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Boston looks to make restaurants post health-inspection grades
By adamg on Mon, 08/01/2016 - 11:57pm
Mayor Walsh is asking the City Council to approve a city ordinance that would require Boston restaurants and food trucks to prominently place a sign with a letter grade corresponding to the results of their most recent health inspections.
The measure, long in use in other cities, would make it easier for prospective diners to gauge the cleanliness of the establishments than the current method - which requires them to call up a city Web site and search for the particular restaurant or food truck.
The council considers the idea at its regular Wednesday meeting this week - at which it will likely send the proposal to a committee for a hearing and study before taking action.
Under the proposal, restaurants and food trucks would have up to a year before they have to post their grade - although the grades would be listed on the city site After that, they'd face fines of $300 a day for not posting their grade.
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| Attachment | Size |
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 Mayor's letter-grade proposal | 83.49 KB |
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Comments
Never miss an opportunity to
Never miss an opportunity to drive the costs of small business up!
Always put the burden...
on the consumer, because business is more important than the public's health.
JIRA-13326: malformed bot heuristic
Found in release: 8/2/16
Priority: P2
Reported by: erik g
Assigned to: gop
Description: The auto-posting bot is on the fritz again. We want to spam pro-business messages in every thread where it's even faintly relevant, but I think we're just regex matching on "restaurant" and "ordinance," which is generating some false positives. For instance, anyone with two brain cells to rub together would see this comment in context and realize that restaurants are already shouldering the costs of inspections, because they're a necessary condition of public health, and that posting their grades on the door doesn't change anything about it. Seriously, guys, if we can't fix this pattern matching, we should disable this completely, because we're just making ourselves look bad.
While we're at it, can we register some of these accounts? Bad regex is one thing, but bad regex + anonymous accounts is going to set off enough alarms that someone starts tracking IPs.
I <3 you.
I <3 you.
Every lived/travelled anywhere else?
California posts extensive report cards, pass or fail.
NYC has had ratings for years.
Many states have had posted grades and a health rating system for 50+ years - that's what I grew up with.
MA is way behind the curve on this - it only recently stopped embargoing records.
Well I would have known that
Well I would have known that if someone had posted our state's grade on how bad we are at keeping up with other states' informative grading systems!
Virtually no cost
Restaurants (and food trucks) are already subject to yearly health inspections; the grade would be on a piece of paper which, I'm assuming, is not going to cost more than 5 cents to produce.
Oh, but, wait, there is a cost: If a restaurant gets less than an A grade, nobody's going to go there and it'll go out of business, so restaurants will be forced to ensure they pass health inspections with flying colors. Isn't that awful?
It's either safe to eat in or
It's either safe to eat in or should be closed until it is. The public already uses word of mouth and social media to rate the other qualities.
Are you saying the cost of a
Are you saying the cost of a sheet of paper is too much for small businesses?
Our profit margin is
Our profit margin is literally paper thin!
Darn right!
Requiring an 8.5"x11" piece of paper be posted is OUTRAGEOUS! The costs! The hassle! The, uh, er, paperwork!
It's driven resturaunts in other cities to, um, improve.
Darn you!
Im all for this except the $300 per day thing
Thats just he city creating more city payroll jobs for hacks.
Have the grade rating system. Those with A rating will proudly dislplay them.
Those that don't, everyone will know why. Not posting your result would be more shameful than a B or C result.
The $300 a day is a scam.
Roach control ain't cheap
People will just pay the fines if they aren't strong enough to get attention.
It's a civil permitting question
You can't pull their license or throw them in jail for not complying, but you can levy fines against offenders. That's how city government can enforce ordinances. If they haven't followed the law A YEAR after being told to, I'd vote for $10,000 a day in fines, or immediate license revocation.
A "scam" would be something like this:
Get your head out of the Herald.
.
Those that don't, everyone
In case you haven't noticed, Boston is a city that attracts a lot of tourists. Not "everyone" will know why a restaurant or truck doesn't have their certificate posted.
Add to that the fact that this is a *new* policy, and lots of people who have lived in Boston their entire lives won't be aware of the policy.
Jesus H. Christ on a sidecar, try thinking with your brain for five seconds, will ya?
How is $300 a scam? It's very
How is $300 a scam? It's very simple to avoid; don't break the law.
Count me as skeptical on letter grades
Count me as skeptical on this, especially if the success or failure of a restaurant rests on the posted letter grade. Pass/Fail might be a better option. I'm all for cleanliness in restaurants but to hand the arbitrary authority to determine same to a political appointee with minimal education and training is already fraught with peril. When does an infraction become a violation? Is a mousetrap in the kitchen evidence of mice or evidence of a proactive owner? Are crumbs on the floor unsanitary or evidence of a busy kitchen? Politically connected restaurants will never receive less than an A, same for those who are "generous" with their inspector, be it free meals, drinks or the Christmas envelope. The restrateurs who know nobody and don't play the game will be the only ones in jeopardy. It's similar to liquor violations, certain bars will never get one while others are fair game.
It has worked very well in NYC
https://www.cdc.gov/nceh/ehs/docs/jeh/2015/sept-letter-grading-nyc.pdf
Establishments really up their game.
I'm all for cleanliness in
All of this has exactly zero to do with the question of posting health scores, and just means that you don't trust the government. So go back to your basement and tighten your tinfoil hat.
It's about damned time!
When I lived in North Carolina (yeah, I admit to being in exile there for over 12 years) ALL of the restaurants had food grades posted on the door. And man, it helped! I remember one rather sketchy place near Duke I was thinking about trying out, but when I saw the grade of C slapped on the door, I thought better of eating there.
This is not a way for the city to make money. It is a way to make sure restaurants are clean and healthy for the public. I honestly hope this happens state-wide.
Peace/out