L.A. Bans new Fast Food for 1 year

[30ashopper]

I like it! The more control in this arena the better, maybe there will be 30% less cases of type 2 diabetes, heart disease, etc. in that section of town --we need more of this type legislation.

Scooterbug, more clarity is needed between the term "fast" food, and "nourishing food,"
and "affordable, nourishing food"? Is there a link I missed here?

Echo's of public healthcare - everyone has a stake in how you eat, what you eat, and where you go to get it. Why can't we all just let people live their lives the way they chose?

 

[Bob]

did they ban Onion rings?

 

[rancid]

First off, this bill was introduced in 2007 and voted on in 2008 - this is not new news. Heres more to the reasoning behind the vote and concept.

It appears that the ban had just as much to do with urban planning as health issues - the goal was to keep South Central L.A. "from being swallowed up by drive-though fast food restaurants."

The urban "food desert," a neighborhood in which residents typically must travel twice as far to reach the closest supermarket or other mainstream grocer as people in better appointed neighborhoods, is not just a problem of social or economic justice; it's about public health as well. Faced with a lengthy trek to stock the kitchen with fresh food, many residents of food deserts instead rely on "fringe" retailers -- convenience stores, liquor stores, gas stations, and drug stores -- to provide basic food items. The result is a serious nutrition gap between those who live in areas of plenty and those who lack access to the basics. And poor nutrition leads to poor health and premature death.

In Detroit, Michigan, for example, more than half the city's 1,000-plus food retailers are fringe locations that offer little or nothing in the way of fresh or healthy food. According to a study commissioned by the La Salle Bank (via), more than half a million Detroit residents -- more, that is, than half the city's population -- live without easy access to fresh, affordable food. La Salle's survey found that for every 100 people living in the neighborhoods with the worst access to healthy food, a collective 64 years of life were lost. This higher rates of premature death from diabetes, cardiovascular disease, hypertension, and other diet-related diseases held true even after adjusting for racial and socioeconomic factors.

The problem isn't confined to blighted urban areas. In the Western states, 44 percent of the average county?s population has poor access to grocery stores; in the Midwest, 34 percent; in the South, 24 percent; in the Northeast, just 10 percent. Food deserts are even cropping up in suburbia, as people move onto former farmland and find themselves many miles distant from the makings of a nutritious meal. The impact on suburban residents, however, is often eased by the easy highway access provided to most suburbs, as well as the means to own the car that will get them to the grocery store down the road. Urban and rural food deserts, by contrast, can be similar in having little or no easy access to mass transit, leaving poorer residents -- who may lack the means to own a car -- with fewer options for getting to a market.

One possible way to cut the high rates of disease in food deserts is an outright ban on fast food restaurants, which tend to proliferate in areas where other food options are limited.

But to truly improve public health, such a move needs to be coupled with creating easy access to healthy food (as Susan said). Financial incentives to supermarkets encourage them to move into food deserts, and can also facilitate economic renewal: according to one study, every dollar spent on supermarket construction and operations generates $1.50 in economic activity. Incentives for neighborhood farmers markets -- such as those offered in blighted areas by the Project for Public Spaces -- can help these healthy food purveyors get started in communities where they traditionally have not thrived, and keep going long enough to establish themselves.

Microfarms on underutilized urban land are another option for providing low-cost, nutritious food to urban communities. As we've written before, urbanites around the United States have created incredible farms on small pieces of land. It's a concept Brooklyn resident and urban farmer Manny Howard has taken to its logical extreme by adding poultry and rabbit husbandry to his backyard farm -- revealing both the potential of urban farming and its limitations. In another example linked more firmly to social justice, Detroit Black Community Food Security Network (DBCFSN) operates a two-acre city farm on an abandoned downtown lot.

Thank you for an educated, enlightening, non-partisan response. Your post gave may new insight and changed my opinion on this issue.

Too bad you couldn't convey all this in a neat little soundbite or talking point as that is how most like to debate issues.

