Show City debates strict order for fast food Tami Abdollah L Los s Angeles Times t As America gets fatter policymakers are seeking creative approaches to legislating health They've been enter entering ng the school cafeteria and now they're eyeing your neighborhood Amid worries of an obesity ty epidemic and rela ted illnesses including high blood pressure diabetes r and heart disease Los Angeles officials among others around the country t I are proposing to limit new f food fast-food restaurants a aI I tactic that could be called health zoning he e City ity Council will be bei i as this c con coffin S ider idera Y a moratorium of up to tot tos t k ears s on r. r 3 food foo restaurants in south LA a part of the city where fast food is at least as much a practicality as a ar r preference The people dont don't want them but when they dont 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 LA that would be affected In just quarter one-quarter of a amile amile amile mile near the University of Southern California there are about 20 fast food fast food outlets To be honest its it's all we eat Rey Key Merlan said one recent lunch hour at a Kentucky Fried Chicken Everywhere its it's fast food everywhere Merlan said it wasn't likely that a limit on new restaurants would change peoples' peoples habits even though he thinks its it's a good idea Thirty percent of adults in south LA are obese compared with percent in Los Angeles C County County County overall according to a county Department of Public Health study released in April For children the obesity rate was 29 percent in south LA compared with percent in the county And the figures are higher than a decade ago In 1997 the adult rate was percent in south LA and percent in the county South LA also has the county's highest diabetes levels at percent compared with 81 percent in the county While food fast limiting cam a 1 af f restaurants S S t t a solution f i n nin in itself itself its it's an important p d dMark Mark director of the Center for Food and Justice at Occidental College This is bringing health policy and environmental policy together with land- land use planning he said I think that's smart and its it's the wave of the future Some cities already regulate food fast-food restaurants in certain areas including Berkeley and Arcata Calif Port Jefferson NY Concord Mass and Calistoga Calif ban fast- fast food restaurants in certain districts entirely according to LA city planner Faisal Roble who drafted Perrys Perry's ordinance But those earlier regulations are primarily tied to aesthetics or to 1 the prot protection of smaller busin businesses rather than to health concerns said David Gay LAs principal city planner Perrys Perry's ordinance a moratorium intended f fI y I N f i i.- i. i- i i I n ic tiLL i I ILos L LT Lr u l r a aD T 1 D 1 I 1 i Los Angeles Times photo by Mel Me Aid Melcon con About 45 percent of eateries in South Los Angeles are food fast-food chains or have ha little seating p eu f per cent i on the west sJ side An les a r to give th the city time to come up with a term long-term plan would if passed affect more than residents About 45 percent of the restaurants in south Los Angeles are food fast-food chains or restaurants with minimal seating Such concentrations of fast food have helped cultivate a reliance on their price and convenience said Gwendolyn Flynn policy director for the Community Health Councils a Los Angeles health policy advocacy organization Catalina Ayala 23 who grew up in south Los Angeles lives three blocks from a McDonalds McDonald's and anda a slew of other food fast-food restaurants and eats fast food about four times a week By the time I go home its it's already too late to cook food said Ayala who works at Los Angeles International Airport On a recent afternoon Ayala and her husband were at a McDonalds Their s year old son played in the indoor playground which for some families serves as their childrens children's park But her husband a 23 year-old year construction worker in south LA said he avoids fast food Its not for me he said Later on sometimes your son is too fat he eats too much That was one reason Terrah Cephas 32 left south LA for the San Fernando Valley about two years ago Its fast food on every corner but its it's not enough wholesome restaurants she said You Vou literally have to be willing to drive to Long Beach or Santa Monica or Inglewood That's if you have a car In south Los Angeles 28 percent of people live in poverty compared with percent of the county according to county figures That makes m any south LA residents almost a captive audience for these restaurants unfortunately rlynn saga saia South LA has lots lotsof lotsof lotsof of food fast-food restaurants because these restaurants do well in areas where people might not want to spend 15 on lunch said Dennis Lombardi executive vice president of Strategies at WD Partners a restaurant consulting company that works with Red Lobster Jamba Juice and among others But there also might be missed opportunities According to a 2005 market study contracted by the city south LA loses more than million annually in general merchandise grocery and restaurant sales to outside areas The community has decades suffered for decades decades by an assumption that attracting business of any type is is good and its it's not true Perry said The city defines food fast-food restaurants as those that sell food to eat there or to take out and have a limited menu items prepared in advance or heated quickly ly no table orders and disposable wrapping or containers Part of the debate is even what is fast food and its it's a trick tricky thing said city planner Gay Everybody has an impression but when you try to write an ordinance you have to be bevery bevery bevery very legalistic about it The restaurant industry opposes such ordinances in part because its it's difficult to define fast food and although Perrys Perry's proposal allows for exceptions some say that's not enough Restricting new restaurants to service full-service sit sit is were we're not going to allow anybody to sell ell Chevrolets anymore because we want people to buy nothing but Mercedes-Benzes Mercedes consultant Lombardi said Its convoluted logic If the objective is to get full- full service upscale casual dining restaurants in an anarea anarea anarea area I think the first step is finding out why they're not coming in an area then start addressing those and start by The city already offers such incentives in south LA including speedier permit processing Perry said And theres there's no way to ensure on one result getting people to change their eating habits Times staff writer Doug Smith contributed to this t f report r v rj W r |