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A photo of a McDonalds' McRib sandwich and fries.

While there are an abundance of fast food restaurant options for diners in South L.A. right now the future of the restaurant landscape might soon look very different: today, by a vote of 13-0, the L.A. City Council approved a set of permanent design guidelines that would severely restrict the development of new, stand-alone fast food establishment for the L.A. neighborhoods of South L.A., Southeast L.A. and West Adams. Under the guidelines if a fast food restaurant wished to locate in the South L.A. area they would need to meet seven design requirements, meant to be onerous for fast food companies, and no new restaurant would be able to locate within a half-mile radius of an existing fast food place. Long blamed for an obesity crisis that has hit the South L.A. neighborhoods particularly hard, are fast food joints being properly blamed and restricted for serving unhealthy food?

Guests:

Jan Perry, L.A. City Councilwoman representing the 9th Council District

Elina Shatkin, food writer and restaurant critic for the LA Weekly