Why target restaurants with misguided legislation?

NIMBY is an all too familiar acronym for Not In My Back Yard.  Or more loosely translated, don’t build it near me.

From my viewpoint, it seems that the restaurant industry has somehow become a focal point for local politicians.  Here are just a few examples:

• the L.A. ban on new QSR developments in a section of the city – to help fight obesity
• The proposed legislation in Mississippi to make it illegal for restaurants to sell food to people that are obese, and the most recent,
• Palm Beach has just passed legislation to prohibit the development of any "formula restaurants," which could be as little as a "chain" of only 3 units.

Avoiding, for the moment, the wisdom of these programs and the difficulty with clear definitions. I wonder how we, as an industry can get out of the penalty box before an unlimited number of local ordinances figuratively drowns us.

I keep coming back to the same answer. We need to do a MUCH better job at collaborative, industry-wide PR and political involvement – especially at the state and local level.  Without some changes in the foodservice industry, I can only see NIMBY getting worse.