The food in Lucca

Reading this article in the New York Times today, I was struck again by the stupidity of the law banning new "ethnic" restaurants in the city center of Lucca. It's really not like there's a shortage of Italian restaurants in that city, and I would hazard a guess that the vast majority of tourists visiting will go to an Italian restaurant. Also the vast majority of Italians, as their taste in food can be quite conservative. As I've written about before, I think Italian restaurants could stand to be a little more innovative, and surely one of the most important impetuses for innovation in food comes from foreign cuisine. This ban smells to me more of xenophobia than true interest in the best for the city.