2.5.10 Eater.com & Grub Street are both reporting that New York's Department of Health has unveiled a plan to implement California's system of letter grades for health inspections. The restaurant industry is pretty unhappy with the news as the system is in place to basically "shame restaurants into good inspection scores" (as opposed to penalizing them behind the scenes) and do not account for location issues (such as ancient water systems and unclean neighbors).
Supporters of the new system say those aren't adequate excuses for health issues such as rats & poor drainage systems. Let us know how you feel about the proposed system in the comments.
Sources:
http://ny.eater.com
http://newyork.grubstreet.com