Fast food: L.A. says not so fast: in an effort to improve people's diets, Los Angeles has banned new fast-food outlets in part of the city. Is where we eat the government's business?

• Author: Steinhauer, Jennifer
• Position: NATIONAL

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Sitting on a windowsill near a street corner in South Los Angeles, Natasha Jackson can see eight fast-food restaurants, and a sign promising one more to come.

"It would be good to have a health-food restaurant here," says Jackson, 20. "But to tell you the truth, I would probably just go to McDonald's, because that's what I know."

Los Angeles lawmakers are hoping they can legislate away the eating habits of Jackson and thousands of her neighbors: In August, a one-year moratorium took effect on any new fast-food restaurants opening in a 32-square-mile area of South Los Angeles (better known as South Central), the city's poorest section.

NANNY STATE?

Even in a country where a third of schoolchildren are overweight or obese, the L.A. moratorium raises questions about when eating a particular kind of food stops being a personal choice and becomes a public-health concern. In short, is this the government's business?

The moratorium is part of a broader move by local and state governments to harness the law in the struggle against obesity and the health problems it causes. Many states have banned sodas from schools. California and New York City have prohibited restaurants from using unhealthy trans-fats. New York City also passed a law requiring calorie counts to be posted on chain-restaurant menus, right next to the prices.

Critics of these measures say they go beyond the proper role of government, and are emblematic of a trend toward what they call "the nanny state."

"I think it's pretty ridiculous," says Joe R. Hicks, a Los Angeles talk-radio host and a community advocate. "Limiting people's food options

is not really the way to go. Nor is it the role of government to tell people what they should or should not be eating. French fries aren't contraband."

More than 45 percent of the 900 restaurants in South L.A. are fast-food chains--the highest concentration in the city. That, along with high rates of obesity in the area, was the impetus for the ban, says City Councilwoman Jan Perry, who wrote the law.

According to Peru, the moratorium is intended to encourage variety and give residents more nutritious options. (The city is also offering tax credits and incentives to lure grocery stores and fresh-food sellers to the area.) Supporters of the ban say making healthy decisions about food is difficult when people don't have a lot of money, the grocery store is five miles away, and a $1 cheeseburger is right around the corner.

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