Fast Food Ban Gains Support Among City Lawmakers

Support for a fast food ban in New York is growing among city lawmakers after the Los Angeles City Council passed an unprecedented bill Tuesday that would make the addition of new fast food restaurants in certain areas of the city illegal for at least one year.

"People are literally being poisoned by their diets — LA's idea deserves serious consideration as we look for holistic solutions to a serious problem. A moratorium may help stem the problem," Council Member Eric Gioia, who represents Queens, said in a statement yesterday.

Some city residents, however, immediately voiced opposition to such a ban. "Banning fast food would be stupid," a 38-year-old warehouse worker in downtown Brooklyn, Dennis Bouknight, said. "They should just let people eat what they want to eat."

The executive vice president for the New York office of the New York State Restaurant Association, Charles Hunt, said banning fast food in predominantly low-income areas could cause more problems than it solves. Fast food, he said, is often the only option for low-income residents.

"I know they are trying to combat obesity," he said of the Los Angeles proposal, "but where are these people supposed to go?"

The West Coast bill comes more than two years after the chairman of the New York City Council's health committee, Joel Rivera, lobbied for similar legislation that would have limited the number of fast food establishments by changing the city's zoning laws.

The council's minority leader, James Oddo, a Republican of Staten Island, said he isn't usually in support of more government interference in people's lives but that the idea of a fast food ban in New York could reduce the taxes residents pay to underwrite the unhealthy lifestyles of those who cannot afford their own health care.

"I drive around my district and I see people engaging in incredibly unhealthy lifestyles that I know I pay for, to some degree," Mr. Oddo said in an interview. "If there's a way to make them have a healthier lifestyle so I don't pay for it, I would be open to it."

The Los Angeles City Council voted unanimously Tuesday to put a one-year moratorium on new fast food restaurants in South Los Angeles, where the council said such eateries are numerous and the rate of obesity is above average for the city. The area is also one of the city's poorest. The mayor of Los Angeles, Antonio Villaraigosa, must approve the ordinance for it to become law.

A 20-year-old student emerging from a Brooklyn McDonald's at lunchtime yesterday, Maurice Joyner, said: "I eat this stuff all the time, even though I know better. That would probably make me lose some weight. People would have to adjust where they eat instead of settling for this."

The city's Department of Health and Mental Hygiene yesterday declined to comment on the ban.