Eastchester Speaks Out About Restaurant Ban

People here in Eastchester are talking about the new ban that prevents restaurants like Panera Bread from setting up shop here. Last week, the Town of Eastchester amended its zoning code to prohibit restaurants with a stand-up counter in the front and menus on the wall. The new ban will prevent restaurants like Panera Bread from setting up shop here. The ban also prevents chain restaurants from opening up in Eastchester, if the chain has 15 or more locations.

Here is what your neighbors here in Eastchester are saying about the ban:

Joyce Baliint: Glad for the ban. We have sufficient local deli's and other restaurants where you can get something quick without these chain restaurants. Support our local merchants!

CarolAR: I'm not crazy about chain restaurants either but we could use a little diversity beyond pizza slices, meatball wedges and take-out Chinese. If fast food chains are viewed so negatively, how did we wind up with Dunkin Donuts and Carvel? Glad to see the new restaurants Polpettina and Burrata but how much pizza can you eat?

J.M: I think it'd be awesome to have a Spanish food place in Eastchester. Then what are we going to do about Starbucks, Dunkin Donuts or Carvel? They have "stand-up counter[s] in the front [of their stores] and menus on the[ir] wall." Also, from a teenager's point of view, I don't always have enough money on me to get a full dinner at the diner, or lunch at a deli. I also don't have access to a car, so I cannot go to a fast food joint in New Rochelle or Yonkers without walking for a long time and distance. It would be awesome if I could just walk down my street and buy a full meal for $2.

tammy: I think this is a terrific idea. If the town had been better planned upfront, and the town center wasn't essentially designed as a parking lot surrounded by stores, having a chain or two might not have such a bad impact. If you have a charming downtown district to begin with, a Le Pain Quotidien isn't going to hurt things. But Eastchester has no room for error.

The rationale that there already coffee/donut/ice cream chains is kind of silly: Just because some are already there, the whole town should be taken further down the toilet?

A full meal for $2 has the nutritional equivalence (and probably the same quality of ingredients) as dog food. Want a cheap meal? Chopped broccoli tossed with pasta is cheap. The last thing our town needs is easy access to cheap, fattening food in a tacky atmosphere which brings down property value.
Thank you Mr. Colavita for a wise decision.

Frank: It's called discrimination and the Eastchester board will lose on court

KT: Great! What we really need in Eastchester are more drug stores, dry cleaners and gas stations. We could have a beautiful town center at the intersection of Route 22 and Mill Road but all that we have is a sorry excuse of town planning of disorganized stores in an aging shopping center, a traffic nightmare that looks like something in a war zone. Keep up the good work zoning commission.