New Fast Food Outlets Banned In South LA

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Main Category: Nutrition / Diet
Also Included In: Obesity / Weight Loss / Fitness;  Public Health
Article Date: 30 Jul 2008 - 11:00 PDT

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On Tuesday, Los Angeles City Council unanimously agreed to ban the opening of new fast food outlets in South LA for one year, in the hope this will give time for healthier restaurants to gain more of a foothold in a part of the city that one recent survey said had 30 per cent childhood obesity.

Representatives from McDonald's, Carl's Jr and other fast food companies said they were being unfairly targeted by the ban, which was proposed by Councilwoman Jan Perry, who would have preferred the ban to last for six years in order to give city planners more time to find ways to attract sit down restaurants offering healthier options.

Perry told the LA Times:

"I believe this is a victory for the people of South and southeast Los Angeles, for them to have greater food options."

The ban is the first of its kind, and does not become law until the mayor signs it.

According to the ban, a fast food restaurant is:

"Any establishment which dispenses food for consumption on or off the premises, and which has the following characteristics: a limited menu, items prepared in advance or prepared or heated quickly, no table orders and food served in disposable wrapping or containers."

It excludes "fast-food casual" outlets such as El Pollo Loco, Subway and Pastagina, that prepare fresh food to order, don't have drive-through windows, and don't have heat lamps to keep food warm.

30 per cent of children in South LA are obese, compared with 25 per cent of all children in the city, said a report from the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health last year. The area covered by the ban comprises some 32 square miles occupied by nearly half a million residents.

There were some objections from workers employed by the fast food chains who said that menus had been improving and the ban would hurt employment in the area.

Don Bailey, who runs a McDonald franchise he has owned in South LA for 22 years, told the LA Times that "McDonald's believes in healthy choices".

Others have said the move punishes the restaurant industry, and they are not to blame for the obesity crisis.

"It's not where you eat, it's what you eat," said Andrew Puzder, president and chief executive of CKE Restaurants, the parent company of Carl's Jr, who told reporters:

"We were willing to work with the city on that, but they obviously weren't interested."

The Associated Press reported that City Councilman Bernard Parks said:

"Our communities have an extreme shortage of quality foods".

Spokesman for the California Restaurant Association, Andrew Casana, said they will be considering legal action to challenge the ban.

73 per cent of South Los Angeles eateries were fast food outlets, compared to 42 per cent in West Los Angeles, said a report by the Community Health Councils.

Perry said people in South Los Angeles were tired of fast food, and many didn't have cars to drive out of the area to places with more choice. She has held five community meetings in the last two years to seek local opinion on the move.

According to the Associated Press, LA's City Community Redevelopment Agency has been working on a package of measures to attract healthier restaurants into inner city areas. Incentives include help in finding appropriate building sites, tax credits, low interest loans, discounted utility rates and fund matching for doing things like burying power cables.

Source: LA Times, Associated Press.

Written by: Catharine Paddock, PhD
Copyright: Medical News Today
Not to be reproduced without permission of Medical News Today