Council members give city’s new restaurant rule an ‘A’ grade
The city deserves an “A” grade for its new rules on grading restaurants for cleanliness, according to two Brooklyn council members.
Councilman Vincent Gentile (D-Bay Ridge-Dyker Heights-Bensonhurst) and Councilman David Greenfield (D-Borough Park-Midwood-Bensonhurst) were both singing the praises of the new system of grading restaurants.
“These reforms will help make the grading system less adversarial, more cooperative, more educational and more transparent,” Gentile said. “We must never forget that small businesses are the backbone of our economy – and in order to help these businesses grow and succeed, inspectors must work with restaurant owners rather than attempt to catch them off guard and penalize them.”
Restaurants have been required to post the letter grade from their most recent Department of Health inspection in their front window since 2010 when the system was introduced by the Bloomberg Administration. While the new plan doesn’t get rid of the letter grading system, it does reduce the number of fines, council members said.