Here we go again! Another layer of bureaucracy to harass commerce! ("City Council votes to require restaurants to post health ratings," March 5.) Sure, I don't want to eat in a place with wretched sanitation, bad food handling practices or a history of violations — but the latest City Council bill to require every food place to publicly post a rating is nonsense. It's either safe to eat there or it is not.
Baltimore has health inspectors qualified to make those decisions; if a venue fails to meet standards, it's shut down. And where will this army of "food police" come from? We don't require another "make work" scheme foisted on us.
If I saw people dropping dead of botulism at the Inner Harbor, or bent over in with food poisoning in Hampden, this legislation would have merit. I've been in the restaurant business from the sidelines. I've worked in the quality assurance department of a major company. The rules are strict, and food purveyors know it.
Any restaurant, food truck, deli or grocery store that fails to comply understands the penalties. We don't need city government to load taxpayers with another redundant expense.
Rosalind Ellis Heid, Baltimore