Just a hunch, but if the city tried to tell McDonald’s that the company couldn’t open a store in Dallas, the lawsuits wouldn’t come from the burger chain, but from Dallas residents. We’re that kind of town.
Because that’s exactly what the Los Angeles City Council has done. It set a one-year moratorium on new fast-food outlets in south Los Angeles, a low-income neighborhood with a high incidence of obesity and diabetes. About two-thirds of the restaurants in south L.A. are fast food, compared to 42 percent in more affluent west L.A. It’s the difference between Fair Park and Highland Park.
I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: We don’t have onerous zoning restrictions here. We have barely any at all compared to major cities elsewhere in the country that aren’t in Texas. As we go forward with development, keep that in mind. Development –- and change –- is neither good nor bad. It’s how we manage it. We get so hung up arguing about specific projects that we lose sight of the overall goal, and that’s to make this a better place to live.