LOS ANGELES —City Council member Jan Perry admits she is not a fan of fast-food restaurants, but she insists she’s not trying to shut them down.
Perry says she just wants to give her constituents more dining options, though so far the controversial new law she authored has appeared to inspire mostly ridicule from pundits and complaints from local residents, including the people Perry seeks to benefit. —City Council member Jan Perry admits she is not a fan of fast-food restaurants, but she insists she’s not trying to shut them down.
The lawmaker conceived the ordinance, which was passed last month by a 13-0 council vote, to halt new freestanding quick-service restaurants with drive-thrus from opening in a 32-square-mile southern area of the city that’s home to about 500,000 people. In hopes of attracting more full-service restaurants and grocery stores to the economically disadvantaged area, the city simultaneously will be promoting a range of financial incentives for start-ups there, though long-term return-on-investment questions would remain. —City Council member Jan Perry admits she is not a fan of fast-food restaurants, but she insists she’s not trying to shut them down.
At press time, the Interim Control Ordinance was expected to take effect by Aug. 11, barring any opposition by Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, whose signature was not required for enactment. —City Council member Jan Perry admits she is not a fan of fast-food restaurants, but she insists she’s not trying to shut them down.
The fast-food moratorium—affecting neighborhoods that are known to have nearly twice the ratio of fast-food eateries as in most other areas of Los Angeles—has sparked a vigorous debate about the role of public-policy makers as influencers of personal food choices and economic growth. —City Council member Jan Perry admits she is not a fan of fast-food restaurants, but she insists she’s not trying to shut them down.
Opponents of the law decry “nanny state” tactics that hamper free enterprise and single out certain neighborhoods and their residents for restrictive treatment. While saying the law smacks of paternalism, critics also point out that the City Council has failed to address such seemingly more urgent issues as subpar public health care in South Los Angeles, whose county hospital branch was shut down recently after years of mismanagement and neglect. —City Council member Jan Perry admits she is not a fan of fast-food restaurants, but she insists she’s not trying to shut them down.
However, supporters of Perry’s prohibition say an unfettered proliferation of fast-food vendors has contributed to the area’s and the nation’s collective girth and related ills. —City Council member Jan Perry admits she is not a fan of fast-food restaurants, but she insists she’s not trying to shut them down.
A study released this year by the county health department said 30 percent of South Los Angeles adults are obese and 11.7 percent have diabetes, compared with countywide rates of 21 percent and 8.1 percent, respectively. The county also has said that 45 percent of all restaurants in South Los Angeles are fast-food places, which compares, for example, with 26 percent in the San Fernando Valley and 16 percent in West Los Angeles. —City Council member Jan Perry admits she is not a fan of fast-food restaurants, but she insists she’s not trying to shut them down.
California Restaurant Association officials said they were considering legal action to halt implementation of the moratorium, though it would not affect the estimated 400 quick-service restaurants in the affected area or any of the unknown number of pending applications for QSR business licenses already on file with the city. CRA chief executive Jot Condie said the association was “disappointed that the council would use zoning laws [intended for] promoting public safety and preventing blight to ‘protect us from ourselves.’” —City Council member Jan Perry admits she is not a fan of fast-food restaurants, but she insists she’s not trying to shut them down.
The controversy in Los Angeles has caught the attention of law-makers in New York City, where a similar zoning proposal in 2006 failed to gain traction among law-makers. New York City Councilman Eric Gioia last month said the Los Angeles moratorium now “deserves serious consideration,” though he said he had no immediate plans to introduce a similar plan. —City Council member Jan Perry admits she is not a fan of fast-food restaurants, but she insists she’s not trying to shut them down.
According to Perry, her goal is to give the community and elected officials more say-so regarding the kinds of restaurants that can open for at least the one-year span of the moratorium measure, which includes options for two six-month extensions. —City Council member Jan Perry admits she is not a fan of fast-food restaurants, but she insists she’s not trying to shut them down.
“The community here wants more full-service restaurants,” said Perry. “They want more grocery stores. They want more food options. It’s about better quality of life.” —City Council member Jan Perry admits she is not a fan of fast-food restaurants, but she insists she’s not trying to shut them down.
Perry also is spearheading the development of a marketing campaign with the city’s Community Redevelopment Agency aimed at convincing operators of full-service restaurants and grocers that South L.A. is a “neighborhood hungry for options.” —City Council member Jan Perry admits she is not a fan of fast-food restaurants, but she insists she’s not trying to shut them down.
The area includes such neighborhoods as the Crenshaw District, University Park, Baldwin Hills and Leimert Park. Among the incentives are pre-development loans for site acquisition or preparation; financial assistance for improvements to the façades of existing buildings; first-year discounts of up to 35 percent for electricity; help in burying above-ground power lines; and expedited plan reviews. —City Council member Jan Perry admits she is not a fan of fast-food restaurants, but she insists she’s not trying to shut them down.
