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Los Angeles to Fast-Food Restaurants: Go Home!
September 11, 2007

The city of Los Angeles may decide to limit the number of fast-food eateries in South L.A. The reason: There are too many overweight people including kids living in the area, according the Los Angeles Times:

The City Council will be asked this fall to consider an up to two-year moratorium on new fast-food restaurants in South L.A., a part of the city where fast food is at least as much a practicality as a preference.

"The people don't want them, but when they don't have any other options, they may gravitate to what's there," said Councilwoman Jan Perry, who proposed the ordinance in June, and whose district includes portions of South L.A. that would be affected by the plan.

Putting limits on quick-service restaurants isn’t unusual. Cities and suburbs--usually affluent ones--have made restaurant companies conform to their design standards or banned units entirely. No big deal. You either compromise or open a unit a few miles away where officials are less picky. The yuppies still show up at the drive-thru.

The Los Angeles proposal is different. Officials are worried about the area’s growing obesity and related health problems. They believe eating in fast-food restaurants is largely the cause of the locals’ X-plus sizes.

In the 2004 documentary "Super Size Me," Morgan Spurlock ate three meals a day at McDonald's for 30 days to the detriment of his health.

Undoubtedly it is, to some degree. Many fast-food menu items are highly caloric because they’re offered in large portions. Think of Wendy’s triple burger with everything or Hardee’s Thickburger.

Oh, large fries and a 42-ounce soft drink with that, Mr. Spurlock?

There’s no crime in selling this stuff, to be sure, but if customers consume these products regularly, guess what? They’re bound to be loosening their belt buckles. And maybe their arteries start hardening. This is hardly a secret.

Still, fast-food operators want as many people as possible to eat their food as often as possible. And to accomplish that, they spend millions of dollars promoting tempting products at attractive prices. That’s simply business--good business, many would argue, given the popularity of fast-food brands in the United States and abroad.

But is it necessarily good when fast-feeders identify a neighborhood--say, a low-income one like South L.A., where many residents rely on public transportation to get to work--and open units, honing in on customers who likely haven’t much choice but to eat in their own neighborhood instead of at The Cheesecake Factory in Marina Del Rey?

For better or worse, that question is now on the minds of public officials in one of the country’s biggest cities.

Posted by David Farkas on September 11, 2007 | Comments (1)