L.L. 2008/009
Enactment date: 3/13/2008
Int. No. 665-A
By Council Member Comrie, Rivera, the Speaker (Council Member Quinn), Brewer, Fidler, Gerson, James, Koppell, Palma, Recchia Jr., Seabrook, Stewart, Weprin, Arroyo, Vann, Mendez, Barron, Jackson, Mark-Viverito and White Jr. (by request of the Mayor)
A Local Law to amend the administrative code of the city of New York, in relation to green carts.
Be it enacted by the Council as follows:
Section 1. Legislative findings. The Council finds that many New Yorkers suffer from health conditions related to poor nutrition, such as diabetes, heart disease, cancer and high blood pressure. Obesity rates in NYC have increased more than 70% since 1994. More than 1.1 million New Yorkers are obese, and another 2 million are overweight. Similarly, diabetes has more than doubled in NYC over the past 10 years. More than 500,000 adult New Yorkers have diagnosed diabetes and an additional 200,000 have diabetes and do not yet know it.
Poor nutrition, obesity, and diabetes are interconnected. According to one national study, eating fruits and vegetables three or more times a day as opposed to less than once a day is associated with a 42% lower risk of dying from stroke and 24% lower risk of dying from heart disease. Neighborhoods where fruit and vegetable consumption is the lowest have high rates of obesity and diabetes. In neighborhoods with the lowest fruit and vegetable consumption, such as East New York, Bushwick and Bedford-Stuyvesant, as many as one in four adults report that they did not eat a single fruit or vegetable the previous day. The availability of healthy food in the immediate neighborhood has a strong impact on the diet of its residents. In East Harlem, only 4% of small grocery stores sell leafy green vegetables and only 25% sell apples, oranges and bananas. With small grocery stores outnumbering supermarkets by almost three to one in such neighborhoods, residents of low-income neighborhoods have few healthy food options close to home. These findings demonstrate an urgent need to take measures that increase the accessibility of fruits and vegetables in neighborhoods where studies show that consumption of these items is low.
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[Consolidated provisions are not included in this Appendix A]
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§ 15. This local law shall take effect on the ninetieth day after it shall have become a law, provided that the commissioner of health and mental hygiene shall be authorized to take any steps necessary to prepare for implementation of the law, including the promulgation of rules, prior to such date.