Posted on 06/21/2006 5:29:21 PM PDT by NormsRevenge
NEW YORK - In a town where you can get a slice of pizza or a hot dog on nearly every block, one city councilman wants to limit the number of fast food restaurants as a way to fight obesity.
Councilman Joel Rivera, health committee chairman, said at a hearing Wednesday he was exploring the idea of using zoning laws to prevent fast food joints from taking over city streets. More than half of adult New Yorkers are overweight or obese.
"You're not going to totally eliminate fast food restaurants, but you could limit the amount," Rivera said after the hearing.
He said there is a high concentration of fast food eateries in low-income communities, and suggested that might to contribute to obesity rates, which also tend to be greater in those areas.
Rivera said he plans to hold hearings on the matter — particularly to explore whether New York City zoning laws could be tweaked so specifically.
Mitchell Moss, professor of urban policy and planning at New York University, said it's unlikely any zoning resolution could dictate that level of detail. The zoning code for eating and drinking establishments does not distinguish types of food.
"And in a city like New York, where everybody is on the run, it's very hard to single out what is and isn't fast food," Moss added.
Can we have a law preventing Calorie Commies from running for City Council?
ping
It's time to limit councils of stupid councilmen.
This will never pass because the big real estate money won't want their universe of retail tenants limited. I have 4 fast food joints, and two restaurants just on the one block my office building faces in midtown.
Saving people from themselves, bump.
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Fat chance of that happening.
Let's follow you around, Mr. Joel Rivera, and see what the hell YOU do that isn't good for YOU and then pass a law to stop YOU from doing that.
Bizzzare!!
First the fiasco with the WOD (war on drugs).
I can't wait....we should call this
the "WOOF" (the War On Our Food )
Oh, and how about Michael Moore as the Food Czar?
It took them some time, in silence with befuddled looks, to get that. These are doctors.
Once this, busy body finds out zoning laws wont work, he'll change his objective.
He'll pass a law to limit the amount not by locations but by what you can order at one time.
LEAVE US ALONE!.....We aren't your hobby.
Except when located in older buildings such as one of my all-time favorites on West 72nd.
Factoids:
In the mid 1980's, the largest grossing KFC in the country was the one on 125th St. Probably still is.
The Mickey D's franchise, east of Penn Station, was started by a janitor and his family, they were all working two jobs min. and trading time at the store. They became millionaires long ago.
New York, New York, it's a hell of a town.
This is what inevitably happens in a major urbanized area where people are so disconnected from the natural world that they are literally bored to tears.
The article just proves what I've said for years. America has the fattest poor people in the world.
What an idiot. Are we a country of fat slobs? Yes compared to anywhere else we are. But whose fault is that? Its the people who choose to consume crap food by the bucket fulls fault for their own problems. It isn't the fault of anyone else. They have a choice as to what they put in their bodies. Nobody puts a gun to their head. I see no reason for government to limit consumer choice and the rights of bussiness owners because some people have no self control.
best hotdogs in the world are in lower Manhattan...
Only about 36 percent of NYC kids who go to public high schools graduate and Councilman Joel Rivera thinks fast food is an important concern? Talk about priorities.
The only problem is that PETA will complain that the wolves are getting too much fat and cholesterol in their diet.
"You're not going to totally eliminate fast food restaurants, but you could limit the amount."
Yes, and in the process create a defacto quota system which will discourage new investment in the sector and give the surviving fast food places less incentive to keep prices down and quality up.
Brilliant thinking. /sarc
This will hit the poor hardest. Getting a franchise is one of the less risky ways to make it for the people who don't have a lot of education and other opportunities. Most of what a franchise needs is just hard work, frugality, and common sense. This will cut off an avenue of upward mobility for many people.
Given it is New York, I suspect that to the councilman, whatever a woman wants to do with her body is ok with him, except get fat.
This is a possible government shakedown attempt. This will form a barrier to entry that will make the existing restaurants more profitable, and subject to less competition from newcomers. Existing companies would be paying the government to keep their competitors off their back, in exchange for a slice of the pie to the government in the form of licensing fees, etc. (Think taxicab companies)
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