In an era where governments seem to be outdoing each other to encourage their citizens to live better lives (no smoking in restaurants and bars in France or Spain; no trans-fats allowed in New York restaurants; no unhealthy food in Vancouver food carts; no cars allowed here there and everywhere), Los Angeles is earning headlines for its decision to prohibit any new fast-food joints from opening in south-central LA.
Thank goodness it’s not banning the old ones. One of my favourite outings in LA was to deepest, darkest Compton to search out a place called Honey’s Kettle Fried Chicken that had been recommended in LA magazine’s Cheap Eats issue. All the bars on the windows were scary. So was the air of general desolation on the dusty, bare streets. So was the realization that we might possibly be in the minority, by not carring a gun. (Being tourists, we hadn’t quite realized Compton wasn’t Venice Beach til we got there.)
But what I now realize is that our lives were mostly in danger because of the nutritional composition of the fried chicken and biscuits we ordered.
5 responses so far ↓
1 Joe Just Joe // Jan 17, 2011 at 7:16 am
Vancouver can’t ban fast food in poor neighbourhoods because there are no poor neigbbourhoods here…well at least not if we’re using real estate prices as an indicator.
I am more surprised that we haven’t banned any new drive thrus though.
2 Max // Jan 17, 2011 at 8:23 am
I watched a program on obescity in the US. It was a bit shocking that in certain areas there were no corner grocery stores, no veg markets just fast food places.
It was equally shocking to learn how many school age (elementary) children could not identify certain vegtables that were shown to them.
3 Creek'er // Jan 17, 2011 at 3:17 pm
Let them eat arugula!
4 David // Jan 18, 2011 at 9:45 am
How useful will this be. Max is right, some of these neighbourhoods have no grocery stores with fresh fruits and vegetables. So if they ban new fast food restaurants and the old ones go out of business, they’re essentially making it so that there will be nowhere where someone living in a neighbourhood like that can get food. How useful is that?
5 David // Jan 18, 2011 at 9:46 am
I say this because it isn’t as if they can force a grocer to open a store up in a deprived neighbourhood. They can’t say to Whole Foods, “You will open up a store in Compton, otherwise your banned from the rest of the city.”
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