 

[Susan Horn]

Thank you for an educated, enlightening, non-partisan response. Your post gave may new insight and changed my opinion on this issue.

Too bad you couldn't convey all this in a neat little soundbite or talking point as that is how most like to debate issues.

That's a big reason why things are such a mess! Complex problems cannot be solved in soundbite-ese; mental laziness is not going to cut it. It is simplistic, reductionist thinking that created much of the mess we're in, and to paraphrase Einstein (I think): you can't solve a problem with the same thinking that created it. I other words, you have to get out of the box or change how you look at something to solve the problem. Another way to say that is, the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over while expecting a different result....

Systems based thinking, especially looking to natural systems as models for how we create and operate the built environment and humanity's relationship in and with nature, is an approach that I think has great potential to solve a lot of the complex and interrelated problems we face and make life on earth better and more abundant for everyone.

 

[scooterbug44]

I like it! The more control in this arena the better, maybe there will be 30% less cases of type 2 diabetes, heart disease, etc. in that section of town --we need more of this type legislation.

Scooterbug, more clarity is needed between the term "fast" food, and "nourishing food,"
and "affordable, nourishing food"? Is there a link I missed here?

It was from the Onion - I needed a break from dead celebrities and politics, so I thought this might generate some interesting discussion.

 

[poppy]

did they ban Onion rings?

read post #15

 

[Lynnie]

I think if they spin this as 'deliberate growth' instead of LA Bans Fast Foods Restuarants, more people would understand.

The concept of banning fast food restaurants goes against the grain of small businesses and free enterprise.

Having the government intervene on what people eat encourages government dependence as opposed to learning nutrition and practicing will power. I'm certain in S. LA there are grocery stores where residents can purchase fresh, healtful foods to prepare at home.

Again, we are back to people making choices for themselves. Choosing to drive thru a fast food drive up window everyday is a conscious choice. Tsk, tsk.

 

[Here4Good]

It's a moratorium, not a ban.

I think it's valid, as an urban planning mechanism, to place a moratorium on a type of business or class of building which is badly overbuilt, with a fixed time stated.

 

[Lynnie]

It's a moratorium, not a ban.

I think it's valid, as an urban planning mechanism, to place a moratorium on a type of business or class of building which is badly overbuilt, with a fixed time stated.

Absolutely. And, they should communicate this as Deliberate Urban Planning. This thread is spinning it as 30% of the children are obese and therefore we are banning growth and development of fast food restaurants for one year. Parental guidance, good nutrition, get outside and play would be a great campaign to abate child obesity.

I personally don't eat fast food except for a handful of times/yr. I really don't care how many fast foods restaurants are in any location, but they aren't the cause of obesity. Aside from a few certain medical conditions, obesity is caused by overeating and lack of exercise/proper nutrition.

There is a major road in my hometown that is peppered with stuff like this. Aesthetically, it's an eyesore. I choose a different route. In Atlanta, Buford Hwy., comes to mind......can't remember the last time I was on that road.

Interesting article, though not surpising twist. ;-)

 

[rancid]

Absolutely. And, they should communicate this as Deliberate Urban Planning. This thread is spinning it as 30% of the children are obese and therefore we are banning growth and development of fast food restaurants for one year. Parental guidance, good nutrition, get outside and play would be a great campaign to abate child obesity.

I personally don't eat fast food except for a handful of times/yr. I really don't care how many fast foods restaurants are in any location, but they aren't the cause of obesity. Aside from a few certain medical conditions, obesity is caused by overeating and lack of exercise/proper nutrition.

There is a major road in my hometown that is peppered with stuff like this. Aesthetically, it's an eyesore. I choose a different route. In Atlanta, Buford Hwy., comes to mind......can't remember the last time I was on that road.

Interesting article, though not surpising twist. ;-)

Buford Highway is more about interesting ethnic restaurants than fast food.
There are numerous very good restaurants along the road if you want to try various Asian and Hispanic cuisines.