LA City Councilwoman Jan Perry (not my council-critter) wants a moratorium on the opening of fast food joints here in South Central LA because someone is telling her that none of us down here in the 'hood can get a ready-made salad unless we go to the "other" 'hood.
"You try to get a salad within 20 minutes of our location; it's virtually impossible," said [executive director of South Central LA's Community Coalition, Marqueece] Harris-Dawson.Apparently, neither Harris-Dawson or Perry hasn't been in a McDonald's or a Subway or darn near any fast-food restaurant lately. I have and guess what! They sell salads in all of them--and in Subway's case, a pretty decent one. I know exactly where this Community Coalition is located. Guess which fast food franchise is about to open up down the street from it.
Perry quoted research showing that although 16 percent of restaurants in prosperous West L.A. serve fast food, they account for 45 percent in South L.A. Experts see an obvious link to a health department study that found that 29 percent of South-Central children are obese, compared with 23 percent county-wide.I'll tell you why children are obese and why no chi-chi food businesses other than franchised ones will be opening 'round my way. In order to help illustrate why, I'll paste the following paragraph, in which the only thing relevant to my point is the bolded phrase.
Polishing his minivan at the corner of Slauson and Vermont avenues -- where the dining options were KFC/Hot Wings, Taco Bell/Pizza Hut, McDonald's and, on the fourth corner, Quiznos -- Tony Dubon said he walks home and cooks a plate of eggs [Ed note: that's not salad] rather than eat at any of them.A few weeks ago, I was in my car about to turn right from Vermont into a small shopping center located at Slauson and Vermont Avenues. I stopped to allow a pair of pedestrians to cross, then turned. Literally two seconds later, I hear gunfire behind me. I look in my rear-view mirror to see several young men, clad in white t-shirts, running as fast as they could. Gang members. I notice that the (stupid) people around me are running toward the shooting area as I am driving away from it. It's roughly 5:00PM on a weekday.
(It was only later when the magnitude of what had happened hit me. It was as if God had halted the shooters briefly so that I could get to safety; once I had turned into the shopping center parking lot, I was out of the line of fire and blocked by buildings on either side.)
Here's the point: city children are going to continue to have an obesity problem--not because of Mickey Ds, but because of a**holes like those gang members who would endanger anyone and everyone in broad daylight--at rush hour! Here's another point: few non-franchise chi-chi restaurants are going to locate in such areas because they can't afford the insurance and why should they spend the extra money? Who the heck would want to under such circumstances? I wouldn't.
All such a ban would do is depress the area further, deprive area kids of jobs and make gang-banging more attractive to some.
But maybe that's part of the social(ist) agenda of LA. BTW, salad fixings are always available in Ralph's and Vons. Free choice, folks. Every heard of it? And stop whining about food!
(Thanks to My Undead Brutha from anutha mutha)