According to economic studies of parts of the affected area, a two-mile radius around the intersection of Broadway and Slauson Avenue by 2012 will be home to nearly 273,000 people who will spend an estimated $116.5 million annually on food away from home. Household incomes there will average about $46, 911, and more than 30 percent of them will earn more than $50,000. —City Council member Jan Perry admits she is not a fan of fast-food restaurants, but she insists she’s not trying to shut them down.
Meanwhile, Perry is challenging what she sees as outdated notions that her constituents can only afford fast food. She points to a 2005 study by CB Richard Ellis that her council district alone had “annual sales leakage” of about $400 million in general merchandise, grocery and restaurant sales made elsewhere. If those dollars could be captured in the targeted neighborhoods, they could support an estimated 1.5 million square feet of new development, the study concluded. —City Council member Jan Perry admits she is not a fan of fast-food restaurants, but she insists she’s not trying to shut them down.
Asked why more full-service restaurants have not opened in the targeted neighborhoods, Perry blamed “a bias against South Los Angeles,” where nearly half of the approximately 900 eateries are quick-service places, she estimated. —City Council member Jan Perry admits she is not a fan of fast-food restaurants, but she insists she’s not trying to shut them down.
Perry blames prejudice, fear of the unknown and difficulty in obtaining sites of sufficient size for the area’s lack of casual-dining restaurants. —City Council member Jan Perry admits she is not a fan of fast-food restaurants, but she insists she’s not trying to shut them down.
However, those reasons wouldn’t appear to explain why a savvy businessman and franchisee like former Los Angeles Lakers star Earvin “Magic” Johnson, whose Johnson Development Corp. has launched more than 100 Starbucks Coffee outlets and dozens of Burger King units, located its specially named Magic Johnson’s T.G.I. Friday’s branch some miles west of Perry’s targeted area. Johnson’s Friday’s occupies a seemingly more lucrative La Cienega Boulevard site in southwestern Los Angeles, near the Santa Monica Freeway. —City Council member Jan Perry admits she is not a fan of fast-food restaurants, but she insists she’s not trying to shut them down.
According to Perry, her measure would prevent quick-service operators from taking freestanding sites that might be attractive to the full-service operators the city hopes to attract to the underserved area. —City Council member Jan Perry admits she is not a fan of fast-food restaurants, but she insists she’s not trying to shut them down.
Fast-food concepts are defined in the ordinance as any restaurant selling food to eat on or off premises with a limited menu; selling items made in advance or prepared and heated quickly; offering food in disposable wrappers or containers, and without table service. —City Council member Jan Perry admits she is not a fan of fast-food restaurants, but she insists she’s not trying to shut them down.
The measure would also prohibit the expansion of existing restaurants or the addition of drive-thru windows. Details such as lighting and landscaping are also addressed. Permits apparently could be granted, however, to any type of restaurant that occupied an in-line storefront space without a drive-thru, subject to a review of whether there already was a surplus of similar types of restaurants. —City Council member Jan Perry admits she is not a fan of fast-food restaurants, but she insists she’s not trying to shut them down.
CKE Restaurants, whose Carl’s Jr. chain has seven burger outlets in the targeted area and a lease signed for a new location there, objects to the ordinance. Chief executive Andrew Puzder wrote to the City Council, harshly criticizing the plan’s perceived creation of hardships “for both the companies looking to do business in your district [and] the citizens within the affected districts.” Puzder blasted the Perry initiative as unlikely to affect obesity because it does nothing “to encourage better eating habits.” —City Council member Jan Perry admits she is not a fan of fast-food restaurants, but she insists she’s not trying to shut them down.
Full-service restaurateurs already doing business in the area also question the measure’s chances for effectiveness. Al Honore, whose nearly 40-year-old Harold and Belle’s is a dining landmark in the Crenshaw district, said any prospective operator who has ever looked at the area likely has done feasibility studies. —City Council member Jan Perry admits she is not a fan of fast-food restaurants, but she insists she’s not trying to shut them down.
However, for many, “when they pencil it out, it doesn’t work for them,” Honore said. “It’s all about the dollar. It has to make sense. You don’t have Claim Jumper and The Cheesecake Factory coming in because they don’t find it’s a fit for them.” —City Council member Jan Perry admits she is not a fan of fast-food restaurants, but she insists she’s not trying to shut them down.
Nonetheless, Honore said, Harold and Belle’s collects average per-person tabs of $40 for such signatures as gumbo and crawfish étouffée, and he typically books $2 million to $3 million in annual sales. —City Council member Jan Perry admits she is not a fan of fast-food restaurants, but she insists she’s not trying to shut them down.
The family-owned operation is currently looking for a second location—but not in South Los Angeles, Honore said. —City Council member Jan Perry admits she is not a fan of fast-food restaurants, but she insists she’s not trying to shut them down.