I confess, foodie friends, that on a day like today - hot, humid and grey - I don’t feel especially inspired to do much beyond delving deeply into a dish of white chocolate raspberry truffle Häagen-Dazs (the key, I am sure, to living a long and happy life). But I am refraining from such activity for a bit longer so I can share some local (local to me anyway) food news with you.

Here in Gotham, mini-Mayor - known to the rest of you as Mike Bloomberg - can often be found pushing food-related legislation intended to improve people’s health or lives whether they like it or not. Sometimes I agree with him, sometimes I don’t.

As a non-smoker, I wasn’t terribly put out when the smoking ban made the smoking section in restaurants a thing of the past. Oh, some of my friends have been temporarily banished to the sidewalks on an evening out but they’ve managed just the same and I get to spend less time at the dry cleaners so there you are.

I didn’t care for the idea of restaurants being compelled to post the calorie count of every item. Not that I didn’t think people could use the information - but it seemed to me, to be a logistical nightmare for the restaurant owners. Not the big chains who control and/or dictate their entire ingredient flow and production process. I mean, the cafe owner who doesn’t know EXACTLY how many calories are in every single item he gets from every supplier or EXACTLY how many calories are in this slice of pie vs. the other one.

Besides, I didn’t want to be faced every single morning with the truth about my morning Starbucks and muffin. I know - knew, I should say - that there were better choices but a Venti Mocha Frappaccino made me HAPPY, DAMN IT! Then those hideous numbers came and denied me my plausible deniability. My morning routine became tainted by guilt, by the shame of the self-destructive. It was the same drink and the same muffin I had overpaid for lo these many years. But now, I was forced to face the fact that no only was I overpaying for what was essentially ice - I was also undermining any healthier eating later in the day because my overpriced ice was coated in chocolate sauce. Fine. I gave them up.

But just recently, one of mini-Mayor’s pet projects from a few months back has come into effect and it is one that I can get behind whole heartedly. The Green Carts Legislation. The city has created 1,000 new permits for street vendors who exclusively sell fresh fruits and vegetables. Of course, there are 9000 other food vendors who would like permits for the stuff they are selling - soups, hot dogs, pretzels etc. But these 1000 permits are very specific about the fresh fruit thing and are to be targeted in neighborhoods that are VASTLY under-served by major supermarket chains and where obesity and diabetes rates have skyrocketed way past the average. In fact, the official press release had some numbers that surprised me a great deal.

“A recent study by the Department of Health found that supermarkets in Harlem are 30 percent less common than on the Upper East Side, and that while 20 percent of Upper East Side bodegas carried leafy green vegetables, only 3 percent of those in Harlem could say the same.”

Sounds like the only thing they have less of than supermarkets is banks. But that’s another issue for another time. 30 percent? A lot. Of course, I’m not sure what is being done to address the price of these now more accessible fresh fruit and veggies. Putting them within reach physically but out of reach financially won’t help anyone. I’m still perusing information regarding this legislation to see if that is being addressed.