect next year. California legislators have sent a bill to Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger that would remove transfats from restaurants and bakeries statewide.

Government officials say they must attack all causes of obesity. In New York, city officials have said the new information on menus will save people from obesity and diabetes. The ordinance pending in Los Angeles appears particularly tough, because it would halt the opening of any fast-food restaurant in a large part of the city. But it might not be the last such measure. The Los Angeles planning department says it has had calls from several cities asking for copies of the pending ordinance. Already, "the influence is there," says Faisal Roble, the city planner who drafted the ordinance.

Many area residents say they support the ban -- even those who patronize the restaurants regularly. "It's a good idea," particularly for children, says Rafael Escobar, 69 years old, as he bites into a McDonald's sausage breakfast burrito. He thinks the move might encourage other types of food businesses to come into the neighborhood.

"There's not that many alternatives," says Hector Rodriguez, a bus driver toting a bag from the Del Taco chain of Mexican fast-food restaurants. He says he frequently stops along the strip of fast-food restaurants lining Figueroa Boulevard to pick up a snack or lunch. "If there were other choices, like a salad place or a supermarket, it would be better," he says.


But Brian Mason, a student stopping off at McDonald's, says a ban on further fast-food restaurants will do little to address underlying health problems. A better solution, Mr. Mason says, is nutrition education. And several patrons, including families with children, say they will keep coming, their young children in tow, no matter what other choices a fast-food ban might bring.

Nationally, the restaurant industry is taking different approaches to the situation. One is basic: introducing healthier menu items and voluntarily removing transfats to meet customers' demands and in the hope of heading off legislation.

But where it views local legislation as going too far, the industry hasn't hesitated to sue. In New York and San Francisco, it is fighting the new calorie-posting rules partly on the grounds that they are violations of free speech, because they force businesses to articulate government messages. New York has already retooled its requirements once, because a judge last year agreed with restaurateurs that the proposed rule conflicted with federal regulations.

In Los Angeles, the industry is taking a more conciliatory approach. "There is a point where we have to accept a reality, whether we like it or not, and try to make it as workable as possible," says Mr. Condie of the restaurant association. For example, the industry successfully lobbied for a proviso that will allow for exceptions to the ban if fast-food restaurants meet certain conditions, like forgoing the construction of a drive-through window and proving there isn't a rival fast-food restaurant within 750 feet.

Councilman Ed Reyes, part of whose district would be affected by the ban, says he expects many complaints from fast-food owners about their right to do business in the neighborhood. He is prepared with counterarguments. "Health and social issues are the overriding issues, in my mind," he says. "It's not too different to how we regulate liquor stores."

Ms. Perry, the council member leading the legislation, says she sees the measure as just one part of a multipronged effort to fight obesity, including building parks to encourage exercise, encouraging more grocery stores to come into the neighborhood, boosting nutrition education and improving health care. Reining in fast food "is just one factor, but as an elected official, it's my prerogative" to work on all fronts, she says.

Yeah! That's going to solve the problem in a heart beat. It absolutely will. And the laziness and poverty factors that are hidden in the REAL obesity problem.

I hate to agree with conservative lobbyists, but banning everything IS taking away people's freedom of choice and it doesn't do anything but make forbidden fruit sweeter. And it still doesn't address the fact that poor people have to live on crappy high fat foods, and the extreme laziness of the general public. The 2 things that REALLY have a hand in obesity. How about using the tax dollars to take things away, give school students QUALITY food? And how about encouraging big buisness to have their workers engage in a maditory piad hour of excersize like other (healthier) countries do?

[Evenstar227]

In New York and San Francisco, it is fighting the new calorie-posting rules partly on the grounds that they are violations of free speech, because they force businesses to articulate government messages.

Huh? How could educating the public be a violation of free speech? If anything, posting exactly how gross/unhealthy their food is might cause them to start doing things differently, as people won't buy their food.

Banning restaurants isn't the answer. Educating consumers and offering better options is the key.

[Buslady]

Yeah right...I'd like to see this broad try to ban In N Out...there would be a RIOT.

[Machias Banshee]

Ugh... It always starts small, and then next thing you know, you're left eating Soylent Green and living the book '1984'...

They can try and ban every kind of junk food and fast food restaurant, but it's not going to work in the end. If anything, it could make things worse...

Okay, so you shut down all the fast food joints in the state. But if you look, there's all SORTS of places that sell this kinda junk: convenience stores, gas stations, mini-marts... are they going to ban them too? That's a LOT of jobs out the window. The kid at the fryolator to pay for college, the single mom taking drive-thru orders, the guy dishing out macn'cheese to supplement his retirement... How are they going to make a living?

