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Thursday, December 20, 2007

LA City Council to ban fast food in poor neighborhoods

Yeah this is really a genious move. Instead of banning fast foods how about encouraging the building of super markets that sell healthier food instead of attempting to ban a business from opening up shop. They kind of got it backwards.

Also this article from PajamasMedia suggest that the City Council of Los Angeles thinks that the poor are too stupid to make smart decisions about what they consume. If that's true then this is not an excuse to even try something like this...

Better hold on to your burger: The nanny state is coming to rip that Whopper outta your hands. Begone, fatty fries! Chase away that chicken sandwich that, well, happens to be skinless and grilled, but could have a smear of mayonnaise on the bun. After all, there’s a chance that consumers may be too dumb to hold that mayo, or to sub a side salad for the salty fries.

But even if you think that a government has a right to regulate healthy choices for its citizens, this might vanilla-shake you right out of that nanny state mentality.

Here in Los Angeles, the City Council’s Planning and Land Use Committee pushed forward a proposal by Councilwoman Jan Perry to ban new fast-food restaurants. Not on the tony Westside, mind you, or even the solidly middle-class Valley.

No, the bureaucratic schoolmarms that be are just targeting South Los Angeles with the ordinance.

Because the nanny state says poor people are evidently too dumb to pick food for themselves.

“We have a serious problem in my district with fast-food restaurants and the increasing level of obesity and diabetes,” Perry told the committee last week.

Never mind that the obesity could have something to do with the fact that it’s not safe for kids to run and play in gang-choked streets. It’s also a fact that low-income families can hardly feed the kids off the Whole Foods market deli and still be able to pay the rent. Fast-food joints, in addition to offering more healthy choices than ever before, also have these things called dollar menus that have helped fill the tummies of college students and the homeless alike.

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