Eddy Wrote:As much as I dislike the obesity epidemic I really don't think government should be involved. People have the right to make a choice in their dietary selection even if they do eat the wrong items.
Eddy, Jen M is right. The government is NOT taking away the choice in their dietary selection. A local council member representing that part of LA wants his/her neighbors to HAVE choices for the first time. The city council agreed, so instead of ONLY having Burger King and In & Out, they have a shot at some other choices for a change. As it is now, the only choice they DO have is to leave their area and go somewhere else for better food. It ain't fair that the residents of West Hollywood and Santa Monica get all the choices and the poorer areas get a bucket of fried shit and no other options.
I wish the city council in San Diego would step in and do the same thing for my neck of the woods. If I want something other than Jack In the Box and McDonald's I have to drive quite a ways to get it. If I didn't have a car and relied only on the spotty buses, I'd also have no options other than fried buckets of shit. I'm not rich enough to live in Hillcrest and La Jolla where the great food is (i.e. where the rich white folk live), so I must drive all over the place to get the good stuff.
Interesting point, but are there incentives for healthy food places to move to that area? If they don't think there is enough interest to sustain their location they won't go.
kirby Wrote:Interesting point, but are there incentives for healthy food places to move to that area? If they don't think there is enough interest to sustain their location they won't go.
From what I heard on the radio the other day, those poorer neighborhoods lose lots of revenue from people going to other parts of town looking for better options. If they had choices and options in their own areas, then they would spend the money there. I certainly wouldn't mind burning up less gas and spending my money in my area of San Diego. Just to go to the supermarket I want, Whole Foods, I have to go nearly 20 miles round trip on the freeway.
I guess we'll have to wait and see if the healthier places set up shop there in LA (if there are real incentives) and if the locals want to spend money in them. If not, then the places will eventually close and the buckets of fried shit places will go back to rubber stamping their places all down the streets over and over, like usual.
kirby Wrote:Interesting point, but are there incentives for healthy food places to move to that area? If they don't think there is enough interest to sustain their location they won't go.
This is the problem. Lots of more "upscale" stores (food or otherwise) don't want to open stores in poor areas because the people there cannot afford the merchandise and the store (and its employees) is at a much higher risk for theft and violent crime than it is in a more affluent area.
Nadleeh Wrote:kirby Wrote:Interesting point, but are there incentives for healthy food places to move to that area? If they don't think there is enough interest to sustain their location they won't go.
This is the problem. Lots of more "upscale" stores (food or otherwise) don't want to open stores in poor areas because the people there cannot afford the merchandise and the store (and its employees) is at a much higher risk for theft and violent crime than it is in a more affluent area.
Very good point. I live in a rural small-city. We lost our Winn-Dixie (a mid-scale southern grocery chain), which was for us our upscale grocery store, with fresh seafood, a bakery, etc. Now we are stuck with a Harvey's (a low-scale southern grocery chain) and the Walmart Super Center. Our chamber of commerce has been working overtime to get another upscale grocery store here, but Publix, Ingles, Kroger, Food Lion, and Albertson's have all turned us down -- we don't meet their "demographic profile" (read, too many minorities, low average/mean income, etc).
I wonder if they've tried to get something like Whole Foods here? -- but I'll bet it's the same "demographic profile" problem. We aren't white enough or rich enough to attract those kinds of stores.
That's infuriating.
Jen M.