Dude, can you Imagine a 'junk-food black market'? I think the idea is funny, but it's not far from happening. If a person's in the mood for junk food, no government official is going to cram a salad down their throat. This idea that we are unable to make our own decisions about what we can or cannot eat, and that it should be a government-enforced law, is ridiculous.

Yes, there are a Lot of overweight folks in the country - over 50% of the US population. But the idea that it's all because of us being lazy slobs that do nothing but sit around and eat is ridiculous. There are Plenty of studies showing that a Large part of weight is Genetic, not how many times you hit Taco Bell.

Mississippi tried to pull something like this a few months back. It never passed, they did it purely for shock value, and even Said they didn't think it would work. Now, I'm just waiting for the carbon/fat taxes to begin. Maybe then people'll be in the streets with torches and pitchforks..


I can't stand politics*, any of it. Personal responsibility and Common sense are being snuffed out by this communistic frame of mind...


* Yes, I said the taboo word, politics. I'd like to think that as long as Everyone can be mature about this, we may be able to work our ways up to having some good, in-depth conversations about this stuff in the future.. *crosses fingers*

[Ra]

Originally Posted by Machias Banshee

Dude, can you Imagine a 'junk-food black market'? I think the idea is funny, but it's not far from happening.

Well, they did it with alchol in the 1920's, didn't they? What's to stop it happening again with junk food? I really can't stop laughing at the mental image of a Chocolate Dealer though.

I seriously can't see this idea getting off the ground. At all. Like it or not, but fast food has become a major part of everyone's lives. Late for work? Forget making toast. Just drive to McDonalds and grab a breakfast meal. Not in the mood to cook? Call Domino's for pizzas to simply drive themselves to your house. And don't get me started on the Krispy Kreames.

It's all interwoven so tightly into our lives to the point where it will be like ripping a part of ourselves out of the system. The idea of drastically altering our lifestyles to make this idea work is pretty much laughable, actually. Humans are all creatures of habit. I doubt that the majority of the population will be able to do it for a week before the local Taco Bell gets reopened again.

[KROW]

How much you wanna bet this Jan Perry goes to Dunkin Donuts every morning for her coffee and crullers? Yeah, this campaign ain't moving anytime soon... and if it does, she better leave Arby's alone.

[Hannah]

Well... you can't say we don't need it.

[Sewer Bull]

I don't eat fast foods now, so they can burn.

[NightwatchersOnlygirl]

I hope it don't happen in the UK

[Buslady]

its not that we do or dont need it, it's that our freedom of choice is taken away.
If one wants to be fat and eat crap...let them.

[Hannah]

If someone wants to kill themselves, let them!

Oh wait... that's illegal.

[Sewer Bull]

Originally Posted by Buslady

its not that we do or dont need it, it's that our freedom of choice is taken away.

Freedom of choice when it comes to choosing the fast food corporation?

I'd call it an oxymoron.

[Buslady]

No it's chosing where you want to eat, what you want and what you want on it.

[Drtooth]

Originally Posted by Evenstar227

Huh? How could educating the public be a violation of free speech? If anything, posting exactly how gross/unhealthy their food is might cause them to start doing things differently, as people won't buy their food.

Exactly... we need more of that and less smacking the food out of peoples' hands.

if you really want to make people healthier, make the healthy options more accessable. I've heard horror stories of people who live near more McD's than supermarkets.

It seems like everyone who starts this sort of crap are well to do enough to go to Whole Foods and buy organic everything. Take a look at the real data. People are fat because they're freaking poor. They have to work multiple jobs and can't cook. There are so many social issues that are more important. Give all the time money and effort to schools so kids don't have to eat stuff made out of lard and government surplus flour at school.

[Hannah]

I'd like a double order of type 2 diabetes with a side of heart failure. WAHAHAHA!

[Drtooth]

And I'd like an order of an extremely small stmp of meat in a gigantic plate that costs as much as a Buik.

[Stimor]

i ate a burger once, now i fear it will cause my horrid and early death

[Jester]

Fast Food is the evil and must be destroyed. Thank you government for taking away my right to choose for myself to be a fat tub, by making sure I eat a well balanced diet consisting of 1 bowl of Special K and a bran muffin....

[Hannah]

No. You're all dumb. I give up.

[Buslady]

Originally Posted by Jester

Fast Food is the evil and must be destroyed. Thank you government for taking away my right to choose for myself to be a fat tub, by making sure I eat a well balanced diet consisting of 1 bowl of Special K and a bran muffin....

You want In N Out......*makes mind controlling moves* You want In N Ooouuutttt......


Yeah I wanna 4x4 Animal style, animal fries and a shake...