Mayor Michael Bloomberg and the City Council have come up with an innovative solution. Pressed by Speaker Christine Quinn, the Council withstood protests from the retail food industry and approved 1,000 new licenses for mobile fruit and vegetable stands — designating them for the parts of the city that need them most. There are already about 4,000 so-called green carts, but they rarely venture far from the tonier — and healthier — neighborhoods. The new initiative will put green carts on the sidewalks of the poorest areas, which are home to a disproportionate share of roughly half of the city’s residents who are overweight.
…Mr. Bloomberg and his health commissioner, Dr. Tom Frieden, and Ms. Quinn deserve credit for turning common sense into good health policy: banning smoking in public places, limiting trans fats in restaurant food and forcing calorie disclosure from chain eateries. We can now add the green carts to that sound list.
” A Streetcart Named Healthy - New York Times