Gavin Newsom Goes Pol Pot: Orders Gardenification of San Francisco! All Residents With Eyeglasses and Presumed Bourgeois Tendencies Please Report to The Nearest Street Median to Begin Growing Food!
Chris Reed of the San Diego Union-Tribune sends word of a truly giant step forward in nanny-statism, courtesy of San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom:
All city departments have six months to conduct an audit of unused land—including empty lots, rooftops, windowsills and median strips—that could be turned into community gardens or farms that could benefit residents, either by working at them or purchasing the fresh produce. Food vendors that contract with the city must offer healthy and sustainable food. All vending machines on city property must also offer healthy options, and farmers' markets must begin accepting food stamps, although some already do….
And effective immediately, no more runs to the doughnut shop before meetings and conferences held by city workers. Instead, city employees must use guidelines created by the Health Department when ordering food for meetings.
Examples include cutting bagels into halves or quarters so people can take smaller portions and serving vegetables instead of potato chips….
Many of the details have yet to be worked out, including how much it will cost. Newsom bristled when asked how it would be funded because there's no money to implement the food policy in the budget agreed to by the mayor and the board's budget committee just last week.
"We have plenty of resources," he said. "This is not a budget buster."
