As of May 23, 2011 New York City’s parks and beaches are smoke-free.
Grading Restaurants to Make Them Safer
Since the NYC Health Department began issuing letter grades to restaurants in July 2010, restaurant sanitation has improved and, according to Health Commissioner Thomas Farley, “As more and more restaurant operators improve their practices, we anticipate fewer cases of food-borne illness.” As of March, 2011, close to 90% of restaurants were receiving an A or B rating, 57.2% receiving A’s. Thousands of preventable hospitalizations occur each year because of food borne illness. According to the Health Department, restaurants improve significantly between first and second inspections. Inspections under the new grading system began in July 2010 and Health Department experts anticipate it will take about a year to 14 months to complete inspections of all 24,000 restaurants in NYC. Consumers can view details of inspections at www.nyc.gov/health/restaurants. The City will close establishments that pose immediate health risks and the Health Department will inspect restaurants with B or C grades more often than those receiving A’s.