San Francisco, Sanctuary City for Rats

Eric E Johnson/Flickr

Should S.F. adopt an L.A.-style inspection grade, and require owners to post them in the window?

Sure, Café Gratitude closed for, uh, 24-hour renovations on July 15, after a Health Department investigator spotted what Mission Loc@l's Rigoberto Hernandez calls a "juvenile rodent." But the point of Hernandez's exposé today isn't to re-bust the Mission restaurant. It's to show just how shockingly little disclosure San Francisco's public health agency is required to provide. Hernandez:

In a city that prides itself on its foodie scene and health standards that require warning labels on cell phones and ban pharmacies from selling cigarettes, San Francisco falls short compared to other counties on the protocols and transparency for dealing with vermin infestations, Mission Loc@l has found. In fact, compared to Los Angeles, Sacramento, Portland and New York, rats have it easy in San Francisco.

Hernandez quotes an inspector defending the city's sketchy information policy, then offers evidence that, after L.A. and Sacramento mandated strict disclosure for health inspections, sanitation scores went up across the board in those cities. Isn't it time we demanded prominently posted sanitation scores and more transparency in the inspection process?