Seriously, this is a term, now.
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Anyone want to launch a campaign to get this issue into the DNC platform? I bet we could manage it. “How can we, as a country, hope for a post-racial society when we cannot even promise the least among us post-racial potato products??? How can we integrate hope and change into our everyday lives when we segregate our health foods?”
A Los Angeles councilwoman starts by alleging that there are no food options other than fast food in South-Central Los Angeles, and goes on to allege that she is therefore forced to use government ordinances to expand choice by prohibiting an entire segment of restaurants from moving in– fast-food. The logic is lost on me, too.
As is the case with most justifications for heavy-handed nanny-statery, however, the councilwoman’s claims aren’t actually true:
So, a majority of South L.A. restaurants– 55 percent– serve the non-fast-food options that the councilwoman claims her constituents don’t have.
An executive director of a local community group provides anecdotal evidence in support of “food apartheid,” which is also not actually true:
In fact, a Google Maps search of the neighborhood near her building reveals a Subway Subs and Salads shop about 2 miles from the Community Coalition. There are also several grocery stores (although some are mini-marts) within walking distance.
The Washington Post, not afraid to rely heavily on quotes and anecdotes, offers this observation:
There are actually several choices at McDonald’s, on the very menu from which Jessica ordered. There are 14 salads available at most McDonald’s, if you count all the salads prepared with each type of chicken, ranging from about 200-500 calories. Jessica also had the option to replace her fries with mandarin oranges and her soda with milk, but availed herself not. The WaPo also mentions a Taco Bell (9 options on a low-fat menu), KFC (6 salads), Pizza Hut and Quizno’s (5 salads, separate low-cal menu) in the neighborhood.
There are undoubtedly nutrition problems in America’s low-income neighborhoods, but they are largely a reflection of individual choices, not an unfair array of dietary choices that should be remedied by banning fast food. In fact, the fast-food industry’s shift toward healthier options in recent years has yielded a decent array of healthy choices for very low prices, which would simply be eliminated by Perry’s government overreach.
The irony in this situation is that Jan Perry has been on a years-long crusade to make healthy food more expensive for her low-income District 9 constituents:
In 2006, she backed an “ordinance prohibiting any buyer of a grocery store larger than 15,000 square feet from firing any employee in the first 90 days without sufficient ’cause.’ Even after 90 days, cutbacks would be dictated in order of seniority,” according to an L.A. Times editorial.
In 2004, she backed an ordinance to keep one of America’s lowest-priced grocers (Wal-Mart) out of the area:
Someone should tell Perry that the last thing the people of District 9 need in their diets is more of her ill-advised laws.
Update: As I was saying…
